Artist SR.Gent about motivation, inspiration and entrepreneurship

He spoke on being born in a city that was heavily influenced by gang and drug culture saying “I didn’t know that we were considered poor because everyone was living the same way”. Growing up in such a rough environment makes it hard for even the strongest of us to find the motivation to push for more. We asked him how he was able to find that motivation and he had this to say “I always had a lot of love from certain key family members, and it was the feeling of wanting to make them proud that drove me. I think it really just depends on the person because I took all the tragedy and drama around me and decided I would make it out, but many others seen the same and decided to let it consume them”.

If you could speak to the youth that may be dealing with any of the same struggle what would you tell them? “I would tell them that everything we got through is a  lesson and we should be grateful for it and find a way to move forward positively. Being negative has never helped me or anyone I know. We can’t lose, so there are only Wins and Learns no losses”. SR.Gent went on to mention how he doesn’t have any idols in music, but instead looks to people such as Deepak Chopra, and The Dalai Lama as he has become more intrigued with the soul and meaning of life. “I and many others live with a knowing that we are more than our physical bodies, well I also believe that we all come here to learn and grow and that happens through the hardships we face, because of this I find strength in every challenge I found while navigating the music industry.” He surely has an interesting take on dealing with the challenges we face, which seems to be a lot better than some may assume when hearing some of his more street influenced tracks. We asked him what inspired the lyrics behind song like “Don’t Sleep” and “Lord Lord”. “Just living life and reacting to my environment is really all that happened. I lived in Tucson, Az for 15 years and Stone Mountain, Ga for 10, so I had situations and those stories are told in my music.

One of the most intriguing things about SR.Gent is that he was actually deployed to Afghanistan before being medically retired from the U.S Army. He speaks of the experience in great detail in the song “No More War”, and had this to say about war in general. “ I don’t think there is a need for anyone to kill another person because we can’t agree, if people knew why we were really fighting I think it would be different. I was known as a hot head growing up, always ready to fight and or shoot, but after going to war I came home a lot more peaceful. I learned that life is much to valuable to be wasted.”