The FowL-up story: From "MSU’s own rising star" in 2011, to Hollywood by 2014. Detroit rapper FowL t

Madeline Fetchiet | Founder/Writer

Just two days after opening for Juicy J in January, FowL traded his last Kroger paycheck for a one-way ticket from Detroit to Los Angeles.

"It’s Hollywood 30 minutes away from the hood, so the possibilities are endless,” FowL said.

FowL’s latest mixtape, 22, compiles three years’ worth of unreleased heat—tracks like “Stone Cold Chillin” and “I Like That” were two hot singles he dropped since the move.

And recent collaborations such as “Magic" with Matt T and “New Wave” with Darnell Williams were both featured on notable music site, IllRoots.

“It was like a report of my 22-year life and thought process,” FowL said.

Escaping the somewhat static Michigan rap scene, (not to mention one of the coldest winters the D has seen in FowL and I’s lifetime), Saffal Tall, a.k.a. FowL left the mitten for California dreams.

And a lot has changed since FowL and I spoke in 2011. Most notably, parting ways with former manager Rodney James led FowL to pursue new options once L.A. industry professionals started calling.

“I’ve done the best I could,” FowL said. “It was time to go to L.A. because I received a call saying there was an industry guy interested in working with me.”

The deal didn’t pan out—but like FowL told me back in 2011, you can’t trust everyone and consider everyone you work with a friend.

Having made it from Detroit to Hollywood, FowL is no stranger to the industry grind. But while he patiently waits to “hit the bigs” so to speak, FowL remains focused, simply, on progress.

“I’m here making progress and I’m happy, which I haven’t been for some years,” FowL said.

Progress is exactly what FowL has seen since growing up on West Chicago Street in Detroit, as he alludes to on his track, “Hello Detroit." From the humble streets of the Motor City, FowL spent time briefly studying at Michigan State University, but left to pursue music.

Like many 22-year-olds trying to make it as an artist, FowL’s journey wasn’t always as glamorous as Hollywood. Having built an audience on “the banks of the Red Cedar,” FowL said leaving MSU was a big adjustment.

“I’m a starving artist whose back is against the wall and everything I do has to work on a major scale,” FowL said, regarding his 2012 mentality. "I wrote ‘2012 Blues’ to really reach out to all of my listeners, whether they were supporters or opposers, to explain this mind state and what created it.”

But a surprise came on November 20, 2013.

While working at Kroger, pondering leaving the rap game behind, FowL was inspired by a friend to release the lost tracks he made in New York.

And the Surprise mixtape was born.

“While I was virtually alone, I threw my own Surprise party,” FowL said. “And I really hope everyone enjoyed it.”

Later that year he was deemed one of Detroit's top 13 underground lyricists by SooDetroit Magazine, and FowL went from “starving artist” to one the city’s finest young talents.

From the streets of Detroit, FowL brings raw credibility telling his story, backed by a viciously beautiful city that helped build not only American cars but American music. But being from the Motor City comes with a heavy stigma, one that FowL said can “kill” artists if they fail to branch out.

"You can be ‘the mans’ in Michigan, but no one will know you,” FowL said. “You spend too much time in Michigan and you won’t have built anything elsewhere—and that could kill you.”

And with big dreams and his big voice, FowL is now in Hollywood, fulfilling his prophecy from “Hello Detroit" off Good Vibes: "Everything I do has to be a calculated step toward where I want to be,” FowL said in 2011.

“You have to have the right attitude for people to be willing to invest in you via your goods and services,” FowL said.

“If I think it, I can have it."

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