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GARY, Ind. — Artist ML Underwood spent many years managing and promoting other singers, being that ‘Boss Playa,’ he sings about for others, but now he’s using that talent to promote himself.
Underwood said he’s always been a hustler and grinder, just as his dad was before him.
“Boss Playa,” is Underwood’s latest single where he talks about that person who’s always working.
“I've always been a hustler, always been a grinder, someone who’s been real popular in Gary growing up,” Underwood told Smash Mag in a recent interview. “And my dad was a hustler in Gary and I always referred to my dad as a boss. I’m like that too so anyone I meet who’s out here kind of grinding out here, in the lead, starting businesses and not letting up, I call them boss playas. I’ve been saying that since I was young and I just thought, you know what, let me come up with a song to explain what I mean when I call someone a boss playa. That’s what ‘Boss Playa’ is about, I'm just explaining what a boss playa is in that song.”
Underwood grew up in Gary, Indiana, and continues to work there promoting other artists while he pushes his own music under his label, My Life Entertainment.
“I had that record label for 20-some years,” he said. “I spent over 20-some years of my life in entertainment, I started off as an executive producer for a lot of artists around in Gary and helped them start their career. That’s where it started off for me, I was behind other artists, I wasn’t really pushing my own stuff at that time.”
But a stint in prison convinced him that he needed to step out from behind the scenes and take the microphone himself.
“I did time in federal prison and I was around a lot of men who were smart and very intelligent, business-minded men and they were always telling me I was a talent,” Underwood said. “A lot of people who meet me and get to know me, the realize I’m very talented myself, that I’m an artist myself and I’m real unique and different. So when I got out I started focusing on me.
“I’m still young, I’m still in my 40s and I’m thinking you’ve got artists out here who are way older than me who are having success. So I just started investing in me, putting music out there myself and I became more successful.”
Underwood said music changed his life and it changes others as well. He said his music has messages and “is more of a teaching platform.”
“It’s entertaining but if you really listen to what I’m saying, I’m subliminally teaching,” he said. “Everything is a lesson in my music. I’m in my own lane. I’m the rapper that most rappers listen to who’s older. I’m a rapper’s rapper. I’m the one who they listen to.”
Underwood said he wasn’t into creating albums and projects. He was happy to keep dropping and promoting his music in singles, and there are more and more coming soon. He’s also branching out into movie-making.
“You’re definitely going to hear more singles, you may see me in some movies,” Underwood said. “I’m working on a few movie offers playing different parts and you’re going to see me pretty much active in the entertainment business, shaking and moving in Hollywood. You’ll definitely see all of that. Growth and development, anything I do will be growth.”
ML Underwood’s music is available across all streaming platforms. To listen to his music, or to follow him on social media, please visit the following links:
https://music.apple.com/us/album/i-got-work-feat-sandy-redd-single/1536497495
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3kbtNFgAbwRhRe5eTgRgKQ
Www.mylifeentertainment.net
Www.unitedprisonerassociation.com
https://thesource.com/2020/08/01/m-l-underwood-declares-im-the-light/
https://thisis50.com/2020/08/25/my-life-entertainment-launched-im-the-light-by-ml-underwood-a-stirring-track-aimed-at-black-community/
