Meet the youngest artist at this year’s Tri-Cities music festival, a local legacy rapper

Think back to when you were 15 years old. For most people, this is a time for fun with friends, for wondering what life will hold, for feeling emotions that seem larger than the self.

During the school day, Josiah Davis is a regular 15-year-old. He goes to classes as a freshman at Southridge High, he jokes with friends, he experiences life as a high school student. When school’s out, he’s JOSIAHDAVIS., a rapper making his way into the regional hip-hop scene.

Despite only turning 15 in February 2024, JOSIAHDAVIS. has already released multiple projects, including his recent album “Welcome to Nowhere.”

While many teenagers wouldn’t want to dedicate hours each day toward a career, he told the Herald he put himself in a position where he has to take it seriously, and he’s happy to do so.

Fresh off a wave of collaboration with other regional names, the rapper recently performed at the inaugural Under the Bridge event and will be this year’s youngest performer at Tri Town Get Down.

JOSIAHDAVIS.’ musical upbringing

Based in Tri-Cities, JOSIAHDAVIS. can be considered a legacy rapper, as his father Chris Davis was very active in the local hip-hop scene during the 2000s and early 2010s. He made a splash as a regional artist, both as an individual and in collaborations.

Chris Davis released his last solo project in 2012. The Davis family lived in Minnesota for a number of years, while Josiah was in elementary school. Since returning, Chris has released some new projects with some of the noteworthy local artists from that era and the time since.

Josiah told the Herald that it was clear from a young age that hip-hop would be a big part of his life. His whole family is very musical, including generations of performers on his dad’s side of the family. He grew up with constant music.

“There was always hip-hop in the house,” he said.

It didn’t take him long to realize he wanted to try his own hand at it. JOSIAHDAVIS. wrote his first lyrics at age 7, and the track was recorded when he was 8 years old.

His first crowd performance was the fourth grade talent show, when he showed off his skills with an NF cover. He performed one of his own songs for the first time a few years later, as a seventh-grader in the school talent show. He says it’s still the biggest crowd he’s ever performed for, with approximately a thousand students in attendance.

A young, serious rapper

JOSIAHDAVIS. says he makes music because he loves it, and had been creating for years before ever releasing a song. While his musical career isn’t a hobby, it’s born out of one. He believes he’s both a hobbyist and a professional when it comes to making music, despite being told to draw a line between the two.

“I do it because I love it, but also I believe that I’m able to make it a career, and I’m putting in time to make it a career,” JOSIAHDAVIS. told the Herald in an interview.

He’s gained quite a bit of momentum in the past few months, recently reaching 100 monthly listeners on Spotify. The rapper’s growing presence got him signed with local entertainment manager, Unleashed Entertainment’s Caleb Brown, who also manages Afroman and several regional artists.

Davis credits Brown for getting him in spaces with like-minded creators, like Tri-Cities-based rapper Karma Knows, who has won awards for his music videos, and Seattle-based engineer Cotto, who’s a growing name in northwest hip-hop.

As the young rapper’s presence and sound quality increases, the more he learns. He says it can be stressful, “but in a fun way.”

“I always have a hard time looking for people who took their work as seriously as I did,” said JOSIAHDAVIS. “Being able to be in rooms with people like Karma, people like Cotto… that’s where I thrive.”

Chris Davis told the Herald he realized how serious his son was about hip-hop around the sixth grade. He offered to buy Josiah an XBOX if he kept his grades up, but when the day came to head down to Best Buy, Josiah asked for a way to record music instead.

That set-up is still what they use today. Even with JOSIAHDAVIS.’ growth bringing him opportunities to record at a high-quality studio in Redmond with Cotto, he says he’ll still always do at least some tracking in the home studio, as it is “his place.”

“I might’ve introduced him to this, just by him being around, but everything he’s achieved and everything that he’s done… he’s done it himself,” Chris Davis told the Herald.

What a JOSIAHDAVIS. set looks like

JOSIAHDAVIS.’ most recent single, “Thickandthin.” was released April 29. A deluxe version of “Welcome to Nowhere.” will come out early June, before his set at the Tri Town Get Down festival.

His performance will be about 35 to 45 minutes long, during which JOSIAHDAVIS. wants to take the audience on a journey. He’ll spend hours solidifying the set list for any performance, and the festival is no different.

Davis hopes to include hype music, introspective tracks, emotional songs and more during his set. He says live performances are full of ups and downs, highs and lows, and he wants to bring that forward.

If you’ve never listened to his music, it’s like an intersection of XXXTENTACION’s softer side, The Kid LAROI and Juice WRLD. But he’s constantly creating and growing his style. Davis says he wants to break out into other genres and subgenres, and finds inspiration in everything he listens to. Lately, he’s liked the “hypochondriac” album by brakence and “a bit of a mad one” by glaive.

Building community through rap

As he builds a following as a rapper, JOSIAHDAVIS. hopes to build a community where he can connect with everyone, where it feels like a big family.

“The whole reason I started putting stuff out is because I felt these big emotions,” Davis told the Herald. “Partly, I wanted to have an outlet for that, but also partly I wanted to reach out to people who also have these big emotions, be like ‘Hey you’re not alone, you’re valid in these feelings.’”

The rapper hopes it’s clear, in all his performances, that he’s serious about his music.

“I consider myself a hobbyist and a professional, but this is not a hobby,” he said. “I want to make a true, genuine impact, not in just the music industry but in people’s lives.”

Your next chance to see the emerging rap talent will be at Richland’s Tri Town Get Down music festival, June 7 to 9. Tickets for Tri Town Get Down are available online now. Single day passes are $75, and full-weekend passes are $150.