Spotlight: Godly the Ruler

By: Jada Milazzo

March 8, 2023

Photos courtesy of Athena Merry

J: So this second issue is all about punk culture, and more so the idea of punk as a way of revolting against societal norms and stereotypes, and just the reimagined punk of todays generation. I’d love to learn your background, how you got into the music industry, where you see yourself in that scene. So who are you.

Godly: Hello, I’ll start here I guess…my name’s Godwil, feel free to call me Godwil. I’ve been doing the Godly the Ruler project for a really really long time. I probably started this project when I was 15, and it’s kind of taken off within the past year really. So, I’ve just been here for the ride, and trying to unpack this world for myself and trying to carve out a space for myself in the music industry. As of late, that’s been one of my biggest goals, to make sure I have a definite spot in the game.

J: That’s awesome! I mean it kinda seems like you built this identity as a way of expressing who you truly are, which is super cool right.

Godly: Yeah it’s really sick! Just having the opportunity to have a completely different medium to express yourself that is not me, that is not like my government identity that is tracked by the FBI or whatever. Just to be something that is not bound by day to day expectations..it’s such a bigger than life thing too. So I get to do really bigger than life things as Godly the Ruler.

J: What is your background in the music industry and what led you to this path that you’re on now.

Godly: I’ve always been somebody that has an obsessive personality, like if I start a TV series I finish it in the same night because I’m just so obsessed over things that I like and I was the same way with music. When I got my first iPod touch when I was in like 6th grade, I downloaded Pandora radio for the first time and was able to have an unlimited access to a bunch of different music. It really changed the game for me, because having this little box in my hand that I could play thousands of songs on was something that was really really crazy to me. So I began obsessing over it and became like an audio file, just collecting and listening to obscure albums and music throughout the day. I grew up in Chicago and the Soundcloud era was really big in the city; when I was in highschool, when I was about 14-15 years old was around the time Soundcloud was popping off. There was people like Chance the Rapper, Vic Mensa, Hurt Everybody, Mick Jenkins, and all these other groups that were shaking the table with Soundcloud, which was a really cool thing to see. Again with me being obsessed with things like that, I got really attached to that culture and I wanted to be one of those people that was shaking the table in my city. So, I made my first song when I was like 15, and it was in my school cafeteria in the middle of my lunch period. I was sitting in the back, in one of our back cafeteria booths, and kids are running around, throwing food, it seems like fucking shit because it’s CPS lunch. And I’m just in the back on my 2009 Macbook that’s overheating, and my wired Apple headphones and using the mic on there to record into Garageband. I made my first song then, and made my first Soundcloud in that same lunch period.

J: You went all out in one lunch period.

Godly: Yeah! That kicked off, and I spent the ages from like 14-18, making a song a day. One song a day, and putting all this up on Soundcloud. I probably have over 200 songs on my Soundcloud. And that was all like silly bedroom stuff, that really only belonged to me. In the past year, I don’t know what happened but a lot of people started to tap in on the Internet. I think there’s a really cool way in how artists are using the Internet to break through in the music industry and I think I did that by accident. Just accidently going viral a couple times, and I never really planned to and didn’t understand the repercussions of what something like that does. Haha, that was really really in depth answer to how I got here in my life, but it’s been a really cool journey and a lot of different things through the years. 2022 was the year where I was like “Okay I’m a musician”.

J: Like “Okay I think this is legit, I think this is real now”

Godly: The people are fucking with me, the numbers are numbering, the math is mathing, the music is musicing. I guess I’m in it.

J: So, with your experience with music and your thoughts on the music industry, mixed with the ideals of punk and revolting against norms, would you identify your music as something that goes against stereotypical mainstream music? Like thinking of radio stuff nowadays?

Godly: Oh, yeah, definitely! I don’t even write choruses sometimes, some of my songs are like a minute 20 seconds or a short length project that will be like an indie ballad into a hyper-pop punk rap thing into a classic hip-hop thing. Even just that ambiguity within the genre, as an artist, is punk in itself because in this day in age, I think people want to be really distinct with their sound as an artist. Like, if you’re a pop artist you're only making pop music.

J: Like you’re stuck within limits of your genre.

Godly: I think breaking those boundaries and being able to walk between those worlds is very punk. I think not writing a chorus or not writing a hook is very punk. I think making an indie song as somebody who looks like a hip hop artist, or somebody who looks like a rapper, putting out an indie track, is breaking the norm and is punk; even though it is literally a different genre that is not punk.

J: Exactly, I think a lot of artists are exploring and experimenting a lot more than they were 10, maybe 15 years ago and I think it’s great. I think it’s really opening the doors for music to grow and expand. Artists are diving into different realms within a certain song, and breaking down the idea of sticking to “I do pop I have to sound like this”, which is really great. With your music, what do you hope people take away from what you’re creating?

Godly: I hope people feel courageous, feel like they can do anything. I think that’s one of the main things, just because I have been courageous in this whole endeavor. I’ve done anything I wanted to do, I make my decisions and I stand on them. I hope that translates, and I hope people feel courageous by seeing me take risks as an artist. I hope people feel sexy. I hope people feel angry. I hope people feel sad. I hope people call up their younger siblings and tell them “check out this song I just heard”. I hope I can tell my stories in my songs, and be able to tell stories that other people have experienced. I think its important for them to feel courageous and I hope people are able to hear their stories in my songs.

J: I think it’s awesome to make music that is super relatable to so many different people in so many different ways, like not just making a super fun summer track, but making something that brings somebody back to an experience or emotion that they had. I guess lastly, where do you hope to be withing the coming years with your work, yourself, and your life?

Godly: Shittt. I hope I’m on the road, touring the world. I hope I’m in an airport getting ready to fly to Europe to do a European tour. To fly to Asia to do an Asia tour. I want to be touring like crazy. I want to be in the room with people who listen to my music and be able to sing my songs to them. I also want to be working on my first full length project, like some type of album, I want to be in the nitty-gritty of writing my album. I want to be happy. Those three things: I want to be happy, be on tour, be working.

J: Those all sound like amazing goals, amazing life attributes to reach for. Finger crossed and good energy towards all of that.

Godly: We’ll see what's going on Spring 2024.