Lakeeyscia Griffin, the 30-year-old Portland rapper who performs and records as Candid Ramblings, chooses her words very carefully. Both onstage and on her sparkling new LP Sublime Timing, phrases and metaphors burst forth from her 5’1” body like tiny torrents. But speaking over Zoom as she sought to recharge her creative batteries with a trip to the Oregon coast, Griffin walked an inquisitive reporter through her personal history slowly and slightly cautiously.
“When I make music, I want to feel confident,” she said. “I don’t want to have any regrets towards the things that I say. That’s made me more confident—being intentional with my words knowing that it’s going to leave a mark. Essentially it’s there forever, if I allow it.”
The way Griffin’s career has been going, leaving a stamp within Portland’s hip-hop community seems inevitable. She arrived here in 2017, seeking a change of scenery after spending much of her life in El Paso, Texas and some time studying communications at Eastern New Mexico University.
Encouraged by friends to try out her poetry at open mics, Griffin eventually posted a video of some verses on Instagram. “I added some Portland hashtags to see if it would catch some wind,” she explained. Immediately, Griffin started getting DMs, asking her to perform at local showcases. Even then, it took some convincing to get her to lean into her skills as a rhymer.
