Dreamville signee Lute stopped by REVOLT TV to give us insight on the motivation to complete his second project, how he met J. Cole, and the hip-hop community of his hometown of Charlotte, N.C. The rapper has remained relatively quiet since signing in 2015 as he prepared his heavily-anticipated project West 1996 Pt. 2, the sequel to what first piqued J. Cole’s interest. Fresh out of a prolonged writer’s block, Lute discusses how the birth of his daughter saved him from a regular 9-5 and got him back in the booth.

Find out more about his journey from a locally-known rapper working at Walmart, to a young father and, eventually, a budding artist on one of hip-hop’s most progressive labels.

About the hip-hop scene in Charlotte, he said, “It’s just really about creating the culture and people coming together to really realize what we have. I feel like Charlotte don’t realize what is has yet and I think that’s what kinda keeps us underground so much, but we got a lot of people that’s really starting to break the surface though.”

Listen to West 1996 Pt. 2 below.