Schoolcraft student, Adam Culp, better known as Acclimate to his fans, is a burgeoning artist specializing in hip-hop. Even before he began his lyrical campaign, he lived an independent childhood in Brownstown, Michigan, where he learned how to accept and subsist with his bipolar disorder.
He first came to Schoolcraft to study to become a music producer, but as time went on and Culp became more intimate with his creations, he became more aware of what he was truly meant to be.
In lieu of an upcoming performance of his, the Connection sat down with Culp to find out a little more about Acclimate himself as a person and artist.
Schoolcraft Connection (SC): What sparked your passion for music?
Acclimate (A): “I’ve always liked music ever since I was little. I remember the first song that I could even remember understanding the lyrics, and there was always something infatuating about the way that people were able to take a thought that they made that was uniquely them, and turn it into something that other people could experience in a way that’s unlike any other. They can place an emotion right into someone’s mind… and I didn’t even know how to express how I was thinking at all, let alone take who I am out of thin air and put it into something, and make it a real thing that people enjoy.”
SC: How has SC influenced your career?

A: “Growing up, all my life, I either had a trail behind me of who people knew me as that kind of stained what I wanted to think of me now. So, there’s a lot of people that would joke about my music or whatever just because of who they knew me as before, not even considering what it is now – and there’s the whole segment of people who met me… and thought I was a celebrity. Schoolcraft was an opportunity to be like ‘OK, I’m meeting people for the first time’; I don’t have to tell anybody about anything; most people here aren’t going have heard of my music before. So, there isn’t going to be any preconceived notions… And I actually did for the first probably six months that I was here, I very rarely talked about music at all; there are some people at Schoolcraft that I know that are just now finding out, because I haven’t let them see my social media or anything just because it’s refreshing. The people at Schoolcraft, in terms of the people who follow my music now, have been some of the most supportive people to follow my music for so long…”
SC: Why the name Acclimate?
A: “Essentially the word ‘acclimate’ means to adapt to a new environment, adapt to changes around you; and I’m actually bipolar so everything always feels like it’s changing super rapidly, and I’ve found that as hectic as it is, my striving to adapt and acclimate myself to the new states of mind that I’m in at any given point in time, are what pushes me to be a better musician and those are the core of what my music is.”
SC: What is the typical creation of a song like?
A: “My methods of making music are about as bipolar as I am. The best music that I make just kind of follows its own method; whatever needs to work, works. There was a period of time where I would write remixes, and those remixes meant so much to me that I brought producers in to listen to the instrumentals, and create an instrumental that fit the same speed, the same rhyme scheme, but sounded completely different from the original, and then that became my song.”

SC: What are some of your inspirations or artists you look up to?
A: “NF, ACDC’s a big one, Eminem of course… Red Hot Chili Peppers, Three Days Grace – they’re up in my top 20, I just connect with their music like crazy… Twenty One Pilots… There’s an artist named Token who I follow a lot… Logic too.”
SC: What makes you different from other artists?
A: “A lot of people want consistency out of an artist, they want mental consistency, they want an artist to stay the same in who they are… The interesting thing about me – that I think at least – is that I embrace the roller-coaster that I am. And my style is my style, it’s not like I fit within this style; I’m a rapper but I don’t make rap music, I don’t make rock music, I don’t make trap music, but all of these different elements are in my music because I like them… What I’m attempting to do, is give the world a glimpse of what it’s like to attempt to thrive inside an environment that has almost no consistency to it.”

You can find Acclimate opening for Lukr this Thursday, Oct. 10, at 9 p.m. at PJ’s Lager House in Detroit. His performance will bring never-before-heard material as well as fan favorites; tickets and information are available at “iamlukr.com/live,” or from Acclimate himself who’s often found entertaining in the Student Activities Center.
Be sure to follow him on Instagram at “acclimate_hiphop,” on Twitter at “MCACStudios,” and subscribe to his YouTube channel “Acclimate_hiphopop,” and give him a listen on Spotify!

Gallery • 4 Photos

Photos courtesy of Acclimate