Dash Speaks
. . . Continued from Part One
Have you been in New York your whole life? I know you mentioned moving around and living in different places, but are your roots here?
Yeah, I was born in Manhattan and have lived in Brooklyn, Long Island, Queens, then back to Manhattan. I went to the University of Arizona for three months, but dropped out because I wanted to be a rapper. I came back here and lived in Brooklyn, then Manhattan again. I’ve lived here now for 6 years now since I’ve been back—the only exception being when I studied abroad in Switzerland and traveling to a few other countries.
What has been the general response to your work here, especially when you perform in public?
It depends. What I’ve had to work on throughout my career is making my music translatable to live performance. A lot of my work is really lyric-driven, which I pride myself on. That’s the thing that’s most important to me. But that’s sometimes hard to translate on stage. It took a while for me to learn how to do that. Certainly the first times I performed at the Nuyorican, I wasn’t a good performer. I had good things to say, but I didn’t know how to say them.
I’ve never felt scared on stage. I’ve always felt comfortable there. I have just always had a hard time throughout my life “selling myself” and opening up in a lot of ways. At my best, I’m able to let go, be incredibly comfortable, and put on a great show. People respond to that. I haven’t been at “my worst” in a long time because I’ve been doing this for a while. I practice and I take it very seriously. But there were points in my career when I had shows and it just didn’t work well.
Even now . . . I had a show recently in Albany. I DJ for the Tug of War Tour, which is a Jewish and Muslim spoken word and hip hop show. It’s made up of two MCs –one is an Iranian Muslim, the other is an Israeli Jew—and two spoken word poets—one Palestinian Muslim and the other a Syrian Jew. The spoken word poets are women and the rappers are men. So yeah, I DJ for them and sometimes open up for them, which is great luck! I love their show. They are all very talented.
But my performance music, particularly the stuff that I usually do is the upbeat, dirtier stuff, for example, the song “At Night,” which is one of my bigger songs that I do live. I did that at SUNY Albany. The show was sponsored by the Hillel (the Jewish Students Association) and the Muslim Students Association. It was difficult to get through. That’s a hard show to do when you’re rapping about getting high to people that really don’t do it! [laughs] It was a difficult show, but I just kinda smiled about it beforehand and was like, “Fuck it.” I think I went through the motions well! [laughs] But DJing for them is not difficult. We practice a lot; I know my cues! [laughs]
But the performance response is generally good. My best shows are great, and the shows I am not happy with are pretty good too. At this point, I’ve learned how to speak clearly and be energetic, and my stage voice is good. You know, you can always get better, and it’s something that I try to do.
Yeah, I saw you perform live at Don Hill’s, and you were fine!
Yeah, I was fine at Don Hill’s. It’s hard when you go on really quickly for one song, and for me, it often takes some time—at least a couple verses—for my breath to catch up with me. I also DJed the afterparty and was DJing between sets, and when you have a lot to think about, it’s hard to concentrate. But yeah, that was a great show. Memory Laine was awesome at that show.
Going back to your album, what has the promotion process been like for Geography since this whole ball started rolling?
It’s been interesting. I had a manager for a long time, and we started a record label together (Nick from Memory Laine and I). Nick released a set of solo songs in 2009, and we (Nick, Lynas—one of the founders of the group, and I) rapped together for a long time under the moniker The Bad News. The record label we started was called Screw York. This was kind of before the blogosphere had taken over music, or at least before it became so important, and before this age of Twitter and all that. It was a lot more difficult to see where you were in the whole span of things, and I think because of that, we didn’t really have an idea of what we needed to be doing. Then eventually, we just kind of dissolved—we were just treading water.
It took me a while when I was without any management to figure out how to release things and how to get press. That’s something I am still figuring out, and it’s difficult. There are a lot of people that want to do what I want to do, and there are a lot of people who are very talented that want to do what I want to do (and want it a lot). What people want to know when you’re promoting is what makes you unique. But it’s hard even if you do feel like you are a unique artist. It’s hard to sell yourself and put yourself out there in a place that people will see and ultimately respond to. It’s such an oversaturated industry at this point.
In that sense, it’s been difficult. In terms of releasing this album actually, I took my time. In relation to this album, I felt that it wasn’t something that needed to be out sooner than later. Even though it is a difficult place to be in—promoting for yourself and figuring out how to do it, that is—it’s fun, and it’s worth it. It does pay off. If you hustle and persist . . . if you are careful and think about what you do, it has its rewards. And even when it doesn’t, it’s ok. That is part of it. You’ve gotta take these things with a grain of salt. I always remember that the Roots started in the 1980s, and they didn’t really see any commercial success until ’94 or ’95. In thinking about that, it makes you remember that these things take a lot of time. Kanye and Eminem broke when they were in their late 20s. It’s a long process.
The drawbacks of not being where you want to be you just have to accept. At times, of course, I am like, “Oh my God. What am I doing?” but like I said, you just have to take it with a grain of salt and keep going. The good part is that with some of the music I made, I felt like I needed to get it out because it was very “of the moment.” When I didn’t get those projects out at the time I wanted to, I was always very upset. With Geography, I tried to be a little more timeless. I don’t want to say that, “Oh my music is timeless,” but with this project, that was the intention, and I hope I fulfilled it.
My friend Nick of Mr. Aesthetic designed the graphics and from there, I just started promoting it the best way I knew how: via the internet, word of mouth, etc. Thus far, it’s done well. I am happy with the amount of downloads it’s gotten, and while I’d like more press, I am pleased with the press that it’s gotten. And, above all else, I am happy with the response I have gotten from people, be they fans saying, “I love this. I think it’s a great album,” or industry people saying that they are very impressed by it. I’m happy with it, so I’m happy to keep promoting it and keep pushing it because it’s a product I believe in.
Check back tomorrow for Part Three + the photoshoot and an EXCLUSIVE mix!
Tags: daniel lynas, dash speaks, eminem, kanye west, lynas, memory laine, the roots, tug of war tour, what's good?, what's good? dash speaks
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