R.LUM.R

rdf:langString R.LUM.R

rdf:langString R.LUM.R

rdf:langString R.LUM.R

rdf:langString Bradenton, Florida, United States

rdf:langString Reggie Williams

rdf:langString R.LUM.R Playing the Sacramento Concerts in the Park Series on July 2017

rdf:langString Reggie Williams

rdf:langString Alternative R&B

rdf:langString

rdf:langString Pop

rdf:langString Soul

rdf:langString Nashville, Tennessee, United States

rdf:langString Behind The Setlist, 2017

rdf:langString The Music Ninja

rdf:langString "Growing up, I was always made to be ashamed of myself about being who I wanted to be and liking what I liked, so I hid it all. It was for a multitude of reasons, and for the sake of brevity I won't get specific, but it can mostly be boiled down to pressure to be 'blacker' and the insidious effects that has on one's psyche, but I did what I was told, and whatever I thought a person like me was supposed to do. My middle name, Lamar, was just one I never really felt attached to. So I hid that. Getting my starts in music, I played acoustic and released and performed music as a singer-songwriter for a long time, which started basically because of my limited resources, and I kept going because of the positive ways I was affecting the world around me through that medium, but there's always been another part of me that wanted to explore the stuff I’m exploring now, but never had the bravery or resources. So in the process of evolving into this music, I wanted to do something that pulled from my past and exposed all those things, but created a clear focus on the future. Reggie, my first name, is in the first R, and with it being at the beginning of R.LUM.R, it's the past, and the music I created that got me here. Though I’m evolving, I don't want to abandon where I came from. LUM is part of Lamar and represents the parts of myself I’d always hidden, and the present time. It means to me that I can take that stuff from back then and wear it proudly, turning it into positives. It's also the center of the idea right now, so it's fitting for it to be sitting where it is visually. The last R is the future and the person I can be, coexisting with the person i’ve always been. Lamar ends with an "r", and Reggie starts with an "r", so it's like bringing the ideas of the past and the present together, but in the future."

rdf:langString "I could’ve gone to Atlanta or Chicago or L.A. or Portland or whatever, but those places already have a sound that you think of when you think of urban—read: black—music. L.A. has Kendrick, the beat scene. Atlanta, there’s that wonderful trap music that’s poppin’. New York City there are the boom-bap rappers. Chicago, it’s Mick Jenkins. People, you know, who have a history in those places." As a person outside looking in, I didn’t think Nashville had a lane yet for a black guy making traditional black music, you know what I’m saying? But that is an advantage. That’s a place where I can go and create my own lane."

rdf:langString Reginald Lamar Williams, Jr (born January 18, 1990), known professionally as R.LUM.R, is an American alternative R&B artist from Bradenton, Florida. Previously a singer-songwriter playing classical guitar under his nickname Reggie Williams, Williams has since relocated to Nashville, Tennessee where he now resides. R.LUM.R is best known for his viral 2016 single, "Frustrated" which has garnered over 50 million plays on Spotify alone as of December 6, 2019. In 2017 NPR Music named him one of their "Artists to watch at SXSW" and called him a "fast-rising artist whose falsetto is no joke." On August 2, 2017, R.LUM.R performed "Frustrated" and "Close Enough" on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.