You
might remember him for making meals out of his competition in the
Carolina battle circuit. You might've heard his hit single feat
Supastition, and learned he doesn’t write for you message board
motherfuckers. But there so much more to Mr. Daniel Johnson. Hear his
story in our latest interview feature.
Tell me a little about where you're from, how was it growing up in Florence, South Carolina?
Its
a small city..I guess typical southern city. But just like every city
in the 80's and early 90's, if you were a black man, a black child, you
were being influenced by the birth of hip hop. Any child for that
matter, cause even in the rich areas, hip hop still flourished. We
experienced the from Krush Groove era all the way to the 90's with the
Wu. Even though it was a small southern city, it was still hip hop. You
still had to have your shell toes or what have you.
I
think a lot of people get it fucked up that if you wasn't from NY or LA
in late 80's, early 90's, you wasn't really up on hip hop. They don't
realize all over the country, even in places like Florence, SC, people
were rocking shell toes, rope chains, and was up on "Wu-tang Clan Ain't
Nothing to Fuck Wit'" and all that.
I mean yeah, of
course it was a lot different. If you were from New York or New Jersey,
you didn't really have to search for your hip-hop, it was just there
all around you. For us it was like only once in a blue a DJ would come
out here selling mixtapes, it was a little harder to get for us, it may
have took a little longer for the newer shit to get down here but it
got down here eventually, cause we were thirsty. In the internet era
now, anybody can get anything. Back then we had to search for it and
take what we can get, but at the same time we didn't just accept
anything because it was hip hop, we wanted good hip-hop, we were still
craving for good music.
So you didn't just take whatever was shoved down because it was labeled hip-hop, it had to be quality.
Exactly.
That's like a recent thing where people just accept what they're given
and think it to be good just because they play it a lot. Even being
from South Carolina we could always immediately tell the difference
from what's wack and what wasn't. I mean we was down here listening to
Mic Geronimo, it didn't necessarily get a lot of radio spins but it was
hot, that's how it was.
What motive you to make the decision to rhyme and be an MC?
I
had a homeboy that wrote rhymes and he would emulate a lot of the cats
he was listening to. Now I was the first one on the block to get a
computer. And I had a stereo, the stereo was busted, the speakers
worked but the headphone jack didn't work. But we still found a way to
record, id play the instrumentals through the computer and record the
rhymes on the stereo. So he would come through and we'd make tapes, not
even thinking of selling it, it was just fun you know? After doing that
for years, after a while we just started stepping up the bar and
getting serious with it.
You started off battle rapping though, correct?
I
was still predominantly into making songs and all of that, free-styling
was just the calling card. It was easy "Do you" rap. It was like in
high school, everybody wanted to be "that dude", and the only way to be
that dude was to take somebody else out. I wasn't really into
competition at first, but as time progressed and I got more confident
in my skills, I had to put it to the test against someone else so I
could get my confidence up. So I started doing battling, I went off to
college and, I got kind of good at it. Then it became and ends to
justify the means, cause there would be prize money, and push came to
shove, I had to eat you know?
So it was never really your goal to be battle king and take the next man out, it was just and end to justify the means?
Exactly.
It was like two dudes would be rapping at a show or whatever, they know
they can both rap, just they'd both think "yo, I can rap better than
you", That's how it was in the 90's, but it was hip-hop, you didn't
have to worry about going outside and going to the trunk or whatever.
It was never really my immediate goal to be Carolina king of free-style
battle rap. It was just more like hey, I can get this prize money and
go to the studio.
Did the battle experience help you in your skills at creating songs and recording?
Oh
for sure. Even if you don't battle or whatever you should always
remember the free-style roots to hip hop, because it encourages
spontaneity. Also certain rhyming styles, literary techniques, you can
practice them in your free-styles and add them to your written work
later.
Which do you find more
challenging, battling another MC in front of a packed club or writing
and recording songs in limited studio time?
