Sasha Travis, aka NOtation, is a Burlington, Vermont-based rapper and music producer in the hip-hop industry. He has been recording and making music since he was a freshman in high school. Recently, I got the chance to sit down with the Vermont artist and talk about the industry that he is in and what music is to him. If you don’t already follow him on Instagram or SoundCloud, you definitely should.

Instagram: @notationofficial

Sound cloud: @NOtation

NOtation is an all-around radical artist who hopes to someday strike it big in the hip-hop world. But for now, his mindset is to finish college, make new tracks and get ready for his future. I got to sit down with NOtation and chat for awhile.

Jamieson: Who are some of your influences?

NOtation: Some of my biggest influences in the hip-hop industry definitely have to go back to the 90s. Nas dropped "Illmattic," which was a life changing album. 2Pac, Biggie, Big L, Big Pun, you know the whole DITC crew, funky technician. All those '90s cats were just so inspirational, because of where they really took the game, and how much belief they really put in themselves.

Jamieson: What is your end goal in life?

NOtation: My end goal in life is to spread something real; be real with myself, have fun—you know you got to have fun—make great friends and just change people’s lives for the better.

Jamieson: What do you dislike about the current state of hip-hop, and what will you do to fix it?

NOtation: There’s nothing else is this life that’s more important than love. I think a lot of people lost that in today’s music industry. Not a lot of people understand the love and a lot of people are about the money these days. My end goal is just to keep spreading the love and nothing but that.

Jamieson: Tell me a bit about yourself as an artist and your creative process.

NOtation: What I am trying to put down with my art is just the truest part of myself. Really who I am, why I do what I do, the most real part of me, and I want to put that down in order to make you feel the most real part of you, the most real part of what you’re trying to do. Who are you trying to be in this world? I just want to make people realize that they have the potential to rise higher and to follow their dreams and that it can actually happen, and that’s really what art is to me. It’s believing in yourself. It's believing in the truest part of yourself to actually become something.

Jamieson: What do you like about today’s music industry?

NOtation: What I like about today’s industry is that there is a lot of diversity. There’s a lot of different styles just in hip-hop itself now. I think that’s the best part, it’s really cool to see that each artist has their own lane and have their own dope way of making music—their own passion within it. That wasn’t really prevalent before because it was mainly this one style in each genre; but now there’s just so many different styles, so many different emcees and so much opportunity for new emcee’s to bring new stuff to the game.

This past summer, NOtation released his new mixtape "Continuous Moments." He also released a video for one song off the tape called "Frontin," directed by J M Visuals.