Dee-1: “You’re Not Doing God’s Work If It Feels Too Easy…”

Dee-1 continues to break down the stereotypical walls associated with New Orleans and rappers through his music.

Dee-1 is continuing to turn heads while spreading a positive message through his music. Definitely not the typical message you would expect from someone who grew up in the hardened streets of New Orleans, Louisiana. Dee-1 is a one-man army and has perfected the art of rapping while serving, God; a mission in which he feels he was built for. Although, he knows it’s an uphill battle, his resiliency and perseverance remain strong and he continues to put his positive foot forward while appearing in places where he knows his sound is probably not wanted. In an effort to affect the masses, Dee, doesn’t mind being in uncomfortable settings. The New Orleans native gained national attention when he came out with, “Jay, 50 & Weezy,” a controversial callout of the 3-rap heavy hitters and the way they use their huge platform negatively. In 2008, he released, “I Am Who I Am,” in 2009, he dropped, “David & Goliath,” 3-years later he would provide us with, “The Focus Tape,” followed by, “Slingshot David,” and his most recent effort, “God and Girls.” He also recently graced the stage at the, “Black Music Honors.”

I recently spoke to, Dee-1 who details the trials and tribulations of staying true to himself while growing up in the city of, “bling-bling,” explains the responsibility of rappers/musicians and much more!

What’s up with you, man?

Dee-1: What’s good, fam? Everything is great, bro. It’s all love.

You performed at the “Black Music Honors,” out there in Georgia. I’m sure that was an amazing experience.

Dee-1: Just seeing all the names on the seats when I was at rehearsal of the people who were going to be in the building from, Xscape, Arrested Development, Yolanda Adams, 702, Freddie Jackson, Tevin Campbell. All of these icons in black music. It really just had me thankful, bro. I had to just look in the sky and be like, “Thank you, God, this is dope.” I can’t never say that I saw myself in these spaces as a young man and even as an artist starting out in the game, but I’m here and they not looking at me like I’m crazy, so obviously I belong.

You have toured with some huge names. Do you feel like that prepared you for what you are experiencing right now?

Dee-1: It definitely showed me that these artists are just people. They are just people. It definitely made me a heck of a performer because you can’t go on tour with people like, Lupe Fiasco, Macklemore, my man, PJ Morton and so many of the other artists who I have been on tour with and not have a fiya live show and a very commanding stage presence. So, it definitely put me up there to where now, when I get in these environments, I’m feeling right at home. I’m feeling like I got juice.

When you think of New Orleans rap, Christian rapper or consciousness, but that’s your niche and you made it. Why do you feel you were accepted?

Dee-1: Well, the cool thing is this, bro, I’ve never defined or classified what I do, I just defined who I am. And from day one people knew that, Dee-1 is a man of God, he’s an educated brother, he’s out of New Orleans. He’s out the trenches just like so many other artists who are from New Orleans. He’s out of the hood, but he’s also in this game, so that he can use this platform to bring about a real righteous and relevant message. I think because I defined who I am, just like so many other artists in the world from New Orleans, one thing we have in common is, we the underdog because of where we come from. We had to make you respect us if you coming from New Orleans because it wasn’t a big city like Los Angeles or New York from the beginning. It’s a small city, but it’s unforgettable in terms of the culture and vibe. But we really gotta fight for everything that’s ours.

That’s why I think I had to carve out my own lane. I’ll tell you the truth, I don’t even think that inside the city of New Orleans, it’s not something where the city has fully gotten on my back and is going to make sure that, Dee-1 blows up. I had to make a lane for myself even in New Orleans. I know there haven’t been another artist like me that has come from my city. I’m well aware of that, but I’m going to be relentless because the movement that I’m the leader of, this movement is way bigger than me and way more important than anybody’s feelings of, “Who cosigned him? Why is he on?” Bro, this movement is so much more important than any of ya’ll egos. I’m going to stay on my grind and use this platform because I got a lot of lives to affect. You can either rock with it or you can just sit back and watch it.

To dispel the stereotype of what a person from the hood has to be like, to dispel the stereotype that a rapper can’t be college educated, does that make this journey for you that much more gratifying?

Dee-1: Oh definitely, bro. I’m all about doing stuff that hasn’t been done before. I’m all about making things that was previously branded as being unpopular in hip-hop and making them accepted and showing people that this can be cool at the same time. That was big for me because I have spoken to a lot of rappers that are college educated, but they don’t speak like they are college educated when you hear them talk and they don’t push education in their music, you feel me. Because of that, it made me upset. I was like, “Who is going to come and show that going to college and getting a degree. That’s cool. That doesn’t have to seem weird. If anything, let’s make that the new standard of cool.” Let’s show people that everybody from New Orleans is not just about murder and Mardi Gras! My city is more than just those two things.

