Becoming a successful rapper calls for a good body of work, storytelling, songwriting, longevity, live performance, and rhyming skills. The profession of a rapper requires creativity and artistic abilities to make your name in the eyes of the audience. Rare are the personalities that are blessed both with creativity and an entrepreneurial mindset. One such example is of Edmund Gray, commonly known as Grateful Edmund, who established two successful businesses during the pandemic through his willingness to learn and innovative pursuits.
Grateful is an American rapper turned entrepreneur who started his musical career in 1994. Since he was also inclined towards the marketing industry, he worked for industry giants like LG, Google, and Motorola for a couple of years. Grateful slightly faded out of the music profession by that time. He only made his return in 2018 with the singles Free ya Mind and Every N**ga Is a Star. Grateful rose to fame with his new releases, Great District of Raleigh and Turn Up on a Sunday, which proved to be his most successful compositions.
Grateful is blessed with multiple talents. Besides being a rapper, he is the founder of two companies, “StealthPort” and “Grateful’s Stealth Hot Honey,” that he founded when people were still figuring out their lives due to the ongoing virus. His curiosity about flying drones made him earn an FAA 107 unmanned pilot’s license, which he learnt to make his music video shoots. Never did he know that his eagerness to learn something new would land him on an entrepreneurial trajectory. This is what led to the birth of StealthPort, the first African American company that leverages drone technologies for delivery purposes.
His second venture, ‘Grateful’s Stealth Hot Honey‘, was born out of his live kitchen session on Instagram, wherein one of the viewers enquired him about the bottle of hot honey sauce that he used in his video. The viewer ended up requesting it and posting it on social media, which resulted in more business for Grateful. Upon receiving many requests, he thought of starting his business under the name “Grateful’s Stealth Hot Honey”, which turned out to be his second gift amidst the adversities posed by COVID.
Besides being a rapper and an entrepreneur, Grateful is also a podcaster who launched the “Rebrand Yourself” podcast in 2020 to promote young and budding entrepreneurs. Continuing his musical journey, Grateful plans to release 45, a new hip-hop album, in 2020. His story serves as a ray of hope for people who felt bogged down during the pandemic days. Grateful gives the message that one can achieve anything in life through an innovative mindset, creativity, and by utilizing one’s skill sets in the right direction.