Bay Area Artist, Apollo Anthony, Has Never Been Better

An emerging voice adds to the Bay’s eclectic music scene

We’ve all known that kid who wanted to become a rapper someday. Maybe you didn’t take that person seriously, or maybe you swapped playlists with them, or maybe you were too focused on your own shit to focus on someone else’s dream. Well, over the years, one of those heads stayed true to his dream, hustled, and actually became a recording rapper/R&B artist — releasing EPs, a collection of singles, and dropping his latest hit, “Never Been Better,” featuring one of 2019’s most prolific co-signs, Larry June.

Apollo Anthony is proof of just how far someone in the Bay can go with enough practice, determination, and grit (having hella skills and talent helps, too). So it’s no surprise that he’s reaching new heights in his career, having been influenced by the independent hustle of local rap gods like E-40 and Mistah Fab. Apollo started out like most teenagers during the Hyphy Movement: burning CDs off Limewire, using a friend’s Macbook to record tracks, and battle-rapping in high school cafeterias. He wasn’t always the best in the room, but he never let that stop to him. “I know a ton of dudes more talented than me when we started, but they let the industry struggle get to them and quit. I just hustle and never give up, that’s been my formula,” he says. And it’s that sort of Bay Area out-the-trunk mentality that got him where he is today.

Listening to Apollo is like putting some of your favorite rap icons into a blender and mixing it to produce a new yet familiar flavor. You get a little bit of everything from the 2000s he grew up in — his versions of 50 Cent’s confidence to Eminem’s lyricism, Outkast’s funk to Too $hort’s storytelling. Like any gifted artist, he takes the influences he grew up with in his generation, and he spins it into his own sound. Now, he’s making more noise than ever, regularly teaming up with Bay Area all-stars like Berkeley’s Rexx Life Raj to make smooth, jazzy slappers.

But Apollo doesn’t want to be known as just another rap name. He’s an everyday dude who is grinding to create…