AUBURN - Henry Lickteig, a 2018 graduate from Auburn High School, is a small town kid trying to make it big in hip-hop.

Lickteig remembers rapping as early as second grade. He would create beats and raps to get ready to play football and basketball for the Bulldogs. He released his first single, "Where Do I Sign?", on May 10th of this year. Soon after, the song had an official video.

Lickteig says he was nervous when the song was released and was worried about what everyone would think about his music.

"The anxiety was real. Just thinking, 'What if people don't like this?' 'Is this just a waste of my time?' I woke up the week before thinking, 'Do I really want to do this?' I questioned it. I just stayed true to myself and I trusted the process. The results are great. The first song already has over 100,000 streams over all streaming platforms, so it's a big win for me."

His latest single, "Dorky White Kid," was released last Friday and has over 1,000 streams. 

Lickteig's debut album, "Small Town, Big Dreams" (featuring his first two singles), is due out this week on Youtube, Apple Music, Spotify, Soundcloud, Google Play and Amazon Music. He says the album explains the difficulty of starting a hip-hop career in a small town compared to bigger cities.

"I was supposed to record in July and my producer hit me and he said, 'we can get you in one day in June.' That day was a week after I got that message. I thought, 'I'm only half-way done writing the album. I probably shouldn't sleep until I get this album wrote.' I started Sunday night and I don't think I got a wink of sleep until Thursday night."

When his album is released on Friday, Lickteig will be in Maryville, Missouri attending orientation to attend Northwest Missouri State University this fall. He is majoring in education.

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