Def Manic is ready to shake up the music world! (Photo courtesy of Def Manic)
By: Jacob Elyachar, jakes-take.com
Rapper Def Manic is the latest rapper to tackle The Five Question Challenge.
The Belgrade, Serbia native is taking Hip-Hop and experimental music to another level of excellence. In addition to fusing old school and new school Hip-Hop with Soul, Rock and Jazz music, Def Manic has opened for B.o.B, Scribe and A Tribe Called Quest for concerts in the United States and New Zealand.
In this edition, the rapper opened up about his songwriting process and how social media has helped him grow as an artist.
Jacob Elyachar: When did you get interested in music? What motivated you to pursue a recording career?
Def Manic: I have always loved music from a very early age, but it wasn’t until I was about 12-years-old that I started engaging in it a little more. That is when I started writing poetry and listening to a lot of Hip-Hop and Soul records. But it wasn’t until I was 17-years-old that I properly started recording music, and putting it out there as well as doing shows and making music videos. It was a scary experience but it turned out well in the end.
JE: Could you please share your songwriting process with my readers?
DM: Usually before I write a song, I will need to have a beat or instrumental ready for it. The instrumental is what sets the mood of the track, and it gives me inspiration on what to write about. Then, I will listen to that instrumental a few times and freestyle to it. It does not necessarily have to make sense but it’s more just to get the timing and the flow that I want to use for the track overall. Once I have established my flow, I will freestyle about two lines and then write them down, then I will repeat those two lines again at the same place and freestyle the next two lines and etc. I keep doing that until I have a whole verse done.
JE: You will be releasing your first studio album sometime this year. What were some of the challenges that you faced during the recording process? How did you overcome them?
DM: I will release my first proper album this year called D.R.A.W. It is an acronym for “Do Right And Win”. The recording process itself took about three to four months, and the biggest challenge I had was getting the song right, since I’m a perfectionist. That means I will sometimes have to re-do a verse at least 50 times before I get it right, especially if it’s a technical verse. I remember a few songs I did that took me over 200 takes to get right, but I overcame it all by just keeping my mind calm and pushing myself.
JE: How has social media helped you grow as an artist?
DM: Social Media has done a lot of things for me. It has helped me connect to a lot more fans around the world that I would not have been able to connect with if I did not have them on Facebook or Twitter. It also allows me to update everyone on what’s happening and is a really useful promotional tool, especially since everyone is pretty much on it nowadays, so getting my music heard is a lot easier now. It’s also allowed me to get personal feedback from fans about my music, which meant I could change things or progress accordingly.
JE: If you had the chance to meet with aspiring artists who want a career in the music industry, what advice would you share with them?
DM: If I had a chance to meet aspiring artists, I’d tell them to always make the music that they want to make, not what’s popular right now or what’s on the radio. Artists are lacking originality more and more nowadays so it is important that new artists work hard on building their own style and sound and letting their music speak for itself. I would also tell them to work hard and that at the beginning it will be extremely hard, since the music will not be at the highest quality and many people would not like or understand what they are doing, but once you push through all that, it gets better.
You can connect with Def Manic on his Facebook, Twitter & YouTube channels.
