Inside his Liberty City music studio, Miami rapper Loksamillion keeps his Bible open to Songs of Solomon on a small black leather couch. “There’s a reward for those who are diligent and listen to God,” he says. Across the room, a small padded recording booth anchors the space next to a keyboard and computer. From the outside, this is a quaint yellow and white home on a quiet residential Liberty City block. But this is where Loksamillion, also known as Loks, creates. Through his music, Loks pays homage to his grandparents who raised him. His grandmother bought him a piano in elementary school, which led to his love of music. His grandfather, a self-employed plumber, taught him a strong work ethic. “What he taught me is independence. If you have something you’re working on for yourself, work on it as hard as you would if it was a 9-to-5.” Loks’ story is his music. He’s pensive and witty when he wants to be. He pulls from his life experiences and projects his dreams onto beats, but getting his final product out to audiences is not easy. He’s worked behind the scenes engineering in studios for big name artists like Rick Ross and for other local talent, but Loks says he ready to breakthrough with his own hits. There aren’t many outlets in Miami that introduce unsigned artists to the general public and local radio stations don’t give much air time to little-known names. “When you listen to the radio just for instance, you don’t really hear that many artists that’s new or independent on a 99 JAMZ or on a 103.5 or power 96,” Loks says. Miami entertainment journalist Peter Bailey wants to be that cultural broker to introduce unsigned and independent artists in Miami to a larger audience. Journalist Peter Bailey CREDIT NITECAP Bailey has interviewed the who’s who of the hip-hop world on his YouTube celebrity news show NiteCap —Trina, Lil Boosie and Rick Ross to name a few. Bailey recently launched a spinoff of his popular show with more than 13,000 subscribers called NiteCap Debut dedicated to new and fresh Miami talent. “Miami’s local soul, our soul is always being stifled here. You have a New York artist come down here and people go run to see them," said Bailey. “But you have right here in Liberty City, Opa-locka, Allapattah, Little Havana this renaissance of talent that is never heard.” Bailey hopes to capture and reflect what he calls “the real Miami.” It’s the music from Little Haiti, Overtown and Opa-locka, not just the murals of Wynwood or nightclubs on South Beach. Loks was his first featured artist on Debut. Bailey says NiteCap Debut is a bridge to understanding Miami’s inner cities by giving voice to the artists who come from them. “What a blessing would it be on Debut if I get to break out the next Maya Angelou," he says. “The next Ernest Hemingway… the next Tupac Shakur, you know. Right here from Miami.”