Conversations with Caleb Green

Today we’d like to introduce you to Caleb Green.

Hi Caleb, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I was raised by a motivated single father who had me at the age of 20. Growing up with a young father with just the two of us shaped who I am today, he taught me how to navigate life, open doors of opportunity, and preach many metaphors on life telling me things such as “life is a contact sport” and “the fool speaks, the wise man listens.”

My first love was basketball, from the time I could crawl I had a basketball in my hands, I could ball like no one’s business, throw passes no one would see coming, shoot from anywhere on the court, and could out dribble any defender, but being an extremely skinny short kid until my late teens I knew my hustle had to be channeled towards something else.

I had always been artistic, drawing, making small films with my friends, programming computer games, making music, and any form of art I could express myself with I was determined to master. In high school after being too short to make the basketball team, I switched my focus to audio-video through the high school’s film class. This class gave me the experience with computer software such as adobe photoshop and adobe premiere, this gave me the understanding to channel my artistic ideas onto the screen.

Fast forward from my freshman year of high school to currently my junior year at SCAD, from then to now I have learned animation, film, graphic design, sound design, audio mixing, and music composition. I currently have a double minor in graphic design & music production and will be graduating with a BFA in sound design next spring.

I started my music production journey as “Hapollo” when I was 16, making hip-hop beats for my friends to rap over, which led me here. At 21, I have produced for several rising artists, have released my own remix tracks reaching 3.5 million listeners on Youtube, Spotify, and Apple Music, and have recently broken through to the music industry.

At 21, I feel like I have gone through such a long roller coaster of a journey, yet I know this is just the beginning.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
It has not been a smooth road, but who’s life isn’t? I was born to a 20-year-old father and an 18-year-old mother, but soon after my birth, my mother left my father and me.

99% of my childhood was spent without a mother, with just a young single father who had no help from our impoverished family. Though my Dad being the hard-working motivated man he is, has worked his ass off since the day I was born, single-handedly raising us out of poverty and paying off $300k of debt in 8 years with nothing but 6 am to 8 pm hard work every day for 20 years.

I was born into challenges but my father brought us out of them by himself.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am known in the music world as Hapollo, I am a music producer and specialize in Hip-hop music.

My favorite style of music to produce is sampled from the 90s – 2000s boom-bap, like Nas, Tribe Called Quest, Mobb Deep, Jay Z, Slum Village, and early Kanye West. I am recognized for my cinematic style, hard-hitting drums, and nasty sample chops that create a sonic environment in the listener’s brain.

I like to idealize my sound as a mix of the best of ’90s hip-hop with today’s modern production. I want to be remembered as the producer who brought a cinematic film vision and applied it to the golden age of hip-hop music.

Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I grew up a very outgoing child, I loved making friends, I especially made friends playing basketball, football, and baseball. I was always a funny witty person (and still am today) who knew how to get a laugh or a smile out of anyone.

My father taught me to be polite and to treat everyone with the utmost respect no matter who it is. I love sports, my father and I obsess over the Houston Rockets, Houston Texans, and the Texas Longhorns.

I also am a massive racing fan, I always loved Nascar, motocross, drag races, sprint cars, and most importantly I am head over heels about Monster Trucks.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.calebgreen.space
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yohapollo/?hl=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1JUFCgJGwP_LD7GO9kLgEQ
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/hapollo-605414190
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3jicogdJIfcmEDGJ3BH1eV

Image Credits:
Ethan Hawthorne @schlungus and Caleb Green