104.7 The Drop welcomed Lane-O, who is competing in Battle for the Block 2025, to our studios this week to have a conversation and give our listeners some insight to whom he is and why he joined the competition. Lane-O hails from Louisiana but has been a long-time staple in the Denver music scene. He’s a family man with a passion for conscientious rap and finds peace and balance in both realms. He’s excited to compete this year Win or Lose he stated he feels blessed to be able to be present, to meet new people and to be part of the Denver music scene! We look forward to seeing him and all the contestants battle it out for the 2025 honors!
Transcript
MANG-YEE: Peace. Good morning. Lane-O, I’m Mang-Yee Reverie. I do the night show, and I’m super excited to have you as one of our contestants for Battle of the Block 2025. Welcome.
LANE-O: Thank you for having me.
MANG-YEE: How you feeling today?
LANE-O: I’m feeling good. Feeling glorious, you know what I mean? How about you?
MANG-YEE: It’s the end of the long weekend. We gonna get back into it, but I’m excited because one of y’all is gonna open for Juvenile at the end of this situation, and there’s a lot of dope contestants. So, I wanted to kind of fill our audience in with some of the unknown facts about you just so they get a sense of who you are as a person.
LANE-O: For sure.
MANG-YEE: Alright so, you hail from Louisiana. You not originally from Denver, Colorado, right?
LANE-O: I’m not. No, no, I’m a native of Louisiana for sure.
MANG-YEE: Alright, how long have you been in Denver?.
LANE-O: I’ve been in Denver since ‘99 though, so I consider them both home for me.
MANG-YEE: This is home for you too.
LANE-O: You know what I’m saying? I moved here when I was, like, 13, so I spent half of my life there, the other half here. So I consider them both to be my home.
MANG-YEE: Okay. How long have you been doing music?
LANE-O: I’ve been doing music for over 15 years. It was kind of the thing I was doing when I moved here. I found music by moving to Colorado because I didn’t know nobody, so music became something that, like, I kind of leaned into.
MANG-YEE: So, you came here kind of to do music?
LANE-O: Well, not even to do music. I think I just found it. You know what I’m saying? Like I was a young kid and didn’t know anybody, and I was just writing in my journals and met some kids in the neighborhood. And they was doing it and put me on to a lot of different stuff.
MANG-YEE: How hard was it coming from an outside environment? I hear a lot of the artists that aren’t locals specifically say that it’s a little bit more difficult to come into a city that you’re not from, you know, and still receive that camaraderie between different artists.
LANE-O: Yeah. I think for me, it was different. It was a very unique situation because I’ve been here for so long. So, I’ve watched Denver just grow and change. So, a lot of the artists that are from this city, I’ve watched them even develop. So, I’ve been a part of the scene for a while just been out the way though, so I think the only uphill battle is the fact that I’m not a native and I think most people know that, and so it does present a layer of, you know, difficulties. But you know, we just push past all that.
MANG-YEE: But I feel like, honestly, as long as we give Denver the props and the love because we all have now come up here in the industry, you know, it tends to work out okay. So, Battle for the Block. What made you want to submit music and kind of step into the spotlight? You dropped the debut album, what, in 2023, correct?
LANE-O: That’s right.
MANG-YEE: That’s Us?
LANE-O: Yeah, that’s right, Us.
MANG-YEE: All right, tell me a little bit about that project and how it kind of led you to this competition.
LANE-O: Okay. So, me and Stevie Buggz is one of the engineers out of the city. A lot of people might know him.
MANG-YEE: Shoutout to Stevie.
LANE-O: Shout out to Buggz. So, me and him went to venture together to open up a studio called Bright Future Media. So, I’m part owner in that, and from there, it became a space of like, “Hey man, we should do a album. You should make something. I think the city needs to hear what you’re talking about.” And from there I just sat down. We got to workin, and I was so, you know, excited about that body of work that we was like, “Well we should just push it all the way. Let’s not just do it to just get it off the shelf. Let’s do it and see what we can do with it.” And I think that moment kind of propelled me into spaces like these and all different types of, you know, opportunities within the city to just kind of represent my craft and represent the city at the same time.
MANG-YEE: Okay, I like that. I consider you, like, a socially conscious artist.
LANE-O: For sure.
MANG-YEE: What do you want to get out of this competition? I mean, outside of the obvious, “Ahh, Juvenile.” Okay, that’s cool. How do you see this helping further your career as far as being able to come in and experience — you did a set here at the radio. So, you know what that feels like to be to be filmed and y’all be able to see that on YouTube. And it was probably a dope experience. Like I said, I watched all the different performances and everybody did their thing. How do you feel like this is going to help you grow as an artist coming out of this competition, win or lose?
