Milwaukee, WI – When was the last time we talked about a dope emcee from Milwaukee? Honestly, Coo Coo Cal dropped “My Projects” in 2001 and that was a banger for sure. K Camp also comes to mind, but he was only born in Milwaukee but raised in Atlanta, and credits the A as where he is from. Then you have IshDARR, 22, who’s rising hometown fame has propelled him to billboard, collaborating with Top 10 charting producers like “Take A Daytrip” ( producers of Juice Wrld’s “Lucid Dreams” and Sheck Wes’ “Mo Bamba” ) and preventing him from just going out to the local store or club without being bombarded by fans. IshDARR’s first notoriety came when he released his single“Too Bad” in 2015 and it’s been only up from there.
IshDARR’s sophomore album, “Slow Down Kid” hit over 1 million streams as an independent artist in just 20 days, though Ish does have a distribution deal through “Empire” but as an artist, remains unsigned and has been receiving offers from major labels, even being flown out to LA by Mike Caren of Atlantic Records, but turned down all his major offers because he’s not willing to comprise who he is and what got him to where he is at. One day sooner than later, IshDARR may be the biggest artist to ever come out of Milwaukee and Wisconsin in general, but that remains to be seen, but he is certainly on his way. He states that where he is from plays a major part of the artist and person he is and refers to his hometown and his collective, which includes rapper BoodahDARR, as “Cream City Motion”. He plans on putting his city on the hip-hop map for good and one will never have to question again, who notable ever came from Milwaukee?
We spoke to IshDARR and asked him, in a time of immediate gratification, overnight social media fame and a very “Give me now” generation that makes and breaks stars, why call your album “Slow Down Kid” ? Ish replied that “It’s a note to self, to remind myself to take a step back and see what’s going on around me… everything is moving so fast, too fast and can set you up to crash. I wanted to speak and focus more on self-awareness and remind my friends that need the advice that “Yo, you need to slow down kid.”” Why the plant being watered for the art work for the album? “Everything takes time to grow and what represents that better than a plant being watered?” IshDARR may have created this album to remind himself to slow down, but his work shows no signs of slowing down at all. When we asked Ish what’s next for him after this album, he says he wants to collab with producers such as Dr.Dre, Timbaland, Tay Keith, Metro Boomin’ and work with artist such as Joey Badass, 6lack, and French Montana. He says his biggest inspirations are Kendrick Lamar, RZA and Ghostface from The Wu-Tang Clan and wants “Cream City Motion” to be as impactful as Wu-Tang is today.
Stream “Slow Down Kid” below and Tweet us your thoughts @TheSource
