ATLANTA — Some artists walk into the booth, cut a vocal and leave the rest to someone else. Broadway Q wants to know why the record sounds the way it does.
The Long Island native, now based in Atlanta, has spent the past few years turning setbacks into a crash course in the music business. Today the R&B artist Broadway Q is an independent singer, songwriter and audio production student with a distribution deal through WhoMag Distribution, a growing label venture called RichMadeMusicGroup, and a new project, HIIM, that he says captures who he is right now.
“I’m really just getting started,” he said.
Listeners can stream his catalog on Spotify and follow his day-to-day on Instagram.
What Makes R&B Artist Broadway Q Different
His sound sits where contemporary R&B meets TrapSoul, melodic hip-hop, soul and touches of Afrobeats. He describes it as smooth but raw, built on catchy melodies with lyrics that carry weight. One song might be intimate and emotional; the next might be made for the club.
“I don’t like putting myself in one box,” he said.
Music runs in the family. Broadway Q credits his father, BKLYN C-Train, with shaping his work ethic and his sense that being an artist means more than making songs. He also names his uncle, the hip-hop pioneer Rakim, as a defining influence. From Rakim, he said, he learned the value of originality and building work that lasts.
He also draws on the melodic R&B of Chris Brown, Usher, Bryson Tiller and PARTYNEXTDOOR. But his biggest source material is everyday life: love, heartbreak, ambition, wins and losses. Moving from New York to Atlanta exposed him to two distinct musical cultures, and he blends both into his storytelling without chasing trends.
“I want my lyrics to sound current while still having substance,” he said.
Turning Rejection Into Redirection
The road has not been smooth. Broadway Q says he has heard “no” plenty of times, been overlooked, and at times had the wrong people around him. There were moments, he said, when he had the talent and the vision but not the right engineer or team to bring it to life.
Rather than wait for someone else to fix that, he enrolled at SAE Institute Atlanta to study audio production and engineering. The goal is to understand every step, from recording and vocal production to mixing, so his creativity never stalls while he waits on someone else.
“I stopped looking at rejection as the end and started looking at it as redirection,” he said.
That hands-on approach also shapes how he collaborates. Whether he is in a session with a producer or another artist, he wants the chemistry to feel natural. “I’m not just looking for a feature,” he said. “I want everybody involved to bring something unique to the record.”
Inside HIIM and the Road Ahead
His latest project, HIIM, short for “Heavily Intimate, Intimately Magnetic,” explores attraction, intimacy, vulnerability and confidence. Sonically, it pulls together the different sides of his sound, with a heavy focus on melody, vocal arrangement and atmosphere. He wanted each track to feel like an experience rather than just another song.
For the R&B artist Broadway Q, the project also marks a turning point in creative control. HIIM reflects what he is learning in the studio and in the classroom, and he calls it a portrait of himself today: “more confident, more intentional, more vulnerable, and more in control of my sound.”
The ambitions stretch well beyond one release. He wants bigger stages, tours and a sound fans can recognize within seconds. He is also building RichMadeMusicGroup to develop independent talent and offer the kind of support he says he lacked early on.
Grammys, platinum plaques and sold-out shows are all on the list, he said. But as a father, entrepreneur and self-described student of the game, he measures success by something longer lasting.
“Remember the name now,” he said, “because I plan on giving you plenty of reasons to remember it later.”