DREW 32
Lets talk first a little about your Greek
heritage and growing up in Detroit. What significance did your background and
your environment play in your development as not only an artist, but as a
person?
As far as being Greek, I love it, I definitely grew up surrounded by family. The whole being Greek thing made me feel...I guess the whole being cultured was kind of importance to me, I didn't realize it at the time growing up, but now that I have had the opportunity to live through it and see a lot of my friends... I have friends of all races, I call my friends the United Nations. I got everybody you know what I mean [HA.] I think that its cool, especially in music because like with a whole bunch of different backgrounds in music, I think it really makes for a better product. I would say growing up I was definitely blessed having the family I have. Growing up in Michigan was fun man. We had fun. Growing up was definitely an experience, I feel like I am still growing up being that I am 20 years old. Being Greek is cool, I have a lot of Greek friends, I did try to go to Greek school to learn the language, but I definitely don't have time for that, I do know the swear words and stuff like that [HA.]
Definitely one of the first things anyone learning a language picks up on...
Definitely [HA.] A lot of the whole being Greek thing is connected to church. That's where I got a lot of my culture, was going to church and events and stuff like that. As far as just being a kid growing up in Michigan, I feel like I had a normal life for a suburban kid. In middle school and stuff, I was the kid that got picked on for being short ya know. That made me want to write, it made me want to do music, it made me want to do something different. I don't want to say that I was bullied or anything, but I was one of the only white kids on the basketball team, and I surrounded myself with other kids that played basketball, who did music, who rapped and stuff like that. I surrounded myself with a lot of African American friends that I had because of that, which I love, which is cool. I was just doing what my friends were doing, I was saggin my pants; I was wearing big clothes in middle school and stuff. I definitely got call "wigger" and all kinds of stuff like that you know, but I just felt like I was doin me. High School came, and I still played basketball up to varsity. I did not play my senior year though, that's when I was really getting serious about music. That's really it man, I started making a lot of music, doing mix tapes and I guess... that's where I am at now.
Who would you say are the artists and for that matter even closer to home, the people that are a part of your life that truly inspire you to succeed in this industry, against odds that for many are often a deterrent in this game of chance we call hip hop?
Musically, my first inspiration, the first cd I actually listened to was Bob Marley that my dad got me; Bob Marley "Legends," I think it was his greatest-hits album "Legends." That was before I knew about the whole marijuana thing, if you say something about Bob Marley today people think it has to be about the weed and stuff, but I was real young and I did not know about that aspect of it. I just liked the music. I still go back and listen to Bob Marley's stuff all the time because he was like the coldest. In terms of hip hop I just started rappin listening to, and this is so funny because I did not even know it at the time, because I was like young you know, but the biggest thing to me as a kid was "Space Jam" that was the biggest thing ever; the movie had Michael Jordan. It had cartoons [HA.] I had the soundtrack and everything and on the soundtrack, there is a song "Hit Em High" it was like the Monstars anthem, what I did not realize is that song was performed by like B.Real, L.L. Cool J, Busta Rhymes, Coolio and some other people and I didn't even know at the time, but that was one of my favorite songs, and at the time it was a huge inspiration to me. From there I went on to listen to a lot of Eminem and stuff like that, but I would have to say that my biggest influence musically is Eminem. Eminem and Bob Marley.
What was it, specifically about music that you found to be so overwhelmingly compelling that at such a young age you decided to get involved in the game?
The first song I ever did was when I was 9 years old. Basically, I went to a studio and did it. I mean I did not write the song, my dad wrote it but that's really a whole other conversation about that song. [HA.] I just fell in love with being in the studio, I thought it was so cool, me being 9 years old, there is a whole bunch of buttons, and computers and microphones; I didn't know what anything did, but I was just all eyes and ears and I thought it was just all super-cool, and I was just stunned. I knew that I wanted to do more of that. My dad actually bought me a little beat making program, I think it was called like "Magix Music Maker" or something like that, it was the simple version, and I just started making wack ass beats [HA] on that. Eventually, I started getting a little bit better at it, I moved up to "Sony Acid" I ended up gettin a microphone and started making songs. I started making an album at the age of 14...
That project being "Awakening" right?
Yeah, yeah. I guess I was just took by music at a young age because I just loved it, and it was so cool. No one else I knew was doing it, you know what I mean. Shoot I was always making music, even before I was 9. When I was a toddler, I use to bang on pots and pans in my kitchen, of course I did not know what I was doing, but I was makin beats I guess [HA.]
