New Orleans rapper Dee-1 dropped a mixtape on November 19 entitled “Psalm’s of David II.” This is the first project he has put out since signing with RCA records less than one month ago. Dee-1’s positive and uplifting style is sure to not disappoint especially on “I’ll Pay For It,” which was produced by hip-hop heavy weight Mannie Fresh.
The mixtape has 17 tracks including 4 interludes – one from rapper Macklemore and another from Lupe Fiasco with whom Dee-1 is currently on tour. The Source had a chance to interview to Dee-1 exclusively. See what he said about his new mixtape, Mannie Fresh, and signing his record contract in his car.
Q: How is everything going?
Dee-1: Man, it’s going great right now. I got a lot of good stuff to talk about and you know we’ve been running around New York knocking all this press out, getting the word out about the signing with RCA, the new mixtape it just dropped, and the tour with Lupe, so we’re good.
Q: Your mixtape just dropped this week, can you tell me what it’s called and who you worked with?
Dee-1: Yes, it’s called “Psalms of David II” and it’s available on datpiff.com…The response has been crazy, overwhelming, and positive. Man! People loving it, people spreading it and I worked with Mannie Fresh on production from New Orleans, I worked with my man KLC who produced all of the old “No Limit” music back in the day for “No Limit Records” with Master P and Beats by the Pound I worked with him on there and all of my features on the tape, I actually kept it local, man, I featured all New Orleans artists who I’ve…been paying dues with over these years and coming up with ’cause now that I just got signed, I didn’t want to just forget about all of them. So every feature on the mixtape is from a New Orleans artist.
Q: How did you and Mannie Fresh link up?
Dee-1: I met Mannie Fresh probably like 7 years ago…That’s when I first started rapping, I met him right after Hurricane Katrina inside of an Auto Zone and I gave him my demo and I was hoping that he would sign me after he listened to it, but he never called me after that, so I guess I wasn’t good enough at the time, but we hooked up a few years later and I was a lot better at that time. When we hooked back up, and he saw my music video “Jay, 50, and Weezy” on MTV Jams and he saw me making moves, he reached out and we started getting in the studio collabing and working and now that’s like my big brother. You know? Like we do music together all the time. He’s been on my last 3 or 4 projects.
Q: We heard that when you found out RCA was going to sign you, you didn’t want to come to New York to sign the contract. You signed it in you car. Is this correct?
Dee-1: Correct! Yup!
Q: Is there any particular reason behind doing that?
Dee-1: Yeah because if you think about it where I paid all of my dues at and where I got my hands dirty as far as you know getting out there in the streets and getting people to know who I am and getting the city behind me. I did all of that in New Orleans and I did it all these years to work toward getting a record deal – that was the goal for a long time try to get signed and now that I got signed, I just wanted to symbolically do it in the city where I paid all my dues at and inside the car where I’ve driven all over this country. You know what I mean? Put a ton of miles on that car man to make my dreams come true. It felt good.
Q: I’m pretty sure everybody from your community can appreciate that.
Dee-1: Yea man.
Q: Now you also touring with Lupe Fiasco, currently, right now?
Dee-1: Yes sir!
Q: How did that come about?
Dee-1: Lupe personally asked me to come and join the tour with him man. Lupe and I have a really good friendship. I know I use the term big brother a lot, but he’s definitely like a big brother. Like a mentor in this rap game to me because we both have music that has a message in it and it has deep content. So we recognized that about one another and we built a friendship over the last pretty much year and a half and he sees that I just got signed and he sees the mixtape. He gave me a real dope shout out on the mixtape that just dropped. So he asked me to come join his tour and what was I going to tell Lupe no? Ha-ha!
Q: How important is it to you relay a positive message in your music? Being from New Orleans especially?
Dee-1: I feel like that’s why I’m in the rap game is to be a light for my city man. I’m the first artist from New Orleans who’s gotten a major deal who’s still based in New Orleans, who really brings about a positive message and motivation to their music. So I understand that I have a really important role for my city. And I understand that these kids need a young black male role model in hip hop to be able to look up to and to be able to say “Well shoot, he from the jungle that we from too but, look how he made it out, look how he did it.” Just showing them that it’s possible, man. Like every time I travel, people think New Orleans is about murder and Mardi Gras you know what I’m saying? It’s more than that and I feel like I have to play a role in showing them that.
You’re also a Christian rapper? Would you consider yourself a Christian rapper or a rapper that happens to be Christian?
Dee-1: I’m a Christian. I’ve been a Christian since before I started rapping. And rapping, I’m a rapper you know what I’m saying? It’s like my daddy is a welder and my daddy is a Christian, so he is not a Christian welder. He’s a welder and he’s a Christian. My mom is a social worker and she’s a Christian. She’s not a Christian social worker. You know what I mean? I’ve never been considered to be a Christian rapper. To be honest with you I think recently the Christian world, the Christian hip-hop world has really started to discover me and become really interested in my music and everything, but they know that all this time I haven’t labeled or branded myself as a Christian rapper.
Q: One of the reasons why I asked you that is because the mixtape’s name is “Psalms of David II” and you make references to being saved in your music and also you don’t really you use any profanity.
Dee-1: Correct, man I started that, that was a challenge I gave to myself a few years back when my grandfather who is like my hero – you know that’s who I really looked up to and he caught me cursing one time just on the phone with my friends. Just talking reckless, real foul, just talking crazy, on the phone with my friends and after I got off the phone, I didn’t know he was listening and he came in the room and told me how disappointed he was in me. He was like man “I know you could use better language than that.” Like I was talking super foul like I don’t know if I was talking to a girl or what it was but, yeah that stuff just hurt me man. So I told myself I’m going to try not to curse anymore and once I was able to not do that, it became easy to not curse in my music. You know what I’m saying? ’cause it’s something I do in real life.
Q: What is OMAR Entertainment?
Dee-1: O.M.A.R. that’s an acronym that stands for “One Man Army Rebel,” that’s my company.
Q: Any final thoughts?
Dee-1: Okay anything I would tell fans that I want them to know. Be real, be righteous, be relevant and that’s a phrase I live by I call it “Threes Up” it’s actually a song I have and anytime you see me throw up three fingers in the air, that’s what that means. Be real, be righteous, and be relevant I’d just tell them that.
Follow Dee-1 on twitter and Instagram: @Dee1music and on Facebook it’s Facebook.com/dee1music and the website is dee1music.com.
