The Brooklyn artist from North Carolina is paving his own way.

“You can hear the madness.”

Chaotic best describes the scene as I sat down with Brooklyn artist Austin Royale outside a local bar on a recent late night. A drunken couple bickered behind us as cars whirled through the intersection at high speeds. The loudspeaker blasted karaoke music that drowned out the voice recordings from my laptop.

The setting was as compelling as it was intimidating, yet Austin seemed at home.

The Durham native recently relocated to New York as he gears up to release his debut album, Plan A. “Brooklyn gets kind of crazy sometimes but I like it,” he says. “I started the album when I left college. This is like the third version I’ve made of it.” The project has been a long time coming and Austin intends to deliver soon.

The title is inspired by his experience at a hip-hop convention he attended in high school. One of the speakers was former host of BET’s 106th & Park, Terrence J. “I was just a kid from Durham watching this TV celebrity from Greensboro,” Austin says. That’s when Terrence J spoke words that would stick with him forever:

“If you really want to do something, you can’t think about Plan B.”

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“I lived that shit,” Austin says. “I slept on floors. I spent my last dollars on plane tickets. I went broke for studio time. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.”

Plan A has been in development for almost six years. While some of his contemporaries grow weary of the delay, Austin assures that the long wait is a calculated choice. “I was never into dropping a ton of music. I’m not that type of artist. My ideas are bigger than that,” he says. His creative process is best described as concentrated and intentional. “I used to be a perfectionist until I realized people don’t give a fuck.”

Austin is focused primarily on the legacy and longevity of the album. “I want it to reflect a feeling rather than a time.” He explains that some of the greatest records are those that could have been released at any moment in music history. Austin’s delicacy with Plan A is refreshing amidst an industry obsessed with quantity over quality. “I didn’t want to drop an album with nobody to give it to,” he says. “I wanted a platform even if I had to create it myself. That’s what took so long.”

I was surprised to learn that Austin had never released an album given the level of respect and notoriety he holds in the North Carolina scene. He believes the scale of his achievements without a record speak volumes to his artistry. “I’ve performed in 30 different states despite only releasing ten tracks in the past decade,” he says. “People love my videos and my live show. They know I’ve been around the block.”

While Austin has experienced major life changes since the conception of Plan A, there have been minimal alterations to the album. “I’ve made small changes with big impacts,” he recalls. “The smallest difference can make an entirely different song.” He recounts that some of the most impactful changes have come in the form of sequencing the track list. “I want it to feel like a fucking movie,” he says.

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An essential aspect of the master plan for the album is the live show. “Everything is based around the energy of the performance. It’s already crazy but I want to concentrate the craziness. I want you to feel it in the back as much as you feel it in the pit. It has to be elating,” he says. He told me before the interview that he wants to experiment with requiring waivers at his shows. “I’m lowering my concern with being banned from venues.” Austin is a firm believer in artists being able to hosts shows anywhere instead of relying on venues that need artists to stay afloat. “I’ll worry about the consequences later,” he jokes.

Plan A is teased to have an impressive list of collaborators including North Carolina artists Twelve’len, J.K. The Reaper, and Deniro Farrar. “There’s more producer credit than anything. There’s a lot of American Millennials collaborators. It’s all people I came up with,” he says. American Millennials is Austin’s production company which documents and promotes various artists such as himself. I asked him about a striking image used in their promotion depicting a Black character urinating on an image of Uncle Sam. “I used to love the Calvin and Hobbes comics,” he says. “I figured we could make him Black and have him piss on Uncle Sam instead.”

I asked about possible dream collaborators for the album to which Austin rejected the notion. “I’ve got almost everyone I want for this project,” he says. However, he has ambitions for the future. “I’d love to work with Dean Blunt or Kid Cudi. Trash Talk and Sampha would be insane.” He teases that he is close to securing one of his favorite North Carolina rappers to recite a poem on the record. “The poem is about being an artist and being responsible for other people. I have a daughter now.”

During an interview with WKNC 88.1 FM, Austin stated “there’s so much dope art but you can’t have it all.” I asked how Plan A would stand out from the rest of the dope art in such a saturated landscape of music. “I’m not thinking about that,” he replied. “I know some people will fuck with it and some people won’t care. I’m focused on feeding those that will appreciate it.” He suggests that listeners will come back for the next release if you give them an unforgettable experience. “Staying outside and pushing the music collides. Whatever happens next is out of my control,” he says.

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Austin reflects on the first time he ever worked on a song. “I used to think it was dumb to rap. They made zero money and North Carolina looked down on it,” he explains. His godfather worked as a prolific DJ with his own studio in Charlotte. In 2008, a twelve-year-old Austin Royale visited the studio with his older cousin. “My godfather had all these plaques from 50 Cent and DMX from spinning their records,” he recalls. “We recorded a song and he gave us a copy on a CD. That was my first ever production credit. I have no idea if my cousin ever released it.”

One thing led to another, and Austin wound up performing at his high school for BET’s Respect My Vote campaign four years later. Legendary North Carolina producer 9th Wonder later caught wind of Royale’s music through this performance. “My mom had forced me to quit the football team. I got bored and recorded some tracks on her desktop,” he says. Austin was later paid $100 to perform a twenty-minute set in Durham. “It blew my mind. That changed everything for me,” he reflects.

I asked Austin about artists who influence him that other people would not expect. “There’s this artist from New York called Shirt. He is the most one of a kind rapper I have ever listened to,” he says. “I get a lot of my visual ideas from him. He’s on some fine art avant-garde conceptual shit.” He also cites Yves Tumor and Dean Blunt as being artists essential to his development as a musician.

Austin reveals that Plan A is only the first volume in a trilogy. “I’m heavily inspired by Kid Cudi’s Man on the Moon in that way. I love the mixtape era and the eras of an artist.” He says that the second volume is already in the works and should be released around a year after Plan A hits the shelves. “I’m trying to inspire a lot. I want there to be a glimmer of hope even in the darkest moments of these albums.”

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Austin stated that he often finds himself championing artists based on their values rather than their music during his interview with WKNC. “I don’t listen to Tyler, the Creator much anymore but I love what he was going on.” He explains that he resonates heavily with Tyler’s interview seemingly criticizing fellow rapper Ian. “That’s the kind of shit I’m on,” Austin says. “Tyler doesn’t give a fuck.”

I was curious about which values he believes his listeners will look up to him for. Austin answered with a sense of pride and authenticity that resonates and inspires. “They’ll love me for being myself. I always do what I want to do no matter what. I woke up today without knowing how I would get to this interview. I made it work,” he says. “I put everything I have into everything I do. You can’t think about Plan B.”

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“I haven’t felt this way about music since I was in high school.” Austin believes we are in a creative renaissance. “There’s new waves and ideas. People don’t need shit anymore. We can get popping on our own. It’s a climate that has never existed before,” he says. “Everyday is another step closer to the shit we love to do keeping money in our pockets.”

Austin Royale is hopeful for the future amidst the coming release of Plan A. “I don’t know what’s next. I could say a lot of things that I want to happen, but you never know what’s going to happen. It’s whatever God wants me to have. I just want there to be complete pandemonium for the whole of 2025. It’s just getting started.”

“Everything has to be fucking mania.”