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music
Holly / Meet the Iberian Trap God and Portugal’s Rapid Firing Producer
![Alt Text](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56c346b607eaa09d9189a870/1603223304581-1FF3PW2BPJSCCVJ9IQ2E/Holly-FLAUNT) We here at Flaunt know the grind. We live it, and love it. But it ain’t always a picnic. Highs and lows are part of the daily battle, something Portuguese producer Holly nods too on his new EP, Dark Skies and Holy Grail. The EP is a whirlwind of musical styles, which comes as no surprise when you consider Holly is a 20 something yr old artist who dropped 600 tracks in 2017 alone. Dark Skies and Holy Grail smash together Holly’s spheres of influence weaving through hip-hop, bass, drum n bass, trap, breaks and noise. He collabs with fellow Portuguese Baauer for the brash and big Just Enough, and the stars of Lisbon’s rap scene on Sunrise, the EP’s optimistic conclusion. While elsewhere teaming up with American rappers Uno The Activist, and OG Maco, South Korean rapper Ugly Duck and newcomer RahRah. It’s a showcase for just how interconnected the next generation of musical talent has become. But there is tragedy as well as triumph on this record, two weeks after meeting and recording with Shoreline MAfia’s Mac P Dawg, the artist passed, and a heartfelt conversation with Mac P’s family led to the decision to release the track with all monies raised by the track going back to Mac P’s family. Flaunt caught up with Holly, back home Lisbon, to hear more. Biggest influences growing up? My biggest influences growing up were my family, skateboarding, nature and everything related to punk/hardcore and hip-hop culture. There’s a lot more that influenced me but these are the main ones off the top of my head! At what point did you realize music was going to be your career? I was in my first year at university studying sociology when I started producing and I would always get sad when I had to leave the house to go to school. I wished I could just stay at home making beats. Even though I felt super fortunate to be able to study, my feelings put things into perspective, I realized what really made me happy and that I wanted to pursue music as my career. What inspired your name? My last name is “Oliveira” and my friends have called me “Oli” since 7th grade. I wanted to have an artist name that could represent the feeling that I have for music and also be pronounced in a way that doesn’t sound strange, so I decided to choose “HOLLY” which is a mix of “Oli” and “Holy”. Oli representing my family name and Holy representing what music means to me, sacred, spiritually and a blessing. Can you explain the concept behind your new mixtape Dark Skies and Holy Grail? “Dark Skies & Holy Grail” represents the fight and struggle to make our dreams come true while battling the dark skies of life. It’s a metaphor about how I see the world right now. We all have our goals and dreams but we are facing so much resistance at the moment to make them happen. We need to grab sacred energy, fight at all costs and hope for a beautiful sunrise. It almost feels like a screenshot of my life. “Dark Skies” represent the difficulties that we face in order to conquer our dreams, with dreams being represented by the “Holy Grail”. Your favorite collaboration and why? Every collaboration is always amazing, it would be disrespectful to name only one since I’ve worked with so many amazing artists!
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What was it like working with Mac P Dawg on Friday Nights? I’m so honored to have had the opportunity to work with Mac. We met through my A&R Neal Suva at a session back in March. Usually I’m the last one to leave the session but I was super tired after a long day and had to wake up really early the next morning, so I played beats for Mac P Dawg and SUFFER GRiM till they picked out a few and then I left. Mac P Dawg was in the studio with his homies so we didn’t have that chance to talk that much but we both showed respect and appreciation for each other's time and craft. We chatted on IG a for a couple days after and even though we didn’t know each other super well I could see that a lot of people liked him and he was a special human being. It’s really sad what happened, I hope he’s looking down on us and blessing us with his unique energy. RIP MAC P DAWG. How are you looking to bring more attention to the Portuguese hip hop + club scene? I always make sure to have artists from Portugal on my projects and do my best to link them with other artist friends of mine around the world. Portugal has so many talented artists that deserve to shine on a global level like Bad Bunny, J Balvin, Drake, Beyonce etc. They have the songs and energy but Portugal seems like it has a bubble around it that I'm trying to pop. I plan to introduce more portuguese artists to other global acts so they can open their perspectives to new sounds and collaborate with other cultures. I’m also planning on bringing portuguese artists on tour with me which will help shine some more light on the country! It would also be amazing to do my own festival and radio show where I play Portuguese music and all the other sounds that influence me. That would be dope! How has growing up in Portugal inspired your sound? There’s a lot of different cultures and scenes in Portugal so I think being exposed to so many different music styles growing up helped me become a super versatile producer. While I was growing up I’d go to a hardcore punk show, hip-hop concert and to a rave in the same day, so I feel that opened my mind up to a lot of different sounds and inspired me to make my own unique sound. Can you go into some of the Portuguese artists you're listening to at the moment? I’ve been listening to Slow J, ProfJam, Julinho KSD, Dino D’Santiago, Moullinex, DJ Ride, Lhast, Branko, Papillon and St James Park but you should also check out the Príncipe Discos crew, Dead End, FRANKIEONTHEGUITAR, Holly Hood and as many more artists as you can! Goals for yourself at this point of your career? In short I want to make as much music as possible, produce for other artists, work on soundtracks for video games, movies/TV shows, get credits on cool projects and just stay happy. When shows come back, I want to tour the world 67 times before I leave this planet! I’ll keep my more personal goals private so I don't jinx myself haha. Thanks for taking the time to learn more about me and Portugal! Please come visit and i'll show you all around if i'm in town! Listen to the Dark Skies & Holy Grail Mixtape here! HOLLY · Dark Skies & Holy Grail Mixtape