I just come from rehearsal and it’s like, “Oh, you from New Orleans?” Everybody got a story about New Orleans when you tell them that that’s where you live or that’s where you’re from, but most of the stories center around wild parties. It’s like, “Man, I got wasted when I went down there. It was crazy and Bourbon Street is insane.” I’m trying to show people, bro, if you really from New Orleans, the truth is that most of us, that’s not a big part of our lives. You don’t see people that are from New Orleans talking about, “Man, I can’t wait until Friday so I can go to Bourbon Street.” We have a whole nother side and when I look at hip-hop, the only person in real life that reminded me of myself was my big homie, “Mac,” who is unjustly locked up right now. “Mac” was with No Limit and for me to see… this dude is educated, man. He’s like our version of, Nas. He’s from the hood, but you can tell and hear it in his dialect and in his word play that he’s a deep thinker. That gave me some of the courage I needed for me to go ahead and be myself. The rest of the courage honestly came from, God. Nowhere in the word does it talk about the need to fit in or be accepted or even worry about being popular. That gave me that one-man-army mentality. Like man, I might be by myself in this club, I might be by myself on this mission, it may appear that way, but at the end of the day, as long as, God got my back, no one can stop me. That courage and boldness has made it to where I have a bonafide place in this game and in New Orleans hip-hop culture and history at this point. And I’m still going and it’s still growing.

Success today is measured so much off of material and not message. Coming from where you came from, was it difficult to stay to form? Did you ever go through a period of, “I may have to conform to bragging and using profanity just a little bit?”

Dee-1: That’s a great question because you grow up in a city of, “bling bling.” I’m from the town where the term, “bling bling” was invented. Seeing, “Birdman” and “Master P” living these lavish lifestyles and speak about it in their music. Their brands are built off of a larger than life image, so you grow up around that, for me, I would say, when I first started rapping, the idea of faking it. Faking what I wasn’t living, faking money that I really didn’t have or a lifestyle that I knew I really wasn’t about. That stuff did occur when I first started rapping. What it took to humble me and bring me to my senses is, I used to hide my music from my momma. I started rapping in college and my mom didn’t know I was rapping. I was a fiya basketball player in high school. Everybody thought I was going to play D-1 ball in college, but when I got to college, I got cut from the team and I started rapping. The stuff I was rapping about, trying to talk about this jewelry and this money and these wild parties I was a part of and these guns… I know I wasn’t really living that life. That lasted until my momma came home one day and she said, “David…” she called me by my name-name. It wasn’t no, “Dee-1.” She said, “David, my co-worker son goes to school with you. And he told his momma that, Miss Bonita son rap. He gave her one of your mixtapes and she gave it to me.” All my momma had to do was hold that mixtape up and she was like, “If I listen to this, I’m gonna let you tell me, how am I gonna feel after listening to this?”

Wow!

Dee-1: That moment right there, bro… I started sweating. I’m thinking in my head, “Did she listen already?” When I found out that she hadn’t listened, that was that wakeup call that I needed. All of this trying to fake it and lying and all this stuff, that’s not music that’s indicative to how I was raised. The challenge for me… some artist actually… like early, Kanye West. Early, Kanye West before “808’s and Heartbreaks,” Kanye was a dude that really gave me courage to see that, you could still be accepted by the masses and have a conscious and positive message in your music. That encounter with my momma and seeing people like, Kanye as an example of winning in the industry made me say, “You know, I’m going to be myself. I’m going to rap about driving a 1998 Honda Accord, I’m going to rap about trying to pay my student loans off.” I’m going to rap about things that I never heard people rap about. I just had that courage, bro. I felt I was going to be able to do it. I’m going to be thee one. That’s where the name, “Dee-1” comes from. I’m going to be “Dee-1” to do what others couldn’t. I just put the “D” on it from my first name being David.

You were a Math teacher at one point, and I watched an interview where you told a story of a student with a “MOB” tattoo and he didn’t even know what it stood for. He got it because he had seen, Lil Wayne with it. Do you feel like some of these artists don’t understand their influence and responsibility that they have on a generation or do you think some simply don’t want that responsibility?

Dee-1: I think you have 3-categories of artists. You just defined two of em. Some artists are still kid’s themselves and they don’t understand the impact and the influence that they have on other kids. And I get it because they’re in survival mode. They are just trying to make a name for themselves in the game. They are trying to turn this into a venture that’s making money and they are trying to make a career out of this. That’s their primary focus. And they are still kid’s themselves, so they are not able to process all of their messages. I just had a talk with a young rapper from New Orleans the other day. I was in New York City. I had a meet and greet. I’m starting to do these random pop-up meet and greets when I’m in different cities. And this young brother came to my meet and greet. He happened to be in New York too. And I can tell as I’m sitting there talking to him and pouring into him that, he’s going to get it one day, but right now, he’s 20-21 years old and he just doesn’t get it all the way yet. But I can almost see him… it reminds me of when I taught my students. I can see that your brain is trying to turn that corner and have that lightbulb go off to where you get it and you can receive the message that the teacher is trying to convey to you, but you’re just not all the way there yet where you’re mature enough mentally to receive it. So, that’s one category of artists.