LANE-O: I think it’s gonna help me just through getting more eyes on me and for attention to the music by being on the platform as big as the radio station. So, I’m looking forward to what comes from there, because I really don’t look at anything as a as a loss per say, right, win or lose. And then also it’s a full circle moment for me. When I moved here, Juvenile had just dropped 400 Degreez, which all his hits was on, right? And that was the album I traveled with. So, for me it kind of feels like a full circle moment. It’s like a coming to. It’s like a — I’m glad I did jump off the porch when I did, too, so I can be here for this opportunity.
MANG-YEE: Yeah. And again, that’s a artist from back home, you know?
LANE-O: Yeah. I mean, that’s a homeboy, so…you know what I’m saying?
MANG-YEE: Yeah, exactly. So, it’s probably a pretty dope — have you chosen what tracks you are competing with? Tell me a little bit about those. I know you have “Beautiful,” I believe was like your main single. I know you’re married. You have a beautiful family. So, again, when you’re writing your song or music kinda, wear is your mindset?
LANE-O: I do it from a space of, I think music — or hip hop specifically — should be a tool that’s used so we can relate, right? I should share my story, so then you can probably connect with it or feel it or get a level of understanding of where I’m coming from. And so, when I wrote that song in particular, “Beautiful,” it was just more of a space to just be transparent of just sharing the things that I battle with, some of the things that I go through. And at the end of it all is that we still human, you know what I’m saying? I still deserve love. You still deserve love, and we have it if we just tap within. So, it was just more of an expression of — just to let people know like, “You’re not alone in these struggles that we deal with.” So that’s why I chose that track, for sure, as one of ‘em.
MANG-YEE: Yeah, I like it. I think it was a good choice. Good choice. What was your second track?
LANE-O: So, my second track is a track called, “Everybody,” which is produced by Wicjones as another —
MANG-YEE: Okay, salute to Wic.
LANE-O: Yeah, salute. Shoutout Wic.
MANG-YEE: We got some good producers in the city of Denver. I don’t know why y’all be sleeping on some of these cats. These are kids I’ve known — you know, I’ve been here nine years, so I’ve known them for doing music since then. You could only continue to perfect your craft. So, I like that. I’m hearing some of these names as the people that you have chosen to work with to do the projects. So, you said “Everybody”?
LANE-O: “Everybody” is the name of the record, right. And that song, it represents how everybody can’t go, right? You know, a lot of people will show up to your victories just to eat. And I just wanted to speak to that of just like, “You know, if you gonna come, everybody’s welcome. But you gotta do your work. There’s a seat at the table for everybody. Not my seat. But you can take a seat by showing up or whatever it is you have to offer. So that’s what that song just —
MANG-YEE: We gotta saying back home: You gotta tell somebody to carry them bricks. They’re not supposed to be there building that building with you, baby.
LANE-O: Come on.
MANG-YEE: Well, I’m excited to see how it pans out. Like you said, this isn’t a win or loss situation as far as I’m concerned. All of you have already won because you’re in front of a way larger platform than maybe you were two months ago, a year ago, six years ago, you know, and I like seeing somebody that has been welcomed by the city. Like you said, you’ve mentioned some pretty heavy hitting producers out of the Denver area that I got a lot of respect for, so I’m excited to see all of you and what you do. Do you have any advice for somebody that’s younger than us and that’s just coming into this industry, you know, that wants to end up doing a Battle for the Black 2030 or, you know, whatever the case may be?
LANE-O: My advice would be just stick with it. I know that’s very cliché, but I think the cliché stuff needs to come back into full frontal because that’s the stuff that has worked for years and years, so it’s just — stick with it. Whatever you want to do, stick with it, and the people will find you: the Stevie Buggz’s, the Wicjones’s — whatever other great up and coming producers and engineers — they’ll find you once you start putting that work in and just stay consistent in it. So, just keep at it is what I would tell ‘em.
MANG-YEE: All right, great advice. Do you have any last words for our listeners?
LANE-O: This your boy Lane-O, and I love this city and I want to put on for this city and I think this city has a lot of undiscovered jewels and I want to be someone that’s a pioneer and helping getting that discovered. And that’s what I got, Denver. I love y’all.
MANG-YEE: All right, and that is Lane-O. I’m excited for you. I’m definitely rooting for you and all the contestants. We’ll see you at the Battle for the Block.
LANE-O: Let’s get it.
MANG-YEE: Alright.