arts & entertainment
Luck One Issues His Farewell
One Year Before He Moves On
S
ometimes talent and critical acclaim
simply aren’t enough. Portland’s own
Luck One has just released
‘Farewell’, a track whose name says it all.
Luck One says he doesn’t see a future for
himself in the music business so he plans to
put out his final album next year, and wind
up his career in Hip Hop.
He’s going to keep going for the next
year, he says, but he wants to travel and he
can’t do that when he’s grinding all year
round just to pay the bills. His career has
brought him adulation and fans, but not
options.
“I don’t mind being broke,” he says. “I’ve
been broke my whole life. It’s not having
the money to do anything else but rap.”
Luck One has struggled to make a living
in Portland. He’s always in demand to open
for big names visiting the city, but after los-
ing hours from his day job last year, he
couldn’t make the rent and had to sleep in
his
c a r.
The
ci t y
Rapping keeps
him too poor to do
anything but make
music
can’t support its rap stars as well as some
others, he says. And producing musically
takes a lot of resources.
“I have to be here all year round to release
music and I feel like I’ve had enough. I’ve
been doing my thing here for years. It takes
a lot of dollars, energy and stress – particu-
larly in Portland. I get more love from
Seattle than I do in Portland,” he says.
“People just don’t appreciate local rappers
that much. But I’m not a hater. I’m just at a
point where I’m probably not going to do a
lot more in hip hop.
“It’s been great to make an impact and
reach an audience, but at this point I’m not
going to take up my pen for anything else
but to express myself.
“I want to go overseas and just travel, visit
South America, Africa. Right now it’s kind
of impossible to do other things. So much as
I love what I’m doing, there are more things
I want to do.”
Luck One’s friend, local rapper Cassow,
says he wants to keep on working with him.
“I hope he changes his mind,” Cassow says.
Other hip hop fans agree. In her music
blog, Sunset in the rearview, Lydia
Simmons praised his latest track saying,
“His flow and his lines sound matured, yet
clever. On top of that, he’s a very humble
young man who is a joy to talk to…I am
really looking forward to seeing how Luck-
One makes a name for himself, and I can
tell you right now that I do believe he’ll be
doing just that.”
If nothing turns up to change his mind,
you might soon be calling him by his non-
rap name, Hanif Collins. But he says he’ll
be around for the next year at least. And he
still has 100 songs he’s working to release.
“I’ll just be making music, saving money
and getting back to living life on my own
terms,” he says.
Luck One will be doing some shows in
January and February, with dates and times
to be announced. His next firm perform-
ance will be Dec. 29 at Holocene, 1001 SE
Morrison St.
Download Luck One’s new track from
www.Bandcamp.com or visit his website
www.LuckOneConscious.com
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December 7, 2011 The Portland Skanner page 7