SARAH WUELLNER, Media Production Assistant—Aspiring rap artist, Eric Adinkra ‘23 has been pursuing his music career dreams by raking in the views while keeping up with his studies. As a psychology major and Black studies minor, he has created music on various platforms using the name “King Adinkra.” Other than producing, mixing, writing and recording his own music, he also is a football player, member of the Black Student Union, Denison Inclusion Group, and works for Student Development.
Adinkra has always had a passion for music and wrote his first rhymes at the young age of eight. He produced his first song “Alter Ego” as his high school senior project. He has written about 8 or 9 songs now and is working on an album. In the future, he would like to perform on campus and work on creating music videos while balancing education.
He is largely influenced by artists such as Kendrick Lamar, Saba and Joey Bada$$. His inspiration for writing comes from wanting to tell stories and relate to others through his personal experiences. His parents are his biggest supporters and he uses voicemails from them in his songs as he likes to write about the people in his life.
His favorite songs that he has produced are “Home” and “Back in the City.” “Home” took hours for him to record in his house using only his laptop. He experienced writer’s block with “Back in the City” when he wrote it on New Years Eve, however he completed the song in a record time of three hours!
Adinkra incorporates rap when he wants to have fun with the song; he sings when he wants to be vulnerable and serious. He uses beats that he finds on the internet for the background music in his songs. He writes all of his own songs unless his friends want to collaborate with him and write their own part. He would like to collaborate with others in the future to pitch ideas and work towards pulling a diverse group of listeners.
His most played song received roughly 1,025 views on SoundCloud and featured one of his football teammates, Karl Ellis. Adinkra looks forward to producing more music, finishing his first album, and possibly connecting with a music producer. He will be releasing one more song before his album drops.
Adinkra is extremely grateful for how far he has come over the course of two years and is anxious for what the future holds. He is present on Instagram as @black_flash5, and supporters can tune into his music on SoundCloud and Spotify at King Adinkra.