KEXP Documentaries: Hip-Hop: The New Seattle Sound - D.Black

photo by Jeremy Center

Greetings KEXP friends, Michele Myers here. Every week our KEXP Documentary team brings you a musical subject in the time it takes to play just one song.  Our current series is Hip-Hop: The New Seattle Sound and this episode is on local community leader, deep-thinking rapper/composer D.Black.

D.Black is a direct descendant of Seattle’s hip-hop history.  His father was in our town’s first hip-hop band The Emerald Street Boys, and his mom in the first local girl rap act, The Emerald Street Girls.  And his godfather (known as Sugar Bear from Emerald Street boys) gave local hip-hop legend Vitamin D his first vinyl.  Vitamin D later became D.Black’s mentor.

Starting to write rhymes at age 7, D.Black recorded as a teenager and released his debut, Cause and Effect, when he was 19.   After that record, D.Black says he “died, spiritually and symbolically” and became a different person.   Changing his subject matter to a community-based, spiritual message, his 2009 release Aliyah (now in his early 20′s) tells stories of his own struggles as a man and as a father.  He wants to make rap music that his kids could listen to.

KEXP Documentaries are produced by Michele Myers with assistance from John Felthous, Jentery Sayers, Jonathan Moore, Sharlese Metcalf and Executive Producer Kevin Cole. You can hear all our series here, and follow our progress on Facebook or Twitter. Made possible by the American Music Partnership of Seattle.