Meet Caldo as we talk prefect progression advice, coming up EP, and all things 'Young Entrepreneurs'

If you haven't seen this guy on your TikTok for you page recently, you're not using the app properly! Meet Caldo, rising talent from South London as we talk on giving the perfect progression advice for rising talent, his upcoming EP, and of course, all things 'Young Entrepreneurs' and the creative mind behind the music video. A huge thank you to Caldo for his time and efforts in speaking with us. Make sure you drop him a follow over on Instagram on @officialcaldo to keep up with all new music.

Hey Caldo, please can you give an introduction on who you are, where you're from and what you do, for anyone who isn't already aware?

I go by the name of Caldo, I'm a 17 year-old rapper based in South London of Spanish and Italian descent.

And how long have you been making music for?

I've been writing for about 4 years now but only released my first single 'Caught in the Middle' at the starts of 2022.

How would you describe your sound?

My sound is quite mixed but a main theme in all my music is complex, lyricism, and a variety of flows, I tend to rap about everything I've experienced growing up and expressing the highs and lows of the world as I see it.

We can only appreciate that! Do you have any favourite musicians, who inspires you?

There's so many musicians that I look up to, I've always liked the raw side of rap. Primary school days, year one, year two, that's when I first had a rapper on repeat and that was probably Eminem. Then transitioning into secondary school, I could name a bunch of artists in fact, so we've got Dave, Stormzy, Avelino, Youngs Teflon. Then you've got some underground artists that I listen to now that I've discovered in the last year or two. Always kinda showing that like raw side of rap but I really appreciate good lyricism as well and all the rappers I've named have that.

Of course, do you think the music scene is missing anything at the moment? If so, what?

This might sound a bit vague but especially the UK scene, I feel like what people are lacking right now is creativity, I'm just hearing the same beats over and over again. I'm hearing the same flows, lyrics that have been rinsed over and over. Creativity as a whole, like everyone's copying each other and I don't feel like anyone's getting their story along, it's like they've listened to a rapper and they're just copying their stories. A lot of people that are making music, they 're not making music about themselves and which is what it should all be about.

We really get what you mean, we need that refreshing sound right now! What does 2023 look like for Caldo?

Exactly, in fact that's exactly what I'm looking to push for in 2023, just a refreshing sound, coming up I've got an EP. I'm still doing my A-Levels but after my A-Levels, I got an EP dropping with my boy Anset and I feel like it's such a refreshing little project that I'm sure a lot of people will appreciate, I'm excited to show everyone and hopefully people are gonna be blasting it out during summer, all good vibes. Then during winter time, maybe like a single or two, dumb it down a bit for winter time, in terms of vibe, you know, I gotta match the season. But that main project coming up is the EP, I'm so excited to show that one.

We're very excited to see what you've been working on! What's the ultimate goal for you?

As a rapper, I think the ultimate goal for me is to be able to make a living out of this music thing, make a career out of something I really love doing. I wanna be going to a club in like a different country and my music come on. Once that happens I'll know I did something right.

Where do you see yourself in five years time?

A lot of my team and my friends are in the creative industry so I've got friends that are actors, rappers, my sisters a director, got her own production company with her boyfriend like a lot of my team are in the creative industry. So in five years I just see us all elevating, like being where we want to be, more or less together. Everyone just making a living out of what they love doing, that's how I see it in five years, might be a huge reach, five years go quick but I think if we all keep our consistency up there's nothing really that can stop us.

For real, that's the dream! Talk to me about 'Young Entrepreneurs', how did you come up with the track?

So with 'Young Entrepreneurs' I was scrolling through beats on YouTube, like I regularly do and I just came across this beat that started making feel so nostalgic and then I just got the idea, I was like cool, I'm gonna do a bit of reminnising on the past, and like growing up in schools in the UK and like, the traditions and the banter. Then I added like, for example, "Remember the days when life was easier, birds has wings and packs were on Fifa" so obviously I'm talking about how times have changed from what we used to think about when we were younger to what we think about now.

The references you used are incredible, it's a sick track. How did you think of the video ideas?

Thank you. The way we thought of the video was that we thought of being nostalgic, so we were like cool, let's take it to where I grew up. We did the clips there where we used to play football and that when we were younger. Some shots outside a corner shop, thinking about the sweets bar and then the shots with the money in the circle and the sweets scattered around was just like a little thing of how you felt when you sold your sweets and that. It's also a metaphor to the guys that went down into the other things, like a step up to all that. It was a very creative video man, the team proper did their thing.

The money circle shot was COLD. What's your opinion on remixes, would you ever make one for one of your tracks?

I appreciate it, that's all the teams work. For remixes, I think remixes are cold on certain tracks. A remix is good 'cause it helps revive the song for longer, and if an artist can jump on a remix, it definitely brings more exposure to a song. As long as it's not over done and milked, if people are asking for a remix, give them a remix. I'd consider doing a remix, yeah. I dunno if any of my songs right now are like remixable but, yeah in the future that's definitely something I'd consider doing.

For sure, do you have any advice for anyone trying to make it?

I mean I haven't made it yet and I'm nowhere near where I wanna be but I can speak on progression. It all stems from consistency across social media to the quality of your music. Keep consistent with your music but obviously progress as well, your next track has to be better than your previous, especially with that social presents, that's something I was lacking on for a while 'cause I hated social media but I realised how are people gonna see me if I don't have presents so as much as other people might hate social media, and TikTok and all of that, I didn't like TikTok but I realised how much traction that brings, you've got to really be willing to put yourself out there.

If you really want music, you just have to be living and breathing music. If you see a trend, you do it, if you see an open verse, you do it, all of that. You have to be shamelessly promoting yourself, you might find it cringe and what not but really it's just you tryna hustle. If people think it's cringe, it's probably 'cause they don't have something to hustle for so like, let them do their thing but if you really know what you want, none of that will matter anyway. You've got to make sure this is actually want you want first, when people say don't put all your eggs in one basket, if you really want this that bad, put all them eggs in the basket. There's no need for a backup plan if you're really willing to what you wanna do, 'cause then how are you gonna fail.

Finally, do you have anyone you would like to shout out?

Got a couple people to shout out, the list will go on but I'll keep it short, first of all my management, that's my sister and her boyfriend, they've helped me stay on top of my game since the beginning, they proper made me believe I can do this. It does happen when my head drops sometimes, they're always there and pick it back up, they never let me get complacent, they got their own production company, serious inspirations to everything I've done. Then obviously all my close friends, they know who they are, helping me start this thing in the first place, they proper push me everyday, they're always there with me for the success and when there's no success, nothing changes, there's always love and I don't know where I'd be without them, for real.

Proper real stuff! Huge thank you to Caldo for speaking with us, due his flowers.