It's surprising how many people that I have had the chance to speak with over the years in this industry as a journalist have similar memories of being creative at such an early age. Let's just for a few moments talk about your first project "Awakening." The album is released when you are 14, and at that age, the farthest thing from most teenagers mind is making music. Making a music career a reality at the age of 14 is not something that everyone thinks about, how did that mentality get planted in your mind?
It really just started with my making a lot of songs, and beats on my computer and recording and stuff. I produced and recorded that whole thing, except for like one song. I did not produce one song. I did it all basically at my house, and then we ended up getting it mixed at another studio. I realized at one point that I had all of these songs, and my dad saw that I had all of these songs done, and he said we should actually do something with them. He kind of saw something in me, that I did not really know I had. I knew that my friends were not making songs and stuff, but I was just doing it because I liked doing it, I was not doing it just to try to be different than everybody else. A lot of kids played video games; I just liked to make songs and stuff. My dad and I decided to get it pressed up, and we ended up putting it on ITunes and stuff like that. I don't even know if it sold one copy, I mean it barely sold anything but... today I look back at it and think it's wack, but I think at the time, being 14 and doing it all by myself, producing, writing and recording that nobody can say anything to me about.
You have received some fairly considerable accolades since you started your quest to stardom. Companies like Disney, and of course, you won a contest hosted by local hip hop celebrity Swifty from D12. Does that type of recognition ever go to your head?
It's always good to get acceptance, when someone says that you're doing something right in their eyes, it's always good. It's not going to get to my head because I know that all of my dreams and goals are bigger than just getting a co-sign. I don't feel like I have blown up yet so all of that really doesn't mean anything until I am at where I want to be.
You have an exuberant amount of self-confidence. You see it in the music you make, in watching your videos, and truth be told I am sure that at times there are people who mistaken that for cockiness or arrogance. Does it bother you that some may see it that way, or is it something you chalk up to being par for the course of a young man with a dream trying to maintain that personal confidence in your abilities?
I really don't listen to what people say about me in comments or really what they think about me, I'm just doing me. In terms of being confident about myself, hip hop from its roots has been about being braggadocios and vocal about stuff. I see that as the fun in it. If I say something witty about how good, I think I am or anything that's just something that I thought was maybe cool when I wrote it. I am not the cockiest person, just because I may something cocky on a song does not mean that I walk around acting like i got the biggest dick in the room [HA.] If people mistake what they hear in a song for arrogance, then I think they need to realize that music isn't all that serious [HA.] There are definitely some songs that I want people to take me serious on, and I think that you can tell the difference between those songs, and the ones where it's just punch-line after punch-line and its just me havin fun.
What do you feel is your greatest asset musically that is going to give you an edge over the competition in the game today? What do you think you have, that will add to music's cultural identity as a whole?
I feel like right now that the industry has seen "white rappers," and I hate using the term "white rapper" because to me, a rapper is a rapper but the industry has seen "white rappers" like Eminem, now you got Mac Miller sellin all kinds of records as an independent artist... the industry has seen that, and I feel like people are going to box me in as being a white rapper, they already do or whatever but I don't think that the industry has seen a "cultured white rapper." I feel like being Greek and being cultured. I think that sets me apart. You have guys like Pitbull, who is Hispanic, and he is runnin that game. As far as me and hip hop, I don't think, the game has seen anyone like me, really. That's not me being cocky or anything, I just feel like I am different, I feel like I can tap into different things that I listened to growing up My father was huge on Brazilian music, so I have always loved listening to music from South America and The Caribbean and stuff like that. I have sampled in my new music, and am now in my new music sampling a lot of Brazilian artists and stuff that I just think... There are people out there who sample it also, but I just think I am one of the very few people who do.
I recently came across the video on Youtube, that shows you performing over in Greece. Being that you are Greek, and that you did in fact get to go back to your mother country and perform, what was that like for you personally?
It was crazy. The footage that you watched that was me in 2008. I went to Greece and performed, what happened was my Dad, who is a lawyer has a client who specializes in putting on celebrity parties for a living. He had done huge parties for like Lebron James and Dwayne Wade for the NBA All-Star Game, and he had done parties in 2004 for the Olympics in Athens, and made a lot of connections. When he found out that I did music and stuff, and had a chance to listen to it and thought it was dope, he said we should go to Greece, because he had so many connections over there. We ended up flying out. I performed 3 times at 2 different venues, and it was sweet. Obviously, no one out there new my songs [HA.] But it was cool to just meet everybody and make new fans and to meet up with a couple of people who were doing music there. I definitely want to go back.
