Leslie Robbin-Coker, better known as LesTheGenius, can't help but create. Born in London in 2000, but a Raleigh resident since age 1, Les was raised by two parents who instilled in him a love for music and also gave him the encouragement and freedom he needed to pursue all the creative ideas that popped into his head growing up.
"My parents are from Africa and because of that they took a lot of pride in education. They always said, 'If you're going to do music, that's great. You'll be great. But always get your education in order first,'" he told WUNC.
Not one to sit still as a kid, Robbin-Coker started making music at age 9 and started releasing his work at age 11. At that time he would burn CDs and make mixtapes at home.
"Being born in 2000 and starting that early, I was able to catch a wave I wasn't necessarily supposed to be a part of," he said.
In those days there were a lot of music blogs on the still relatively young Internet. He would post his music there.
"Older people heard me and were like 'Wow, you're doing all this and you're that young?' People loved it and were giving me all sorts of pointers and encouragement."
After graduating from Garner High School, Robbin-Coker ended up studying chemical science at N.C. State University. Not having easy access to transportation in high school, he was surprised by how much Raleigh had to offer once he got to college.
"That's when I met a lot of my friends like Zack Cokas and Marco Luka and we were able to build our relationships because we all loved music. Zack would show me around downtown and take me to places like Char-Grill for a sandwich and I loved getting to know the city then," he said.
Both Cokas and Luka would go on to be regular collaborators with Robbin-Coker. They worked together on the 2019 track "All Along." Luka would go on to be part of the Cary-based boy band Weston Estate. While they all have their own projects they remain tight-knit and collaborate regularly.
"I met a lot of people in different ways, whether it be freestyle events, through local music blogs, or WKNC (N.C. State student radio) and K97 radio events. I met Sonny Miles at a WKNC event that was designed to welcome new students to the campus. He was one of the big performers at the event and afterwards I told him I wanted to learn how to do what he was doing."
As these friendships started to grow, so did the amount of music coming from Robbin-Coker and his crew. One morning in late 2019, he woke up to some surprising news. Barack Obama had listed "Raleighwood Hills," a song by LesTheGenius, Jaxson Free, and Sonny Miles on his Favorite Music of 2019 list.
"That day was a crazy day. I remember just waking up at my mom's house, I was home for the summer, and my phone started to blow up. I was just like, I don't know what's going on here," he said.
Obama's list of favorite songs that year included names like Beyonce, DaBaby, and J. Cole.
"I'm seeing all these big names and then us. We were the only independent people on this list," Robbin-Coker said.
In 2017 Les launched Raleighwood Co. It's something that originally started as a clothing company and a place for him to sell merchandise, but has grown into something much broader.
"Raleighwood is this multi dimensional, creative studio that specializes in anything that we're feeling at the moment," he said. "We specialize in independent art and music curation. We have a biweekly playlist called Raleighwood Radio that's available on Spotify and Apple Music. We cover local artists with write ups, and we have a podcast as well."
Under the Raleighwood banner, Robbin-Coker and his collaborators also throw events around the city. In 2022 he teamed up with Transfer Co. Food Hall to hold the first ever Raleighwood Festival. The event was headlined by Robbin-Coker, and featured a lineup of all local musicians that he had built relationships with.
Now with DJ Ricky Ricardo, LesTheGenius is gearing up for the second ever Raleighwood Festival on August 30. Taking place on private grounds on Old Poole Road in Raleigh, the event will feature music from almost two dozen North Carolina artists and will be headlined by Jordan Ward. The event will also feature local vendors, carnival rides, and artist Q&A's.
WUNC music reporter Brian Burns caught up with LesTheGenius near his home in Wendell.
Where did the name LesTheGenius come from?
It comes from a funny place. Back in high school when I started putting out music, my first project was going to be called "Les - The Genesis." I wrote it out in cursive and nobody could read it, so everybody was like "Yeah, LesTheGenius is on brand because right now you're a scholar and you're doing all these different things and that's genius." People kept going with that so eventually I was like "Okay, yeah. LesTheGenius. Let's do it."
Tell me a little bit about how your parents encouraged you creatively when you were growing up.
My dad really loved classic R&B and soul when I was growing up. Whenever he'd drive me to the bus stop or drive us around town it was always Foxy 107 in the car. That's definitely where some of my influences come from. He always had everything. When you would go into our living room there were always piles of CDs stacked to the ceiling. He and my grandfather both loved to DJ when we'd have parties.
He's kind of like me in that we're both chill and laid back. He'll offer some advice but he never steps on my toes. He'll be like "Dang, there's a lot of cursing in your music, but you're telling the story the way that you're telling it."
I'd say my mom was my biggest supporter growing up. She was the reason I was able to get into so many venues when I was performing at such a young age. She was my chaperone for a lot of the early Carolina Waves and K97 performances. Before I could drive she would drive me around to different studio sessions in places like New Bern and she was always there with me throughout the whole journey.
No matter what I wanted to do, she would always find a way to give so that I could get what I needed at the time.
I think that foundation of support has influenced me because I want to give to the next generation of kids and also everyone around me.
A lot of people first heard your name when "Raleighwood Hills" made it onto Obama's playlist in 2019. Tell us how you felt when you got that news.
Yeah, that day was a crazy day. I remember just waking up at my mom's house, I was home for the summer, and my phone started to blow up. I was just like, I don't know what's going on here.
People were like "Have you been online?" and then I saw it and was like "Oh, wow. Barack Obama put us on his list. This is crazy." I'm looking at the list and I'm seeing Beyonce, and I'm seeing Da Baby, and I'm seeing J Cole, I'm seeing all these big names and then us. We were the only independent people on this list.
The song had just started to bubble up, I think we'd hit fifty or sixty thousand streams, and it was showing up on playlists. I quickly called Jaxson, he was in the flow of things and was like, "Bro, what do you want?" and I was like "Yo check your phone!" I called Sonny and he was in the room with his mom and he was like "Yo mom!"
It was a crazy moment, and then it was a crazy shock from all the momentum after. I opened Spotify and could see there were hundreds of people listening to the song in real time.
Where were you in life at this point?
I was 19 and had just finished my first year of college. So I had just kind of met all the homies and that was one of the first songs we had put out there on a serious level. It was crazy to see everything taking off around the same time. We were so involved, to the point where I was leaving class early to work on music. We were having late night studio sessions. I was majoring in chemical science, so it was tough balancing learning how to be a college student and living this life of a musician at the same time.
Tell me a little bit about what happened after all this.
Things really started to blow up. We had the top song on Spotify's Fresh Finds playlist, we're being placed on all sorts of other playlists, we started getting show inquiries from New York and London and all over from people who wanted us to come perform. We started to talk about whether or not we'd need to take academic leave because all these deals started to be offered from labels etc. And then COVID happened a couple months later and it felt like everything halted.
Everybody was scared to go outside, so we didn't know what was going to happen next. At that point we didn't even know if there would be a next, which really changed a lot of those things for better or worse.
What do you think makes the North Carolina music scene so special?
The thing that I love the most is that each city has its own identity. Like I love the music scene that's brewing in Charlotte right now. It feels like they're having a renaissance with so many good artists coming out of there. Newer artists like Biking With Francis, and then Cyanca has always been doing amazing things, and also Well$ is a legend and he's coming back doing great work under the name leroy.
When I think of the scene I think of legacy acts like G Yamazawa, I think of Pat Junior, I think of Heather Victora. We have so many dope artists from here who have gone on to be incredible things with their music. I think North Carolina is the next big thing and I'm excited that more people are getting to see what we're doing.
