As the music industry continues to make a transition from real rap to pop, there is becoming an overabundance of rappers looking to drop that smash hit without any concern of preserving the purity and essence of Hip Hop.
Hailing from the North, up and coming rapper Don P is a newcomer with an old soul that looks to keep the torch lit for lyricists that came before him and pay homage to what made him become such a fan of the culture.
Some may not know his name now, but once he switches into 6th gear, Don P will be a name mentioned amongst the greatest.
Whatever you do, never get him confused with that guy from Trillville.
[Listen and read more about the up and coming rapper after the jump]
“Intro”
HipHopWired: How long have you been in the rap game for?
Don P: Been rapping for about 6, 7 years now.
HipHopWired: Where are you originally from?
Don P: I’m originally from New Brunswick, New Jersey. Exit 9 all day. I’ve been living down in Atlanta though for some time.
HipHopwired: What initially inspired you to want to get into the game?
Don P: I’ve always been a fan of hip hop, it was more so like a hobby to me, the more I practicing, just fu@*ed around, I got a little better, and I been hearing people say for years you might as well try it and see how far you get so that’s what I’m trying to do now.
HipHopWired: Coming from the North, but residing in the South, what kind of sound do you have when you rap?
Don P: I feel like my sound is a little different. I guess if you can compare it to anything, I’d say it’d be a blend with a little Fabolous, mixed in with Lil’ Wayne and then a little bit of Jadakiss. Stir it [all] up in one and you get me.
“We Can”
“Bodies” Feat. Big C
HipHopWired: How important do you think lyrics are in this day and age?
Don P: Not half as important as they should be. Now how the game is, a catchy hook and a nice beat, it doesn’t really too much matter what you say in the verses.
HipHopWired: If people were trying to look for your latest or your past work, what type of cds, collaborations, what can they look forward to or have you done in the past.
Don P: 2005 I dropped my first CD/mixtape, called The Inferno. Since then I was featured on a couple songs, I did songs with artists by the name of Kyro, LK1, Young Legit, Young Shottah, from Talk Money, I’ve been around doing my thing for a minute.
HipHopWired: In talking about working with the group Talk Money, have you yourself been a part of a group before or were you always solo?
Don P: No I used to be a part of a group called the Regulators.
“Look At Me Now
HipHopWired: Do you guys have an official studio album or mixtape that people can look for?
Don P:We got several mixtapes, Secrets Out, Regulators. LK1 had a couple mixtapes, Young Legit has some mixtapes out. We probably had two mixtapes each and we had a couple group ones as well.
HipHopWired: What happened to the group?
Don P: Oh man, what happened to the group, that’s a good question. Well, kind of my man LK1 is incarcerated, I’m trying to get that ni**a out. I mean, we still cool, we’re just not really making music together now.
Everybody is just doing their own separate thing, just in some different places in our lives right now. I don’t want to say the group is over because it’s really not. We just kind of on pause right now, trying to branch out and do our own thing for a minute before we come back into the group.
HipHopWired: With the group on pause like you said, and you trying to push your own solo career, what can look forward to in the future?
Don P: I’m just grinding every day, continuing writing new Shyte, I’m looking to drop my mixtape probably about the next couple months, I’ll have something out for you. I’m still working on the title, I got a couple, I want to give you something…..just be on the lookout.
HipHopWired: What do you think the state of music is right now?
Don P: Improving, for the last couple years, it’s been relatively weak. To be honest, I feel like it’s been a lack of effort and a lot of exploitation.
HipHopWired: Exploitation on whose part, is it new artists coming into the game or old artists just milking off their past work?
Don P: More so of a lot of the newer artists and the record labels. People more into not really putting together whole albums or making real music it’s just about how a single, selling ring tones, it’s all about the money and not about the art at all.
HipHopWired: With things like Twitter and the Internet, how do you think capitalizing on such markets has affected your music with you as an underground artist? How have you been able to capitalize on it?
Don P: If you do it right you can get a lot of exposure that way, you got to look at people who just blown up from Myspace and Youtube and Twitter. Look at people like soulja boy, made a Youtube video, got a whole bunch of hits, a record deal and a million dollars.
HipHopWired: Have you ever felt as though if everybody else is doing it, why not me just try and get a quick buck, why do you feel though you’d rather put the extra effort and craft a masterpiece rather than take the easy way?
Don P: Honestly, I’m not that type of person. That doesn’t really coincide with my personality, I’d much rather look for the harder way then just the easy way out, it’s too easy to come up with a dance, a catchy song, be a one hit wonder and get paid and then broke, the money gone, I don’t want to do that, if im gonna be in it im gonna be in it for the right reasons and longevity.
HipHopWired: Speaking of longevity, you’ve already been in it for 6 to 7 years, how far do you see it going down the line in hip hop?
Don P: Like I said, it’s always been something that’s in me, I love hip hop, it’s always been a hobby of mine, so until that changes, until I no longer love it an it’s not a hobby of mine.
“DJ Play My Song”
“I’m Gon Make It”
