{"id":26570,"date":"2019-10-01T12:39:05","date_gmt":"2019-10-01T17:39:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=26570"},"modified":"2019-10-01T13:08:09","modified_gmt":"2019-10-01T18:08:09","slug":"phillytf-a-sinclair-success-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2019\/10\/01\/phillytf-a-sinclair-success-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillytf: A Sinclair Success Story"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\t\u201cIt\u2019s crazy cause I\u2019m like crossing the street, having this conversation with myself, like what\u2019s that noise and the horn noise was just getting closer, like, vrrrm! Then I saw the car and  bam!\u201d said Phillytf of the car that ran into him as a child on Salem Ave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tWindshield glass stuck into his arm, blood poured from his skin and he woke to find his friend telling him he had just been hit by a car. One thought was on his mind, he said. That thought? That he and his friend had to make it to the park to play basketball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was this sort of spirit that carried Philly<\/a> throughout his life. Real name Clifford Holt, Philly grew up on the west side of Dayton, Ohio, spending much of his early days playing basketball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Phillytf being interviewed at the radio<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\tOf the crash that happened on his way to a basketball game in the park, Philly said that it was one of the more important moments in his life. A moment that changed his perspective, and an instant that would plant a seed that would later grow in his later life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\t\u201cIt helped me really believe that there are angels. Like, guardian angels,\u201d said Philly of the crash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tPhilly said that he had spent his teen years generally not taking life seriously, something that is inevitable with the transitory period of late adolescence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\t\u201cThere\u2019s certain points in your life where you kinda go through some things and you kinda feel like, man, there\u2019s gotta be something more,\u201d Philly said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tAt Sinclair, Philly immediately immersed himself in his education, receiving a 4.0. He completed his schooling here at Sinclair in a year and a half before moving on to the University of Dayton (UD), with a concentration in sociology, later switching to a degree in business as his music career began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\t\u201cI didn\u2019t take any quarters off, I just went, all fall, winter, spring, summer; just went,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\tAt UD Philly made it all the way to finals week, and then just up and left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\t\u201cI just went, I\u2019m done,\u201d he said. \u201cI told my professors, I don\u2019t want to write another paper. And this is when I\u2019d kinda started music. I was kinda touring, so between the two and my new found relationship with God I was like, I\u2019m through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\t\u201cI\u2019m burnt, from Sinclair and then to UD, I just was burnt and I pretty much just dropped out from there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing up Philly\u2019s biggest goal in life was to play basketball in the NBA; playing all four years in high school, he was awarded a scholarship to play at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philly ultimately went to Miami but dropped out due to the pregnancy of his then girlfriend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Music<\/a> was a love that came later on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of one of those things where somebody will say, I didn\u2019t choose this. Like, it actually really chose me. I never had a passion for music, never even knew that I had a skill for it, it was just like basketball, that was it.\u201d said Philly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Phillytf as Spotify artist<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Growing up, Philly said that he didn\u2019t even get into hip hop until his sophomore year of high school, citing his dad\u2019s sheltering of him as a reason for his ignorance of it until then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReally my dad he had us kind of like…not like Quaker sheltered or anything like that but he really tried to steer us away from that part of culture just because he\u2019d seen on tv how it looked,\u201d Philly said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo, he was just like, no rap music, nothing like that. And I think that\u2019s when, you know, especially as a kid, where you start to gravitate towards it even more, right?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philly\u2019s career started small, working locally with a group of people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, they brought me on and sort of groomed me. We were doing not like what you would call \u2018hardcore rap\u2019 but we were kind of promoting, you know, \u2018sex, drugs, money.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philly, always the pursuant of bigger and better things<\/a> in life, then made the daunting decision to move to Los Angeles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was one of those things in life where you just go and pursue it; I always had this thing with LA without ever being there and I would tell my mom, you know, \u2018I\u2019m gonna go to Los Angeles. I\u2019m gonna live in Los Angeles.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move was pushed further along by a music deal he had struck with Crucial Music, which is based out of Studio City, California. The deal was, in essence, a pitch deal, explained Philly, wherein the company used his music and pitched it for use in TV, film and other forms of media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Philly bought a one way ticket to Los Angeles by selling an iPhone on eBay in under an hour, something that he says he took as a sign, which prompted him to take the risky ticket purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was like, if I can sell this phone on eBay and it be gone within an hour, then I\u2019ll know I\u2019m going to LA,\u201d said Philly. \u201cBut I\u2019m gonna buy a one way ticket though. Cause if you buy a roundtrip ticket it\u2019s like a bit of a cushion. You know, it\u2019s like, I can still always come home. But if you make it a one way ticket there ain\u2019t no coming back until you decide to come back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Clifford Holt aka Phillytf<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Philly spent seven hours in LAX, formulating a plan or at the very least what his next step would be, as all he had at that point was the deal with the label. He had no place to stay, no prospective income that was set, just a deal with a company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAlright, so I\u2019m here. What am I doing? And to be honest at like the seventh hour I started to shed a tear because I was worried that I was gonna be homeless on day one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This had not been the first time that the prospect of homelessness reared its head into Philly\u2019s life, as he had spent his early years after high school living out of his car, all while attending Sinclair until a church that he was attending gave him a key and a place to sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was there so much that they just felt like I was really, really dedicated to being involved in the church. They gave me a key because they hadn\u2019t realized until then that I was actually staying there,\u201d said Philly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat was like a life changing moment cause it like woke me up. It made me realize, like, I gotta stop dreaming and really have a vision for my life,\u201d Philly added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t until he had received a phone call from friends he had met at a wedding in Houston that he was set up with a place to live and soon he was on his way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n