By Shane Loewe
It’s not everyday you interview an artist with as much drive and passion for their craft as the underground alternative rapper, COLLUR, and you can tell by the way he talks about his newly released debut album, SO BE IT. Whether you’re a fan or a future-fan, it’s hard to deny the impact that the man-behind-the-music, Landon Ungerman, has had on the Greeley hip-hop scene, and the local music scene as a whole. From college-town DIY spaces, to selling out his Bears R Back concert series, COLLUR has built a reputation for electrifying live shows, giving the people of Greeley something that maybe they didn’t even know they were missing.
COLLUR’s SO BE IT is his debut album, but it isn’t the first thing COLLUR has put out by any means. He already has almost enough singles on streaming platforms to make two entire LPs, so I knew when I saw he was dropping an album that this one was going to be special—and it is. The special “sauce” that COLLUR has been cooking up for the past three years in Greeley culminates in SO BE IT for a sonic experience you just have to hear for yourself. As good as it sounds, COLLUR’s intention behind the project almost makes the debut feel like a homecoming.
“I’m glad it took so long,” he told me, “I got to express so many versions of myself on it.” The album took nearly three years to compile, and as such, the record almost mirrors the way COLLUR has grown in the past three years, personally and musically. He said, “I stopped trying to make a product for people and started trying to make art,” and this authenticity is something that kept coming up again and again in our interview. The name, SO BE IT is inspired in part by COLLUR’s Grandpa Bruce, whose guidance serves as an emotional anchor throughout the record. It was something he’d say in church growing up—some translation of “Amen.” SO BE IT is an “Amen,” and the prayer is contentment with the now; rejecting hustle culture, drug culture, toxic masculinity, and anything else that’s been holding him back—even his own brand and image. “I feel disassembled. The pressures of staying my course weigh on me every day. Choosing myself and my community is the most impactful thing I can do. To feel free is not to be free. Be free. Breathe. So be it.” – COLLUR.
So much of his earlier days, COLLUR says, were spent trying to “emulate” a form of music—but through sessions with mastermind producer/engineer Adam Haag and underground staples DUBBO! and CHIEFBIGSMOKE, SO BE IT belongs entirely to COLLUR and the community that he cares about so much. SO BE IT is a raw and unfiltered deep dive into lost love, highs, lows, and the moments that force you to choose yourself before all else.
“The music finds its footing in the beautifully messy space between picture perfect and brutally candid.”
Celebrating the release, COLLUR will headline The Moxi Theater on April 19th to deliver one of his signature high-energy performances. SO BE IT by COLLUR is out now on streaming platforms everywhere.
