I hope everyone had an amazing New Year’s Day and is ready for another year. I’m putting it into the universe now that it is going to be a wonderful and very productive year 🙂
Today, though, I have a pretty special music review to kick off 2017. This review is going to be the result of when an artist from my very own backyard (Lafayette, LA) contacts me about new music. I am all about supporting my local artists and this was pretty much an exclusive access kind of thing so this was fun for me. I always keep an open mind though because being from this area, especially when it comes to rappers, a lot of the music sounds the same. It’s not always in a bad way, but you can usually tell where a rapper is from by how they rap or how the music is produced.
When it comes to the homie D-Skills though, that is not quite the case. Yes, his music and rhymes remind me of artists from down this way but you can tell that he is pushing through that mold a lot. I can definitely appreciate and respect that. You can stay true to your roots without sounding like everyone else.
So, his new project is called Dreams Never Die and is about 6 tracks. It opens up with the title track “Dreams Never Die” where he shares a little of his story and tells us about some of the thoughts inside of his head. I love the end of the song where there is a woman talking about achieving your goals. Then we get to his songs where the beats hit a little harder in “Times Up” and “Rapper Song”. In “Times Up” he even says with a little cockiness “Tell your favorite rapper his times up”. You have to feel that way in the rap game so I’m not mad at him at all.
Now when we get to his song “June 19th” which is a bit softer and he talks about his mom and making her proud. I really love this song. The music has so many elements to it, a mix of hip hop/ R&B/ and some Rock riffs as well. I’ve always enjoyed when rappers talk about their moms (Tupac was huge for me growing up) because at the end of the day that’s all most of us want, is to make them proud, knowing how much we probably put them through. You would think it’s difficult to talk about your mom and still sound hard but it can be done LOL and D-Skills pulls it off pretty well.
In “Trunk Bangin”, he hits us with that H-Town (Houston, TX) vibe. I have always been a fan of Southern rap (Louisiana, Georgia, and Texas) most of my life. There is a huge connection between Louisiana and Texas rappers, and you can hear it when you go out to the clubs in either state. But with this song, it’s definitely one of those that you have to blast in your car and turn your bass up! Those are my favorite songs to ride around to for sure.
Lastly, we have “All I Wanted” where everything comes together and he goes back to that cockiness that I dig. As I’m listening to this song, I can honestly say that I am a fan of this whole record. It gets me excited when I hear someone from down here really doing their thing in music. I really hope that you guys check him out and listen to this project when it officially comes out. If you are a fan of Hip Hop then you should definitely give it a listen!
Check Him Out!
Official: www.Officialdskills.com
Twitter & Instagram @Officialdskills