As far as being Greek, I love it, I definitely grew up surrounded by family. The whole being Greek thing made me feel...I guess the whole being cultured was kind of importance to me, I didn't realize it at the time growing up, but now that I have had the opportunity to live through it and see a lot of my friends... I have friends of all races, I call my friends the United Nations. I got everybody you know what I mean [HA.] I think that its cool, especially in music because like with a whole bunch of different backgrounds in music, I think it really makes for a better product. I would say growing up I was definitely blessed having the family I have. Growing up in Michigan was fun man. We had fun. Growing up was definitely an experience, I feel like I am still growing up being that I am 20 years old. Being Greek is cool, I have a lot of Greek friends, I did try to go to Greek school to learn the language, but I definitely don't have time for that, I do know the swear words and stuff like that [HA.]
Definitely one of the first things anyone learning a language picks up on...
Definitely [HA.] A lot of the whole being Greek thing is connected to church. That's where I got a lot of my culture, was going to church and events and stuff like that. As far as just being a kid growing up in Michigan, I feel like I had a normal life for a suburban kid. In middle school and stuff, I was the kid that got picked on for being short ya know. That made me want to write, it made me want to do music, it made me want to do something different. I don't want to say that I was bullied or anything, but I was one of the only white kids on the basketball team, and I surrounded myself with other kids that played basketball, who did music, who rapped and stuff like that. I surrounded myself with a lot of African American friends that I had because of that, which I love, which is cool. I was just doing what my friends were doing, I was saggin my pants; I was wearing big clothes in middle school and stuff. I definitely got call "wigger" and all kinds of stuff like that you know, but I just felt like I was doin me. High School came, and I still played basketball up to varsity. I did not play my senior year though, that's when I was really getting serious about music. That's really it man, I started making a lot of music, doing mix tapes and I guess... that's where I am at now.
Who would you say are the artists and for that matter even closer to home, the people that are a part of your life that truly inspire you to succeed in this industry, against odds that for many are often a deterrent in this game of chance we call hip hop?
Musically, my first inspiration, the first cd I actually listened to was Bob Marley that my dad got me; Bob Marley "Legends," I think it was his greatest-hits album "Legends." That was before I knew about the whole marijuana thing, if you say something about Bob Marley today people think it has to be about the weed and stuff, but I was real young and I did not know about that aspect of it. I just liked the music. I still go back and listen to Bob Marley's stuff all the time because he was like the coldest. In terms of hip hop I just started rappin listening to, and this is so funny because I did not even know it at the time, because I was like young you know, but the biggest thing to me as a kid was "Space Jam" that was the biggest thing ever; the movie had Michael Jordan. It had cartoons [HA.] I had the soundtrack and everything and on the soundtrack, there is a song "Hit Em High" it was like the Monstars anthem, what I did not realize is that song was performed by like B.Real, L.L. Cool J, Busta Rhymes, Coolio and some other people and I didn't even know at the time, but that was one of my favorite songs, and at the time it was a huge inspiration to me. From there I went on to listen to a lot of Eminem and stuff like that, but I would have to say that my biggest influence musically is Eminem. Eminem and Bob Marley.
What was it, specifically about music that you found to be so overwhelmingly compelling that at such a young age you decided to get involved in the game?
The first song I ever did was when I was 9 years old. Basically, I went to a studio and did it. I mean I did not write the song, my dad wrote it but that's really a whole other conversation about that song. [HA.] I just fell in love with being in the studio, I thought it was so cool, me being 9 years old, there is a whole bunch of buttons, and computers and microphones; I didn't know what anything did, but I was just all eyes and ears and I thought it was just all super-cool, and I was just stunned. I knew that I wanted to do more of that. My dad actually bought me a little beat making program, I think it was called like "Magix Music Maker" or something like that, it was the simple version, and I just started making wack ass beats [HA] on that. Eventually, I started getting a little bit better at it, I moved up to "Sony Acid" I ended up gettin a microphone and started making songs. I started making an album at the age of 14...
That project being "Awakening" right?
Yeah, yeah. I guess I was just took by music at a young age because I just loved it, and it was so cool. No one else I knew was doing it, you know what I mean. Shoot I was always making music, even before I was 9. When I was a toddler, I use to bang on pots and pans in my kitchen, of course I did not know what I was doing, but I was makin beats I guess [HA.]
