If you know anything about me then you know I have a special appreciation, connection, or admiration for music. It means more to me than a lot of things actually. I studied the industry music is surrounded by for four years, and I'm still studying. I'm always talking about how music is more than just instruments, and people singing or rapping over them. Music, honestly, is spiritual. It has the power to connect, heal, and immortalize us. I see music differently, and always have.
I consider myself a proper music enthusiast. I don't believe everyone should take on becoming a music artist, and I whole heartedly believe that their is a difference between, "doing music," and "being a music artist," because technically we can all, "do music," but being an actual artist is very different...and that's just not in all of us.
To be an artist, one must know how to take every life experience they go through, and turn it into a few minutes or hours of representation of that exact experience. The process of writing or encapsulating your feelings into a fixed format is a form of therapy...hence the term, "Music is therapeutic." This is true of poets, instrumentalists, cinematographers, painters, sculptors, writers, dancers, and really all people who call themselves an artist of some form.
That fixed format then has to be able to connect with the other people that need it most. Your experience is then turned into sort of like a blanket of comfort, and reassurance for a complete stranger. That person now knows that it's not just them in the world. You see them. You hear them. Your truth is their truth...and they can ride it out because you did.
Notice that I haven't said, "To be an artist you have to make money," because focusing on money...causes you to just, "do music," and hopefully if you're reading this you have a certain standard about yourself, and you don't just, "do music". Now, I'm not saying you should be a starving artist forever because if you are...you may not have practiced or respected your craft enough to make it profitable. I'll tell you what the music folks, and all artists can agree on. You're not in the music industry for the money...you're in it because you love it, and quite literally refuse to do anything else. To be an artist, you have to love music deeply because it doesn't pay you for a while, but the money will come if it's truly meant for you, if you become a student to the industry, and if you never give up on yourself...remember that.
To be an artist you have to bear your soul in your music, and tell your truth at all times. For me...I can hear this in every piece of music I listen to whether I like the song or not. It's like a filter. I can tell when it's real...when it's just for hype...when you haven't found your sound yet...I just know. I'll put it like this: ALL true music artists are Soul artists, and you should be able to tell from one song.
That's how I found Deante Hitchcock. It was one song. It was back in THE DAY okay...the Soundcloud days (iykyk). The song was, "2 Special," and I knew just from how the sample was layered, and how his cadences were delivered that Deante Hitchcock had soul. Deante was an true artist. He had it...he would go. That was 2017, and in 2021 those facts still remain true, and I can't wait to keep watching his story unfold.
Deante is a true artist. As you listen to his music you'll notice that he repeats some of his songs, and puts them on different projects. He'll play around with the intro or the delivery and it hits every time. It's like when you want your favorite artist to perform that old song of theirs on tour, and they do it. No matter how many times you hear the same song he always manages to make it fire. It's the literal definition of perfecting your craft, and telling the story. I promise you no matter how many times I hear, "I-Know-You-Got something on yo mind" I'm always ready to scream "Ain't no sense in tryna hide it I can tell I can tell yeah," ten times harder than the speakers blasting it. That's something special...almost 2 Special. To have the ability to captivate and connect with your audience in that kind of way so early on in his mainstream career. It's almost like he's picking out his hits for us, and he hasn't even hit his peak yet.
The bottom line is that Deante will make you listen. He'll make you feel like you were really there in his story telling, and delivery. He's a different kind of rap artist...someone I think the OGs would be proud of.
This is...The Sound of Deante Hitchcock
-Cidney G.
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