Darick DDS Spears – Cop Killuz
ARTIST NAME: Darick DDS Spears
SONG TITLE: Cop Killuz
ALBUM TITLE: The One Love Project
GENRE: Hip Hop / Rap
Apple Music
iTunes
Spotify
CD Baby
Website
Darick Spears is a songwriter / artist / producer that enjoys all genres of music.
Though his core is Hip Hop; he loves to blend different elements of jazz, rock, country, gospel, and just about any sound together.
His style is unique and original. He doesn’t like the idea of sampling, and in his catalogue of over 500 plus songs, he is the one-stop shop.
With anywhere from protest songs, to songs dealing with any human emotion; Darick always uses his own life experiences as his motivations for his music. He is truly a rebel in a pushing the envelope in anything he does, kind of way!
Following the successful reception of Darick DDS Spears’s 2014 The World Is Yourz album, the man spent the year playing shows around the Midwest, New York, and even Los Angeles.
“The World is Yourz,” received praise from Lifehack.org, calling it one of the “25 Best albums to Listen to for Productivity.”
In this album Darick writes about true life experiences, including relationships, motivation and community issues.
When Darick decided it was time to start recording his second album, he found the songs that shared some emotional states and community narrative threads.
In June 2015, Darick released a powerful social EP album called The One Love Project and an audio-book album version of his Amazon Bestseller Book “The Diary of a Stay-At-Home Dad: My Journal Behind Bars, which were both recognized on The Grammy Ballad.
Inspired by what’s going on in the world today: police brutality, crime, injustice, religion.
The One Love Project’s first song Cop Killuz, was nominated for a Global Peace Award in Hip Hop June 2016.
In September 2016 he was nominated for 2 IMEA Awards as a solo artist for Hip Hop Artist of the Year and Hip Hop Song of the Year from his 2016 album release called Breathe.
Between January-March 2017; Darick released the singles “Paranoid” which won a Global Music Award, Growing Pains, and Where is The Love, and a full-instrumental album called “The Workout Album,” which were all well-received.
Darick DDS Spears produces, writes, performs and arranges his own albums.
Musically, his label Elevator Muzik Group both polishes and expands their listeners approach.
In the summer of 2016 he re-released his underground albums FreeZone, FreeSpeech, Daydreams, & I Hope You Can Relate.
Some things just don’t mix together, like water and oil. Some people just don’t work well together like Kobe and Shaq. But some things just happen to have a touch of fate that brought them together, like the music industry’s new phenomenal and diverse group called “Happenstance.”
This group is comprised of Pop Singer Dennis Sy, Jazz/Pop Singer Natalie Jean, and Hip Hop Artist / Producer Darick “DDS” Spears. Could they be the next Black Eye Peas? Nope. I would say they are the first “Happenstance.”
What brought them all together in late 2016, was a powerful single called “Shine On” which went on to receive numerous awards, and even recognized on Grammy Ballad.”
Shine On was so well-received that Deejays, radio stations, and other people were wondering what would be next. The group is now working on their EP release which has no title at the moment.
In June 2018 Darick released a new Hip Hop album entitled Penmanship.
The album which contains the much-praised song Save the Babies: a video has been released on YouTube. Darick says that he dedicates his new album to the Babies, musicians, poets, freedom fighters, and artist. Like The Wu-Tang Clan, Darick DDS Spears is for the babies.
In late 2018 the album Here Comes Trouble was released to acclaim as well as the all-instrumental album entitled The Beatsmith Vol. 1.
In May 2018, Darick released a short-documentary called “MILraculous,” which set up for his acclaimed album release Milwaukee, which is now available on Amazon Prime Video.
Milwaukee was praised by several publications as a critical acclaim.
On October 5, 2018 Darick released an All-Instrumental Album entitled “The Mad Scientist.”
A week later he released a new video for his upcoming Hip Hop Project called “Rhyme Junkie,” which is already getting great reviews.
As an author, Darick Spears is known for his recent release and Amazon Bestseller “The Diary of a Stay-at-Home Dad: My Journal Behind Bars.” Thought Catalog called the book, one of the top 3 books for fathers who are trying their best. He has begun a new book department called the 21st Century Shakepears Publishing Company.
Releasing two books The Diary of a Stay-At-Home Dad, Sex Tells (A true story with such suspense, sexual innuendo, and much more), Poetic Confinement (find Darick at the core of his poetry), and the “Most Controversial” Book to date “Bitch… Nobody Raped You (A true story from the life of Darick Spears.)
In late 2018 Darick released Pastor… Please Don’t Please The People, and the acclaimed book And You Call Yourself a Christian.
In addition, Darick released his first lyric book called “The One Love Project Lyric Book,” based off his Grammy-Recognized album The One Love Project.
In 2019, Darick has decided to release a new book every month. So far he has released “Milwaukee: The Lyric Book, Slaves To Obligation, & Sound Doctrine.
Look forward to more releases – All available on Amazon & Kindle.
Darick has written, produced, composed, and acted in several films in which he has made.
These include A Look Within The Prison Walls, Portrait of a FreeSpirit, Rebel of the Church, Pastor Howard: The Legacy Documentary, and MILraculous (The Documentary).
.
.
.
Discuss your musical ability.
I am an artist and musician at the core. I use my ability to write music, lyrics, and create / produce music as a way of speaking to the world.
.
.
.
Tell us the reason you want to rap.
The core of my art is Hip Hop / Rap. But there is always a way to marry the tunes, harmonies, and spoken word together.
