Grant Gillis

By Hailey Flavin

Growing up for Grant Gillis was not easy. Born and raised in Jamestown, Rhode Island, he was expected to have a cookie cutter life.

He was surrounded by beautiful houses and wealthy people, but it wasn’t that simple for him. Generations of his family have grown up on the island, but never had money that others did.

He lived in a small run down house in the middle of Jamestown, that his family struggled to make the payments for.

He didn’t experience the normal perks of being a kid. He didn’t get tons of gifts on Christmas, and he didn’t get to wear the clothes that everyone else was wearing.

Because he did not have the materialistic things that many other kids his age had, he turned to music.

“My father was into old 60s and 70s rock, my mom 90s R&B, and my two brothers were into hard-core gangster rap,” said Gillis.

“Pretty much since I can remember I wanted to do something with music."

He traveled for basketball as a kid and was lucky enough to get an old Chinese knockoff iPod from his brother.

“He put 40 songs of old school hip hop on it and it’s all I had to listen to so I was kind of stuck with it,” said Gillis.

Gillis fell in love with it and in high school when his family was hit by tough times it was what got him through.

“When I was in high school my family was struggling with no heat in the house, no water. I was showering at the high school. No one even knew it because I just kept it so low key because it was right at the time, it was personal,” exclaimed Gillis.

Gillis knew that he wanted to take his career in music further, and when he found JCole’s music, it gave him the strength to become an MC.

“Everything he was saying was what I was living through at the time,” said Gillis.

“My brother was locked up in jail at the time, JColes brother was locked up in jail.”

Gillis was able to relate his struggles to JCole’s, and saw him as a mentor.

“It was like he was talking straight to me,” he explained.

Even in his freestyle, he spoke about the pain that he went through.

“I remember cold nights you count your blessings, shut off the water now my family really stressing, I took it out in them studio sessions,”

Gillis rapped.

Gillis shared his talents at parties because he had nowhere to record at the time. He did not have the money to hire a producer, or any kind of professional help.

Photo by: Matt Walz

“People that knew Walz were at a party that I rapped at,” said Gillis.

This was his introduction to the music field, as Walz was a producer finishing up college and looking for new clientele.

“Walz hit my up on Facebook,” said Gillis.

From here they met up and from that point on became inseparable.

“We have the same music interest, the same drive,” he said.

Gillis would go home after school and go to the studio. At the time, his family didn’t even know he was rapping.

“My dad cried when he heard my music,” said Gillis.

One of the first songs that Gillis released was “Nostalgia,” a song about his cousin who had passed away. His cousin had been a huge part of his life and when he passed away Gillis' family was going through the financial struggle.

He wrote this song to release his emotions. What he didn’t know though, was that he would get to record it professionally. From there, his career only went up.

“Now I’m doing better, I’ve come out of that, it’s been a couple years, and now I can reflect on it,” said Gillis.

The tough times without hot water or heat made him stronger. It made him get to the studio more and take his frustration out with lyrics rather than other methods.

He is no longer embarrassed to share these stories, and instead uses it to fuel his career.

Today, Gillis has taken his career to the next level. He’s been ranked on audiomack as one of the most popular albums. Not only this, but he was invited to a Logic, a huge rapper, to go backstage and rap with him.

“He gave me mad advice,” said Gillis.

He also performed on URI radio in the beginning stages of his career. Now, he is working around the country. He works in Atlanta with Johnny Apollo on music and in Dallas Texas with Taylor Thrash and his movement Country Club. On top of this, he is releasing music with an artist out of Chicago named Anakin. A few of his singles are still on the rotation for WRIU.

As of right now, he is working with club and venue promoters from Newport to Boston to do shows. Gillis used his childhood as a motivation for his future. His new album will be released next year.