'On the verge of something new': Meet student musician Quincy Griffin III

Quincy Griffin III is a music major, and his love for music didn’t start when he came to UNC for undergrad. Inspired by the music in his family, namely his rapper and producer father, Griffin remembers making his first beat when he was about 9-years-old. 

“I've always had a love for music,” Griffin said. ”I have always loved listening to it. I love making it.”

It wasn’t until Griffin’s final years of high school that he considered music as a serious career. Since then, during his four years as a music major, Griffin honed his craft and released his first EP, “Love Language, Vol. 1,” on Valentine's Day of this year, and plans to produce more tracks in years to come. 

Griffin’s latest EP is a R&B and hip hop instrumental album that is a narrative of a love story. The first song, “Fallin’ in Love,” creates a timeline of a lost love. Griffin completes the story in six songs, with the last named “Don’t Forget Me.”

He was able to take professor Suzi Analogue's beatmaking class to help learn new techniques to develop his craft. Specifically, learning about their experiences in the music industry assured Griffin that he is on the right path, he said. 

Since the start of Analogue's tenure at UNC, Griffin has been a student she has watched grow and mentor. 

“Quincy is just on the verge of something so new, and it's very exciting to see a student be able to balance both his academic studies as well as his musical endeavors, and to even channel that into being a major, that is exactly what we want to see in the hip hop program at UNC,” Analogue said. 

In addition to his hands-on learning, Griffin has also been able to showcase his talents in UNC’s Hip Hop Ensemble. The ensemble's next performance on April 16 will showcase Griffin and his peers. Titled "Evergreen," the performance is inspired by themes of spring and nature.

“It's a collaboration between all artists,” Griffin said. “We all made the songs as all original compositions beforehand.”

On April 4, the ensemble performed their first track together in the Hill Hall rotunda during the Rowdy Memorial Cypher. During the event,Griffin and his friend and fellow-artist, K’mani Leonerio, received the inaugural Kevin Joshua “Rowdy” Rowsey Hip Hop Scholarship. 

Mark Katz, a music professor, alongside other faculty in the department, selected the two as emerging hip hop artists. The scholarship is in its first year and is meant to honor Rowsey, an artist, educator and community activist from Durham, who graduated from UNC and taught for the music department. Rowsey — also known by his emcee name, Rowdy — died unexpectedly last April.  

Rowsey’s parents wanted his memory to prevail at UNC, so they both came together to make the scholarship happen. It rewards money so that the recipients this year, Leonerio and Griffin, can use it for the new album they are developing together.

The two are receiving academic credit for the album and meet up with Katz every week for updates. 

“So we'll sit down, and I'll say, ‘Oh, so what did you do this week?’” Katz said. “He said, ‘I just made a few beats,’ just like it's nothing. And then he'll play me these amazing beats and they're really impressive, but then he's also open to discussing how he might refine it.”

Analogue and Katz have been mentoring Griffin, and now that he is a senior, they are excited for all that he will do beyond UNC. 

As of now, Griffin is looking forward to producing with artists he loves one day and producing more diverse albums and tracks with different genres. 

“You wouldn't really know just how talented he is just by chatting with him, because he doesn't tell you, he does show you,” Katz said. 

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