I like to make it seem as though I am singing a beautiful song to my listeners through my rap lyrics about the harsh realities of society.
.
.
.
Tell us your most memorable live performance.
My most memorable performance would have to be in 2018 during The Grammy weekend in New York. I was headlining a show that weekend and I decided to play the drums while I rapped. It was completely spontaneous and the crowd loved it.
.
.
.
Discuss how you build your song.
Many a times, I write daily, expressing my true feelings about my life and the world around me.
As a producer, I make beats, music, concepts all of the time. So, sometimes it may begin with a melody, or a beat I created that strikes up a feeling. Then, I grab my notebook and many times the lyrics to the song have already been written in my daily notebook, so I just go in my studio and record.
It comes out magical. I crack the door and let God come in with me, and we make classic music.
.
.
.
Tell us how you impress your fans with your music.
My fans just love my honesty, my rawness, and my braveness when it comes to stepping outside the box and being original.
.
.
.
Discuss the relevance of promotion to music business.
The business side of music is a constant struggle to get your music promoted.
As an artist I want my music to be heard everywhere. I think when some artists say they only want to remain underground; they may really mean that they want the people who really can appreciate their music to listen to it.
But promotion is very important because it can grow your fan base, your sales, and opportunities to expand.
.
.
.
Tell us what you will do apart from music.
Apart from music I am an author and filmmaker. I currently have a few of my documentaries on Amazon Prime that were written, directed and produced by me. (MILraculous, Pastor Howard: The Legacy, Behind My Prison Walls).
I am also an author that has self-published through my own Publishing Company The 2st Century Shakespears Publishing, which has 10-plus book available on Amazon, libraries, and many other platforms.
.
.
.
List the names of the instruments you can play.
Piano, drums, bass, bongos…
.
.
.
Tell us if you have any music background.
I have a music background in church. I was the main drummer and in the music department for many years growing up. I also took a little band in high school.
.
.
.
Tell us the piece of advice you will give to a new artist on entering the music chart.
Celebrate your wins, always keep a positive attitude. Never be scared to step outside the box with your ideas and music; and keep making music.
Things aren’t always promised in the music world. You can have a hit today and be a-nobody tomorrow.
But never let a fan or critic make you feel like a-nobody, because your belief in yourself is what matters the most.
.
.
.
Elaborate on melody and rhythm.
Melody is the sound that creates the mood, and rhythm brings that melody to life. It brings in the vibes and movement. They are very important parts of the song, but the lyrics are the icing on the cake.
.
.
.
Tell us your future goals.
To expand my territory in the music world: bigger fan base, more collaborations, more money, more shows, more awards, more music licensing / publishing deals, and to completely rock this world.
I want the whole world to have an album or three in their catalogue by Darick DDS Spears.
Also, I plan to expand in the world of film, books, and public speaking; also in outreach into my communities.
.
.
.
Share your music experience with us.
My music experience has been rough. I have had failures after failures to chart, to get synch agents to choose my sound, to get a lot of people to understand and accept that I am and was born different.
I have always gotten called “crazy” or “too different” or “unique,” but I have continued to garner fans because of these reasons as well.
But I am confident in my ability and I just won’t stop dreaming and working hard to accomplish them. My fans deserve to hear real music!
.
.
.
Tell us the most difficult part of recording.
I am a perfectionist, so I will not be satisfied till I have it perfect.
Sometimes, though the rawness of a song outweighs the cleanliness of a song.
People want me to censor my music, but then I would be cutting out the truth, and so I dare to keep the track raw, whether they accept it or not.
.
.
.
Discuss the greatest mistake you have ever made in your music career.
I was once collaborating with an artist who I call a “safe artist.” She didn’t want to include anything in the song that was political and I decided to take out one of the verses to my song.
I had never done anything like that. I feel like I compromised my art, and I will never do that again.
.
.
.
Tell us how you build up your composition.
Writing is easy. You just write. But putting words together that rhyme and also come together perfectly as a storyboard or message is a gift from God.
I can’t give you all of my process, but I can say it’s totally natural.
.
.
.
Discuss the relevance of relatability of the lyrics to the listeners.
Music and comedy are similar. A lot of successful comics are just relatable with their stories.
People in the audience can just feel like they can relate to the comic or the lyrics from a song.
Once they can relate, then you got them. Sometimes people can’t relate and they still appreciate you sharing your stories with them because they got a new experience through you.
.
.
.
Elaborate on the song.
I wrote a song called “Cop Killuz.” I was bringing much shock value by the title, and people at face value thought I was talking about killing a cop.
But then after hearing the song, they realized that the song was actually me asking the cops why they kill us?
Police brutality isn’t a new thing in the Hoods of America, but now that social media is a big thing, we are able to globally see how many cops abuse their authority.
So, I wrote the song and put it out on an EP album called The One Love Project and the song was nominated for a “Global Peace Award,” and the album was Grammy-Recognized.
There is a new book I released called The One Love Project – Lyric Book that conceptually breaks down the entire song and album now available on Amazon and many other places.
.
.
.
Elaborate on your artist name and the title of the album.
My name has always been peculiar; I have never run into someone who spelled their name like mine.
Although there are a few people in the world with similar spellings I am able to see over internet.
I chose to be myself and no gimmick. The DDS in the middle is actually my initials and my nickname growing up.
All of my friends call me “DDS.” So, my artist name is Darick DDS Spears.
I chose to title the album that has the single “Cop Killuz” on it The One Love Project. This is because the world will forever be working on that project until God returns. It seems like it’s hard for us to love one another.
