VanDilizm discusses the cold streets of Durham, and the hot music he’s been recording for his upcoming “No Recycling” mixtape, with guest editor, ToneSwep.
(ToneSwep: TS) Let’s start off with a tour of Winston-Salem, your town of origin. Describe it as a place, how does the region look? How are the people?
(VanDilizm: VanDilizm) Winston is more country than Durham. That’s where I was born, where my mother and grandmother are from originally. I moved to ATL, lived out in college park after my elementary years, but Winston is where it all started. It’s more of a place to settle down. I wouldn’t say it’s a big spot with bright lights. Not too many clubs or anything like that. It’s slow. The country.
(TS) What are the clubs, hoods, and police like in Durham? What’s the vibe?
(VanDilizm) We got no clubs in Durham because n!99as always shut the clubs down. Our crime rate is real high. We’re always first or second in the state in terms of crime rate. Always right there with Fayetteville. The gangs have gotten real bad. There’s crips and bloods on the south and west sides. You got the West End. The young n!99as are really crazy out here right now. So right now we have all the police shutting sh!t down with road blocks and searches. It’s hood.
(TS) When did the gangs really jump off out there? The 90’s?
(VanDilizm) Oxford Manor had the pimps and hoes in the late 80’s and then it grew to the sets and gangs. The gangs all seemed to start in that area originally, then it spread from there.
(TS) Being raised by good, God-fearing people and then heading out to compete in the streets. How hard was it satisfying both sides?
(VanDilizm) It was hard. I moved a lot. I lived in College Park for a few years; lived in Ohio for a while. When I got here to Durham, it was a totally different ball game. You had to be older, quicker. I had to grow up fast. I didn’t have no dad, he wasn’t there at the time I was coming into manhood. So I went to the streets. All I had was my brothers and peeps in the streets. But you’re either going to grow from that, or you’re going to stay locked into it. I’m the type of person that is always going to grow out of situations like that. I’m making a difference with my music and putting me and my people in a better position for the future.
(TS) North Carolina is in the south, but not the deep south. You’re on the borderline of the Bible belt and you’ve spent considerable time in Georgia, Ohio and Virginia as well. How do you feel the different places you’ve lived helps distinguish you from other artists who may only know the south?
(VanDilizm) I’ma be honest man. I’m probably one of the most diverse types of people you’ll meet. I’ve been doing music for a long time in different places. I try not to put myself in that box and just rap about the streets and the clubs. But, that said, whatever I’m going to drop is what I’m feeling at the time. Dirty boy south music. Club music. Something with an R&B feel for the ladies. I try not to worry about what type of song is being expected. I just make what I’m feeling at the time so it’s real.
(TS) We listen to southern rap and it’s mostly club and dope content, not too much consciousness. Yet, it’s the very birthplace of the civil rights movement. Why do you think that is?
(VanDilizm) I think they looking at it as far as what they know, the streets. The artists aren’t looking at history, they’re looking at right now. They hustlers. They grindin’ so they’re looking at it from that aspect of being a hustle. They are creating what is going to sell. But I believe that Yo Gotti is a conscious person. Most of his music is about his real life, but he brings that southern swag to it. Rick Ross, I think he comes from two different types of atmospheres so he talks about both a little more. But they are rolling with the times of the here and now in the south.
(TS) When we weigh temptation versus struggle, do you feel more young Black males gravitate to the street life because of the allure and swag factor, or because of poverty and having few other options?
(VanDilizm) I think more so right now it’s the swag factor. Wanting to be in the limelight and be popular. When I first started rapping, there weren’t too many artists out here. Now there are 1000 of them. A lot of artists are moving to places where they can get noticed. Look at Trinidad James, for instance, he was only rapping for nine months and he got on. But more power to them. As long as it is going to feed you and your family and you ain’t selling your soul and coming out of your character, go get it.
(TS) You started writing raps at 11, and began to pursue a career at 14. What compelled you to rap?
(VanDilizm) I was living in ATL at the time, and my mother was working at a power company and her manager wanted to hear me, so I rapped for him. He responded a certain way to it, like it was good. That was really my first cosign. My older brother used to rap too.
(TS) So many rappers out. How did you emerge from the pack?
