Hard work pays off for Battle Creek rapper Love Kianna

Love Kianna stays busy juggling her roles as a single mother of two, business owner, comedian and rapper.

Her real name is Kianna Williams, and she was born in Lansing and raised in Battle Creek, graduating from Battle Creek Central High School in 2009 before attending Western Michigan University, where she earned her bachelor's degree in communication.

A hairstylist, Williams owns a salon called Quality by Kianna in Grand Rapids. She moved there from Battle Creek four years ago and in January began performing standup. As an independent rapper, her recent single "Hardwork" has been a regional hit in clubs around west Michigan, receiving airplay on Detroit hip-hop radio station Hot 107.5.

The Battle Creek Enquirer sat down with Love Kianna to talk about her career as an entrepreneur and up-and-coming independent rap artist. The following interview has been edited for length:

Battle Creek Enquirer: Where does your artist name come from?

Love Kianna: “Kianna is my name. Love came later.... There was a lot of things I was doing, where I was like, ‘Do you love yourself?’ So I wanted to create a reminder for me at all time. I wasn’t putting me first for a long time. That came about 2014 or 2015. I changed my name and started changing my thinking."

BCE: What does it mean to be an independent female rapper in today’s music industry?

LK: “Right now, the feel in the industry is that females are taking over. GloRilla started off as an independent artist and blew up and got signed. At first she got criticized for her deep voice and small stature. But the confidence of being yourself and being able to put yourself out there, I think a lot of people are attracted to that, and it's the same with me.

“Sometimes as a female artist, people put you into a box of, you are supposed to look like this and all these things. I’m trying to stay away from all that and preach that you can just be yourself and regular and comfortable and still be successful in this industry.”

BCE: How did you get into standup comedy?

LK: “I had been saying I’d take a year off to do comedy before I turned 30. Next thing you know, I turned 30. I hate feeling like I don’t do what I say I’m going to do. I started doing comedy in January, and Grand Rapids has a large comedy scene, and there’s not really any of that here (in Battle Creek). I tried to bring some comedy shows here. But it’s an issue with (a lack of) venues.

"People kept telling me, you should do standup comedy. I thought, 'Why am I not getting paid for this?' I was listening to Steve Harvey talking about using your gifts. What am I good at that I can make some money at after I lost my job. I don’t like other people to control my money at all. It’s a terrible thing."

BCE: How do you put yourself out there through music and comedy?

KL: “I went through heartbreak in my relationship and wrote a great song about it. I lost my job, I got fired because I was sick and pregnant and started my own business because I never want to get fired again. That’s who I am. I sprout out of struggle. You need some friction and adversity to build muscles. I encourage people not to be scared to fail forward.

“I used to sing in the choir at church, Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church. That helped me with my public speaking. I think it opened me up to be able to share. But I didn’t like to be vulnerable with people until I started talking to (my hair) clients about things I was going through, and realized so many people were like, 'Me too!' I need to make a song about this because there’s a lot of people that can relate to these issues going on. Trying to be relatable and not perfect. Transparent. It takes a lot. Everybody got issues. I’m not the only person with issues. Let’s talk about it.”

BCE: Who inspires you?

“(My) grandma, Margaret Richardson... she was especially influential. I wanted to show her I could do everything she told me I could do after she told me I could do anything.

"Then, it’s just hard work."

Contact reporter Nick Buckley at nbuckley@battlecreekenquirer.com or 269-966-0652. Follow him on Twitter:@NickJBuckley

This article originally appeared on Battle Creek Enquirer: Hard work pays off for Battle Creek rapper Love Kianna on the radio