Meet Michael Sneed
Michael Sneed is an Oakland native, recording artist whose musical presence can put a smile on anyones face. In the fall of 2009, he began his journey towards stardom. In his freshman year of high school he came across a teacher who had a microphone in his classroom. Michael and his friends started a friendly in-class rap battle, dissing each other and it was in that moment that Michael’s talents were apparent. Although, Michael had always pictured himself singing, his friends and teacher encouraged him to take on rapping.
The 21-year-old enthralling musician has a distinctive sound that consistently creates a vibrant and lively experience leaving the listener hungry for more. Michael strives to create an imaginary friend for people through his music. He aims to provide an extra ear for people and be the friend that someone may be desperate for through music. His extraordinary sound, impressionable personality and love for life should not be slept on. Michael Sneed is the artist you never knew you were missing from your playlist. Now ya know!
Check out his newest single “Too Grown” along with the rest of his music on SoundCloud. Be sure to follow Michael Sneed on Twitter and Instagram also!
Get To Really Know Michael Sneed
Who are your biggest influences in music?
My biggest musical influence has to be Disney Film soundtracks, specifically Lion King, Tarzan, Mulan, and Hercules. I’m also very influenced by Childish Gambino, Frank Ocean, Hiatus Kaiyote, E-40, Outkast, and Kanye. I used these influences to learn how to add magic to real world situations.
How would you describe your style?
I think most people would say my style is very animated, soulful, and musical. I like to play with inflections and harmonies to create impactful moments that have a broadway esque feel to them.
What do most people not know about you?
Most people don’t know that I’m low-key a nerd. I love watching Naruto, reading comics, playing Kingdom Hearts, catching up on Star Wars theories. I’m way better at using a lightsaber than I actually should be.
At what point will you feel you have reached success?
I don’t believe in reaching success. There’s always new heights to reach and new sights to see and I believe that moving through life without chasing that big end all be all is what makes things exciting. Make new goals after you accomplish old ones. I don’t ever want to reach a moment where the credits roll and the games over.The thing that I see over the horizon now is selling out arenas and helming the music on a Disney film but I know there’s so much more t accomplish than just that.
What’s next for Michael Sneed?
Right now I’m just trying to get this song into as many ears as possible to prepare for the release of a project I’m working on. It’s called “A Kid At Heart.” I’ll hopefully be able to release it late 2017 or early 2018. I want this project to give people the same feeling I used to feel when I would wake up early with my sister on Saturday mornings to watch the 5 hour block of cartoons on ABC. Every Saturday morning felt like summertime and to a 5 year old me summertime meant freedom. I want to provide that same service. I want people to be able to move around with an hour of summer, an hour of freedom in their headphones or their car speakers or whatever they use to listen to music. There will be tough lessons to learn and difficult questions that will be asked on this project but by the end of it I want people to feel good because they learned something while also knowing that it’s ok to not have the answers all of the time.
Michael Sneed featured image photographed by Mansur K. Rashid