(VanDilizm) Hard, hard, hard work. We used to stand in front of my middle school and bang on trash cans and spit. Just freestyle for hours, way past dark. Then I used to be in Winston for the summer and I would just be in my grandmother’s basement killing it for hours and hours, because it takes hard work and dedication to perfect your craft and become a true artist. I think it’s a little easier to just entertain, not to say entertainers don’t work. But to perfect your craft as an artist takes hard work. I put in the work and it helped me separate from the average.
(TS) What artists inspire you today?
(VanDilizm) I mess with Adele. She’s a great artist. I really don’t listen to a lot of people rapping. I feel like it leaks into your style. J. Cole is one, because he can create songs that won’t just be a fad. His music stands and you can go back to it. I mess with Rich Homie. He’s real creative. He just got back on the scene and got it poppin’, and I respect that. Nu G.Y.R.L., that’s my homie. I feel like she’s going harder than any female in the game right now.
(TS) I listen to “Dat Rite” and it’s a mix of street, club, radio. Reminds me of Nelly’s early material.
(VanDilizm) At that moment in time, when I was writing “Dat Rite”, I was pretty much living like that. Doing what Durham raised me to do. I feel like you can move and bob with it, but I’ve grown a whole lot from that song.
(TS) In today’s rap game, it seems like you either have album artists or singles artists. Both can be very successful, but the album artist puts out a complete project where the singles artist is better at dropping one hit song at a time.
(VanDilizm) I think I’m going to raise that bar a bit. Drop an album full of hot singles. A whole entire album filled with club banger singles, R&B banger singles, conscious bangers, street bangers. I feel like what’s wrong with most artists is they place themselves in that box and limit themselves to one of those two options, or maybe the labels do it to them.
(TS) What do you feel is wrong with rap? What do think is right with it?
(VanDilizm) I feel like rap right at this moment in time is like a dumbed down type of music for the most part. We’re not even speaking to our kids in the right way. We’re sending them mixed messages. There isn’t enough real life in music. You can still club and party, but you have to inform the kids that there is more than molly-poppin and clubbin’. It could be a little more substance, but the substance needs to be more of a steady thing because the dumb down music only lasts for a summer or less. The music with substance stands the test of time.
(TS) No profanity in any of your music, which is admirable. Why?
(VanDilizm) ‘Cuz, I just wanted to be different. I used to do it, but I felt like it was limiting my vocabulary. And also having to go through the process of getting clean versions for the radio, then this version for the streets, then the explicit version for this or that. I felt like, why not just make one song and satisfy all of it. Plus my grandmother used to listen to a lot of my music when she was here. But I felt like I should make it cleaner so she could actually listen to the music. She was my biggest fan.
(TS) Do people generally notice that you don’t curse in your raps? I didn’t at first, not until like the third or fourth song.
(VanDilizm) Some do and some don’t. Most really don’t.
(TS) You’ve said you want to bring back the art of storytelling with your music. Who, in your opinion, are some of the best storytellers ever in rap?
(VanDilizm) Keith Murray, Big L, Tupac, Biggie, Styles P, Jay-Z, Eminem is one of the best at just making you feel his song. Those are the people who know how to make you visualize the song.
(TS) What impact do you plan to make in the rap game?
(VanDilizm) I plan on going as far as I can go. And as far as the Lord is going to bless me to go. And a lot further than some are expecting me to go.
(TS) We look at young artists like Lil Snupe who had only scratched the surface of the success he was set to achieve, and to have his goals interrupted by homicide at only 18… what red flags does that and similar incidents raise for you as you embark on a journey to success?
(VanDilizm) It raises a lot of flags man. It raises a lot of flags. Like I tell everybody man, you’re always going to have people envy you. You can avoid certain situations if you use your head. But I want to send my prayers out to his family. That was a tough situation he was put in. I just plan on making sure I know where to be, and where not to be. And as a man you have to know that. Or you can be that man and feel like you can do whatever, but that’s not realistic.
(TS) Finish this sentence as it relates to you: If not rap, then…
(VanDilizm) … I don’t know where I’ll be at. And that’s just real.
(TS) What’s next from you in terms of projects?
(VanDilizm) Look out for my “No Recycling” mixtape. It’s going to speak for itself. A little bit of this and that. It’s a mixtape that everyone has been begging me to put out for a while now. Real life and real music. We’re Goin’ Green! Rebel Life! I’m in my Stevie J mode. Get on the bus while it’s rolling! (Laughs!)
NCrapperVanDilizm
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