Old school. Golden Era. New School. East Coast. West Coast. Dirty South. Bling Era. Trap.
The spectrum of hip hop spans all aspects of the genre in a world where Kendrick Lamar and Lil’ Yachty are putting up the same numbers there seems to room for everyone in the hip hop scene right now, and that means young, new talent is popping up everywhere. Including our own capital city.
This summer, I’m working on a series of posts about the hip hop scene in the Harrisburg area — an idea that came to me while I was recently at a hip hop show at HMAC. I’ll be scouring the area, networking with different crews and even diving into the history of hip hop in Harrisburg.
After seeing him perform at HMAC and being blown away by his lyrical cleverness, I did some networking and got a chance to sit down on a hot summer afternoon with Demitrius, a young, motivated rapper from Harrisburg, and another young rapper he works with, Yung Faucet, to get my first look at the young guns of hip hop in our area.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAYwz-PbTiw
MJ: What are you doing differently to usher in a new era of hip hop to our area?
Demitrius: We connect with each other these days, and we’re trying to change the face of the whole scene. Before, everyone was just doing their own things. A lot of rappers were real choosy about who they work with and I really want to bring everyone together and work with all different types of artists. So far, its worked.
When I randomly caught you at HMAC, I loved the music but the entire vibe you created was something special.
Demitrius: It’s all about the energy. I like to make sure my energy comes through in my music and I try to translate that to the crowd. That show was lit, I loved the crowd that night.
So do you think hip hop in our city is about to take off?
YungFaucet: There’s so many artists around here that are hitting 30k, 40k plays on SoundCloud its really crazy right now.
Demitrius: Harrisburg is about to be the next Chicago, the way Chicago had all those artists just come out of nowhere, that’s about to be us. One person makes it and its just going to be a chain reaction.
So how long have you been doing this?
Demitrius: I wrote my first verse when I was 17, I wasn’t even taking it that seriously. I did maybe 5 tracks. But, then in 2014 I had some time to start taking it seriously. I got all the studio equipment and just dove into it, learning how to engineer and make tracks.
We have to touch on the track that hit me when I heard it, your track “The Same.”
Demitrius: I came up with the idea for the song right as I was about to fall asleep one night. It just hit me “I can’t look at you the same.” I grabbed my note pad and wrote it down because so many ideas seem to come to me at night right before I fall asleep. Its a song everyone can relate to. Everyone has that one person that they cannot stand to be around or has done them real dirty and I think that’s why so many people like that track.
Yung Faucet: That’s the thing about music. If someone can relate to one track, they are going to want to hear the next track to see if they can relate to that one too. That is honestly one of my favorite songs from him. There is nothing better than a song you can relate to. It comes from the soul!
https://soundcloud.com/meech717/the-same-ft-entellekt
So what is the plan for this summer? New music?
Demitrius: Man, this summer is the takeover! I’m about to drop a new tape but I am waiting to finish up shooting a video to go along with it so I can drop them at the same time. This summer is all about having fun making music and playing shows. It’s not even about being famous to me, I just want to make some bread to take care of myself and my family.
Lastly, what do you think of popular hip-hop today?
Demitrius: Honestly, I love it. I can’t be mad at it one bit. The beauty of it all is everyone has a place in hip-hop now. You find your niche and you’ll survive. I personally just try to use a bit of a surprise factor because I don’t like to box myself into a genre of a certain type of rapper. I just go with whatever I feel.
Be sure to catch Demitrius this coming weekend on Saturday, June 10 when he performs at Midstate Distillery for Uncorked: A Millennial Business Social.
Check out his Soundcloud for new tracks and projects, and continue to follow me throughout the summer as I dive further into Harrisburg’s hip-hop past, present and future.
Like my boys Demitirus and Yung Faucet said, summer 2017 is about to be lit!