It's surprising how many people that I have had the chance to speak with over the years in this industry as a journalist have similar memories of being creative at such an early age. Let's just for a few moments talk about your first project "Awakening." The album is released when you are 14, and at that age, the farthest thing from most teenagers mind is making music. Making a music career a reality at the age of 14 is not something that everyone thinks about, how did that mentality get planted in your mind?
It really just started with my making a lot of songs, and beats on my computer and recording and stuff. I produced and recorded that whole thing, except for like one song. I did not produce one song. I did it all basically at my house, and then we ended up getting it mixed at another studio. I realized at one point that I had all of these songs, and my dad saw that I had all of these songs done, and he said we should actually do something with them. He kind of saw something in me, that I did not really know I had. I knew that my friends were not making songs and stuff, but I was just doing it because I liked doing it, I was not doing it just to try to be different than everybody else. A lot of kids played video games; I just liked to make songs and stuff. My dad and I decided to get it pressed up, and we ended up putting it on ITunes and stuff like that. I don't even know if it sold one copy, I mean it barely sold anything but... today I look back at it and think it's wack, but I think at the time, being 14 and doing it all by myself, producing, writing and recording that nobody can say anything to me about.
You have received some fairly considerable accolades since you started your quest to stardom. Companies like Disney, and of course, you won a contest hosted by local hip hop celebrity Swifty from D12. Does that type of recognition ever go to your head?
It's always good to get acceptance, when someone says that you're doing something right in their eyes, it's always good. It's not going to get to my head because I know that all of my dreams and goals are bigger than just getting a co-sign. I don't feel like I have blown up yet so all of that really doesn't mean anything until I am at where I want to be.
You have an exuberant amount of self-confidence. You see it in the music you make, in watching your videos, and truth be told I am sure that at times there are people who mistaken that for cockiness or arrogance. Does it bother you that some may see it that way, or is it something you chalk up to being par for the course of a young man with a dream trying to maintain that personal confidence in your abilities?
I really don't listen to what people say about me in comments or really what they think about me, I'm just doing me. In terms of being confident about myself, hip hop from its roots has been about being braggadocios and vocal about stuff. I see that as the fun in it. If I say something witty about how good, I think I am or anything that's just something that I thought was maybe cool when I wrote it. I am not the cockiest person, just because I may something cocky on a song does not mean that I walk around acting like i got the biggest dick in the room [HA.] If people mistake what they hear in a song for arrogance, then I think they need to realize that music isn't all that serious [HA.] There are definitely some songs that I want people to take me serious on, and I think that you can tell the difference between those songs, and the ones where it's just punch-line after punch-line and its just me havin fun.
What do you feel is your greatest asset musically that is going to give you an edge over the competition in the game today? What do you think you have, that will add to music's cultural identity as a whole?
I feel like right now that the industry has seen "white rappers," and I hate using the term "white rapper" because to me, a rapper is a rapper but the industry has seen "white rappers" like Eminem, now you got Mac Miller sellin all kinds of records as an independent artist... the industry has seen that, and I feel like people are going to box me in as being a white rapper, they already do or whatever but I don't think that the industry has seen a "cultured white rapper." I feel like being Greek and being cultured. I think that sets me apart. You have guys like Pitbull, who is Hispanic, and he is runnin that game. As far as me and hip hop, I don't think, the game has seen anyone like me, really. That's not me being cocky or anything, I just feel like I am different, I feel like I can tap into different things that I listened to growing up My father was huge on Brazilian music, so I have always loved listening to music from South America and The Caribbean and stuff like that. I have sampled in my new music, and am now in my new music sampling a lot of Brazilian artists and stuff that I just think... There are people out there who sample it also, but I just think I am one of the very few people who do.
I recently came across the video on Youtube, that shows you performing over in Greece. Being that you are Greek, and that you did in fact get to go back to your mother country and perform, what was that like for you personally?
It was crazy. The footage that you watched that was me in 2008. I went to Greece and performed, what happened was my Dad, who is a lawyer has a client who specializes in putting on celebrity parties for a living. He had done huge parties for like Lebron James and Dwayne Wade for the NBA All-Star Game, and he had done parties in 2004 for the Olympics in Athens, and made a lot of connections. When he found out that I did music and stuff, and had a chance to listen to it and thought it was dope, he said we should go to Greece, because he had so many connections over there. We ended up flying out. I performed 3 times at 2 different venues, and it was sweet. Obviously, no one out there new my songs [HA.] But it was cool to just meet everybody and make new fans and to meet up with a couple of people who were doing music there. I definitely want to go back.
