SPOTLIGHT ARTIST OF THE WEEK

**AGE**: 19 |
**BIRTHDAY**: JUNE 13TH |
**BIRTHPLACE**: ARLINGTON, WA |
**CURRENTLY**: ORLANDO, FL |
IG: @OUTTHEMEADOW |
**GENRE:** INDIE/HIP HOP/MUSICIAN

K10 (Kheltin Walters-Mackie) is an indie based hip-hop musician who originates from Arlington, WA. His unique blend of melodic lyricism and bedroom pop has allowed him to create a fanbase of his own. His unique character and taste for bright blue clothing has also made K10 a character worth following. K10 has been making music for over 5 years and he continues to improve his music everyday. From humble beginnings as a high schooler making music in his bedroom, K10 now owns his own studio, media page, and record label company.

NEW MUSIC

K10 made this song during the summer time era of his freshman year of high school, which is kind of crazy to think about! Despite being so young, this song is still by far one of his favorites and if not the best song he has ever made. “I really liked hyper pop type beats at the time and brake dance was a big inspiration for me growing up, so I naturally leaned toward a sound kind of like his.” Nonetheless, a very fun song to make. The engineer K10 Collaborated with did an awesome job on bringing the track to life considering the environment they recorded in, on a usb audio Technica microphone. K10 thought people weren’t going to like this song when he first made it and some of his friends didn’t but thankfully, we can say he proved them wrong.

SINGLES

Artist: K10 | Single: Let Me Know | Release Date: March 31, 2023 | Genre: Hip-Hop/Indie

“I made this song after I had taken a long break from music, but I decided to make the song because I needed a place to vent once again.” K10 was only in high school at the time and didn’t have a lot of friends or people to talk to. The feeling of losing a lot of friends he once had, became the motivation for this song to let everyone know that he will always here for them. This was his first time experimenting with Indie beats as well which plays a big role in the music he makes now. “I worked on this song with my producer and engineer friend Roy from Morocco who added a lot of the final touches. Roy has been a good friend of mine for years and I met him through a boost collective group chat on Instagram.” - K10

Artist: K10 | Single: Another Love | Release Date: February 6, 2024 | Genre: Hip-Hop/Indie

This song was K10 most recent release. “I made this song after I had gone through a rough breakup and at the time I had nobody to vent to so music was a good outlet for me.” Being able to write about his frustration and all the memories K10 had was a good outlet for him and the result of that was a song that all his family and friends enjoyed. The goal with “Another Love” was to allow people to feel the emotion he had felt by telling them his story.

Artist: K10 | Single: Bipolar | Release Date: May 12, 2023 | Genre: Hip-Hop/Indie

For K10, this was a big step in how he made music. Before he made this song, all his songs were very melodic based, but with “Bipolar”, he was able to step outside of his comfort zone and make something very new and unique. At the time K10 was really into the underground music scene and was inspired by artists like Ken Carson, Destroy Lonely, and Dom Corleo. “My friend who helped me get into music in the 9th grade helped me make this song even though he ended up moving to Idaho. I hadn’t made music with him in a long time so this song was very fun to make for me.” K10 explains how A lot of his close friends ended up really liking this song and they say it’s their favorite one.

TOP TRACKS

Melodic Hip-Hop based musician from Arlington, WA.

PROJECTS

Artist: K10 | Album: The Last Night Here | Release Date: June 16, 2023 | Genre: Hip-Hop/Indie

This album was a collab album K10 did with one of his really good high school friends. “At the time his rap name was Leighton K, but he’s changed it to something else since then. Me and K were both moving out of our hometown around the same time, and since we were both musicians, we wanted to make an album together before we moved away from each other.” Since they were moving soon it was also the perfect topic to write about. They wrote about all the friends they made along their journey, all the girlfriends they had, all the memories made, the good and bad times, and packed it up neatly into an album. K10 & Leighton K had a lot of fun producing it with other non-musician friends making a cameo.

Artist: K10 | Album: Fear Is A Belief | Release Date: October 17, 2020 | Genre: Hip-Hop/Indie

K10 made his very first album Fear Is A Belief during the summer of his freshman year of high school. At this point, K10 had only been making music for just under a year. “When I first started making music, I wasn’t very good. I was also mostly an athlete, and so I got into music because I went through 2 leg surgeries during that time and couldn’t play sports.” K10 didn’t think music would have become such a big part of his life and it ended up replacing sports for him entirely. When K10 made this album, he was still doubting himself thinking he wasn’t really good enough. That’s when he came up with the name “fear is a belief”. All these doubts and talk about him not being good enough was a false belief he told himself. This album was meant to show K10 and the world that he could do it!