Truthfully, I
think doing songs is a much more pressure task, because battling has
much more to do with spontaneity. If your battling from the top of the
head, people appreciate more and give you more margin for error. When
you're recording music, people have your CD or mp3, and they listen to
it over & over so they can really scrutinize and critique it, "he
took this bar off", "he was off beat" and stuff like that. When you're
recording music, its impossible to please everybody, but its difficult
to please even a few people. People expect much more from an artist
then they expect from a battle MC.
What's the thought process when recording a song, do you hear the beat and it tell you what to do or vice-versa?
I
always like writing after I hear the beat, and actually, not trying to
be like Biggie or Jay-Z, but sometimes I'll take the beat CD and ride
around listening to it, and think of the lyrics in my head, and once I
finished a couple verses I would come home and write it down. Not
because I decided one day it was cool to write songs without paper but
more because I had limited time and I still had other things to do so I
compensated by doing it in my head in the car. Once I hear the beat I
know where I’m going with the song conceptually. Its almost like
writing a paper, you have to get an outline first and so forth.
Your
song concepts are more everyday shit, you talk introspective stuff like
grief or struggling for respect. What made you choose that route over
the black caricature route, the bling and crack dealing' stuff?
It
actually comes from being from the south...there’s a lot of different
characters in South Carolina. We're between what's generally considered
to be the south and what's considered to be east coast. Its like a
melting pot of people. So coming from that I tend to deal with a more
reality in my rap. I can be out here and build with some of the biggest
dope dealers in the game, and they'll respect me because I’m not
spitting pretending to live their lifestyle cause its cool or whatever.
At the same time I wouldn't like someone who writes stuff about being
conscious who is not really conscious. I wouldn't like someone who's
not really gangsta talking about being a gangsta. So I stick to what I
feel is really me.
You wear a
lot of hats when it comes to this music, you produce some of your own
songs, you market yourself and stuff like that...Do you feel that the
modern MC should play a bigger role as far as the business side and
actual production of their songs?
I don't think you
should do it just to say you do it. Like with me, I still make beats,
not as much as I used to. I made my beats because cats weren't t giving
me the sound that I needed. Today I feel artists should do these things
so at least they have an understanding of how it should be done. If you
don't know what somebody can do with the resourced they have, how can
you know at the end of the day if they shortchanging you? Like there's
certain times when a producer will just add drums to a looped sample,
and I could’ve did that. Why I gotta pay him for that?
What new projects are yo working on now?
Well
right now be on the lookout for my new cd this month "In the Face of
Danger". In conjunction with that I'm working on a free promotional
project that should be out soon, it will feature a lot of producers
you're hearing and some of your favorite MCs, I don't want to say too
much, but its free so basically people can get a feel for my talent and
where I'm coming from.
What kind of feel can we expect from "In the Face of Danger"?
Its
a reflection of life's impact on man. Its aggression, but not
necessarily in the violent way. The music and lyrics are done in an
aggressive manner. It's grief, impatience, its venting on the realities
of this world and how it make me feel. It could go from Joe Blow MC,
not doing his part, to the government taking too much money out of our
checks, its a vast array of topics. Its gonna be sincere, passionate,
and sonically its just dope beats and dope lyrics.
For
the people that get their hip hop primarily from MTV/BET or the mega
conglomerate radio stations, can you tell them why they should go
outside and fuck with your shit rather then get the new TI or Fifty or
whoever's that hot mainstream dude out?
Quality music is
like a needle in a haystack, its out there but you really have to look
for it. This is quality music. A lot of our favorite mainstream
artists, they get too comfortable. You can't really blame them because
if I had millions and millions of dollars, I wouldn't be sure how I
would react. I’m pretty sure that's a lot more comfortable than living
in the projects. I’m not comfortable yet. So I doing music about the
real stuff that I go through, and presenting it in a way that everybody
can feel.
What that Myspace again so people can reach you?
www.myspace.com/danjohns. You can get an online copy of "In The Face of Danger" there or at my website www.danjohns.com.
Thanks for the interview god
