Derty Den has been burning up mics and speakers for some time now. The big homie has been already been recognized as the Underground Music Awards “Best Southern Artist,” “Best Lyricist” by the North Carolina Underground Music Awards, “Best Male Artist” by the Carolina Music Awards.
Yep, that’s quite a resume, and to think the Carolina breed emcee is just warming up in anticipation of his debut LP, Limitless, off his indie label, GDA Music. Anybody who has heard Derty’s previous mixtapes: The Tony Soprano mixtape, Heat Wave hosted by Don Cannon, and Carolina Ain’t Enough, know that he’s got mean lyrics and flows.
With a brand new single, “Stacks in My Pocket,” doing well on iTunes and getting spins in several states, Derty is promising the best of his music is coming soon.
We took a moment to chop it up with Derty and spoke about his new project, the direction he went with it, and more.
HGO: What’s good Den? We happy to see everybody working [laughs], what have you been working on?
Derty: [Laughs] no doubt, I been real busy – I been in the studio real heavy working on my debut street album, Limitless. I’m a perfectionist, so I’ve been in the studio the last 14 months experimenting with different sounds and styles to deliver the best possible project. It sounds great. This has to be some of my best work.
HGO: So you’ve been working on a new project titled Limitless. We’re interested to know, why did you give the project the title? You take the little clear pill [laughs]?
Derty: I actually think I did for some reason [laughs]. Whatever it was gave me a clear direction on where I wanted to go and I named the project Limitless because usually when I drop the people have an idea on where I’m gonna go with it, but with this project I went all over and experimented with a lot of different things, a lot of different subjects, and not to mention different styles and sounds. I went all over to collect a lot of different production to come up with a new sound – you know evolving.
HGO: Your past mixtapes like The Tony Soprano mixtape, Heat Wave hosted by Don Cannon, and Carolina Ain’t Enough hosted by DJ Ike, from your GDA indie label, have all been huge successes. You’ve already established quite the catalogue. What will make Limitless better than everything you have put out to date? What will separate it from the rest?
Derty: This is my first street album – everything else has been in a mixtape format -and being that I had more creative control on this project. I actually went outside of the box. I went and touched every sound from the East to the West, and obviously, the South, instead of just rapping over beats and putting a hook together.
I actually made songs and the overall project is great. A lot of things will be discussed on the project. This project will not only be appreciated by the die hard Derty Den fans but it will also be appreciated by the critics and consumers.
HGO: You have been recognized as a rising star on the underground and indie levels, winning various awards. What is the next step you need to take to elevate your music and career to the next level? Is there a blueprint in place?
Derty: Well with no big machine powering what I’m doing right now the actual blue print is being paved as we speak and the next step is delivering the best possible music and getting it out to the fans through the best possible outlets. Having the story presented to the people as strategic as possible and making it make sense. Showing the work and the consistency with the ups-and-downs it takes to stay relevant in this industry – hopefully one day Lions Gate picks my story up and the people see it on the big screen [laughs].
HGO: We featured your “Crazy” video recently tell us about the video’s concept and how you can up with it because it was a bit crazy [laughs].
Derty: [Laughs] basically by thinking outside of the box when I first heard the beat to “Crazy” – my homie WB Three gave it to me and said on this one don’t’ hold anything back. So we met with CDub TV and they actually told me I sounded like I was possessed by a demon, so we came up with the video’s concept. It took us only 12 hours to shoot it and he edited it in one day.
HGO: We know you have a new single out called “Stacks in My Pocket” that is really building momentum in several cities. Where is it bumping right now?
Derty: Right now it’s being playing in the Carolinas, Virginia, in Chicago on 92.3FM, in Atlanta on 107.9, in Florida and on a lot indie radio shows and stations. I just wanted to have fun with it and didn’t focus so much on being lyrical like most my tracks. It’s more for the clubs than the streets. It’s on iTunes, you all definitely got to cop it.
HGO: What else can we expect to hear from Derty Den in the coming months? Let the people know where they can find you.
Derty Den: You can expect to hear some of the best music thus far from me. A lot of different concepts, directions, and entertainment at its best; for my point of view hit me up on Twitter @dertyden or visit my website, www.dertyden.com.