The other category, I think they are aware of the impact of their music, but I think they don’t care, and they take the, Charles Barkley approach. I remember when, Charles Barkley was in the NBA he had an add that said, “I am not a role model.” Those are the artists who I have a real problem with. They know the impact of their music and they just say, “Well, it’s not my responsibility to raise your children and also, it’s not my responsibility to be responsible with the message that I’m putting out in my music.” I think as a hip-hop artist, that makes you a coward. That makes you really afraid to accept part of the responsibility that comes along with this great opportunity that we have to shape the direction of people’s lives with our music. You can’t be selfish if you’ve been blessed enough to have such a massive audience. You can’t be selfish with that platform. It’s not just about us. Without the support of the people who our music reach, we wouldn’t even have a career, so it’s like, why mislead the people and feed them poison when you know it’s poison.

Why go in class if I’m a math teacher and teach my students that 6×4=39? When I know that that’s wrong, but I also know that since they don’t know any better, they are going to take that energy and spread that at home and in their communities. They going to say, “Hey ya’ll, at school today I learned some multiplication. I learned that 6×4=39.” It sounds stupid to anybody that knows anything, but when you don’t know any better and this is what you’ve been taught by someone who did know better, you deserve to sit in timeout, bro. You deserve to be chastised and called out on that because you are intentionally misleading people.

The third category… once again, I go back to my man, “Mac.” We talk all the time. He’s literally like my big brother. This man told me something, he was like, “Dee, there was one time in my life and in my career when I thought that I could outsmart the devil.” Almost like, let me give these people what they want to hear because I know that’s going to get me to a level where I have so much power, so much money and so much influence that at that point, I can flip that and be the person that I really know I am and was called to be. He said, “I really had that much confident in myself that I thought I could outsmart the devil and I felt like I was on my way of doing that.” A lot of people who have that confidence, especially if they have a fiya skillset, they feel like that’s what they can do. Eventually, that plan is going to bite you in the butt. It’s going to blow up in your face. I think you have a few artists like that who have a good heart and feel like that’s what they are going to do.

It’s funny we are having this talk today of all days. The brother who worked on my, “Slingshot David” album with me, my second most recent album. His industry name is, “Big Shiz,” and his real name is, LaShawn Daniels. If you look anywhere online today, he is all over the media because he passed away last night. He got into a car accident in Charlotte. It’s all over the media. That’s all they are talking about out here in Atlanta. He worked with, Michael Jackson, he was a huge song writer. He wrote one… maybe two songs, the hooks on my, “Slingshot David” album. It’s just crazy to see that a lot of times… we never know when our day is coming. Because of that, we can’t never get to the point where we say, “Bro, I’m eventually going to get to the point where I care about the message in my music.” It’s like, bro, not everybody is going to get a career that last for 10-more years. Right now, use every opportunity, every platform, every album and every lyric to try to be the person that you know, God called you to be; on and off the mic. That’s tough and that might sound like a lot, but that’s all the energy that I’m putting out at this point in my life. I feel like I’ve been putting it out for a while, but it still feels like that message have a lot of relevance to it and that’s why I’m out here pushing that to people. I don’t want to see people be like, “Dang, I had intentions on changing my life and my music, but I never quite got around to it.”

I appreciate your time, congratulations on the success and best of luck with everything you have going on. As always, shout out to my girl, Angelique Phipps. If anyone needs PR, personal representation or public relations, she’s amazing. Is there anything else you would like to add?

Dee-1: I’m going to stay on this underdog mentality and this mission that I’m on. There is no way you could be doing God’s work and it should feel easy. You’re not doing God’s work if it feels too easy or you’re playing it too safe and you are only reaching people that are already walking the walk that they should be walking. Me… I’m about to go to the ATL Top 20 private mixer and dinner with the biggest DJ’s in Atlanta. These dudes not out here trying to hear no, Dee-1. They not in this mixer to be bumping that on the loudspeaker. This is Atlanta’s top 20 DJ’s in a big mixer, but I’m supposed to be in environments like that where it’s an uphill battle and I’m the underdog. When they see, Dee-1 is dope and, Dee-1 is relentless, next thing you know, I got them same brother’s rocking with my music and supporting me. And more important, hitting me up off the record like, “Let’s talk, Dee.” They want to just talk about life in general and a lot of them are trying to turn a corner in their life and live a different way or they might feel trapped or a little insecure about, will they be accepted if they try to change up what they have been known for. These are the conversations where I’m like, many are called but few or chosen. That’s where I’ve been one of the few chosen ones where I’ve been equipped for that level of leadership.

“God and Girls” album is out right now. It’s streaming everywhere. Ya’ll go support that mug, man. I don’t know what’s next, but right now, I just feel good about this zone that I’m in as far as how I’m moving and how I’m thinking. Free my man, “Mac” and make sure you follow me on social media, @dee1music. And big shout out to, Angelique Phipps who helped put this together too, man. Let’s keep it going.

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