Senior Terrel Simpson, also known as Ysl Rel, has been releasing his original rap music for the past year and a half. As a lover of music, Simpson is passionate about writing and releasing his own original music.

Simpson’s first album “Love Don’t Work Here” was released in June of 2020 and his second album, “Love and Affection” was released on Valentine’s Day of 2021. Apart from his two albums, Simpson has released many singles.

“When I was younger, I was really big on music. I used to tell my mom that I was going to start rapping,” Simpson said.

Before releasing his own music, Simpson started as an avid music listener and later found he had a talent for music when he would freestyle with his friends.

When creating an album, Simpson writes as many songs as he can. He compiles songs with shared themes to build a complete album. While in what Simpson considers to be “album mode” he tries to spend time each day working on his music.

According to Simpson, the most exciting part of making music is completing a song.

“Right when you play it all back and knowing that it’s the one, is so satisfying,” Simpson said.

While he often writes and records many songs at a time, Simpson says that mental roadblocks can often be a challenge.

“Sometimes I want more recognition and get caught up in reaching a certain point,” Simpson said.

Though Simpson has his favorite artists, such as Trippie Redd and Lil Wayne, he likes to listen to all types of music to find inspiration.

“I try to listen to everything because you never know what you’ll get inspiration from. I can listen to a rock song and it may have a melody that I like,” Simpson said.

Simpson creates his own recording studio while living on campus. “When I’m here at school I have all my equipment and stuff set up in my room,” Simpson explained.

Simpson’s close friend, senior Daisey Ewansiha, is one of his biggest supporters.

“Daisey is the one who really told me to start releasing my music because I used to do it for fun,” Simpson said. “One day she told me to just try it out.”

Ewansiha loves that Simpon’s music is his own, with his own unique sound.

“What makes his music unique is a lot of his songs are freestyle which many people do not know,” Ewansiha said. “It is also music that doesn’t sound like your basic everyday rappers, due to him having his own natural flow.”

Ewansiha hopes that Simpson will achieve his dreams of having a successful music career.

“I hope he continues to bless people with his music and to continue to strive for more and more,” Ewansiha said.

Having recently reached over 25,000 plays on Apple Music, Simpson hopes that his music continues to grow. On top of his growing listeners, one of Simpson’s songs, “Proud of Me” was asked to be used by the creators of a web series called “A Milli Series.”

“Now that I see that people take interest in my music, I want to ride it as long as I can,” Simpson stated. “I’m hoping that it turns into a career since music is one of the tops things in my life right now.”

Following the release of his two albums, Simpson hopes to release his unreleased songs as singles along with some music videos and visuals.

Simpson’s friend and cousin, senior Michael Bolden, also hopes for the best for Simpson.

“My biggest hope for Terrel and his music is to continuously grow as a person and artist so that he will make a positive impact on this world through his words and actions,” Bolden said.

Simpson’s music is currently available on every major streaming service.