Indie Monday Spotlight: Darian Smith Jr.

Give me the elevator pitch–a short rundown about what Darian Smith Jr. is all about.
A recording artist (particularly in rap/hip-hop), a producer, currently an aspiring entrepreneur as well as a philanthropist, a writer, an inventor, a creative thinker, & just…a radical.

What are some of your upcoming projects?
I have three projects I’m currently working on, piece by piece, slowly but surely: KOOL PPL.™, The PPL.™ MAGAZINE, & COMMERCIALS.

KOOL PPL.™ & The PPL.™ MAGAZINE are the next projects. COMMERCIALS is probably gonna be a 2020 project. “FOR.THE.DEAD.HOMIES.” is the lead single for it.

What’s your favourite song?
My favorite song…haha, that’s a tough one. My vibe switches a lot throughout the day. But lately on SoundCloud, I’ve been discovering some artists. There’s an artist by the name of “BOLDiiPARK” with a song called “HRSEPWR”. Found it about a month ago while I was in Wyoming, that shit was bumpin’ and I was just feeling it, had it on repeat for days. Reached out to him to work, and he was down. Another song is by “ICYTWAT” called “AINT ON SHIT”. I’ve been with my lil lady bangin’ that shit in the whip. ICYTWAT actually produced my song “U NEED”. Just a lil fun fact.

When did you start making music, and what drew you to it?
My earliest memory of me making music was when I was about 9 years old, maybe 10. I wrote a song about my uncle. Him and I were always getting into it, and I recall taking the same structure of the songs I’ll hear on the radio, and I wrote a lil diss track about him. I took it serious around 13 when I released my first mixtape “(2009) No Chorus: The Mixtape”.

My family drew me to music...My granny will always play some oldies, some soul, reggae, old school hip-hop when I was younger. I used to dance with her a lot when she would play it and smoke her blunts. My dad used to work at Good Guys. It’s basically the OG Best Buy. My pops was into home theater set-ups, and just has a good ear for audio experience. I remember when we used to ride out, he would play music in his car and I was always intrigued with the bass playing and the bangers he would choose. My pops was into hip hop, jazz, and had a lil bit of R&B in his playlists. My aunt had me heavy into R&B…the B2K’s, the Chris Brown’s, Nelly, Destiny’s Child’s, etc. My uncle had me into the West Coast shit. He always played the gangsta shit. So just with them, I had a nice variety of music to listen to coming up.

Rap stars like Lil Uzi Vert, Lil Pump, Juice WRLD, and many more all made their start on platforms like Soundcloud. Has social media changed the way music is made and distributed?
I truly believe social media has put a hefty leverage on music distribution. Personally, five or more years ago, I probably would have compromised my independence for some sort of leverage in my career through another source. Today, I’m doing everything 100% myself, collecting royalties, doing the press release, the marketing, etc. Eventually, I’m going to start branching out and gathering ppl.™ for a team but point being, with social media… I’m able to gain insight into the business side of things quicker and easier.

On the other hand, I’m still in favor of word of mouth. It’s stronger, more direct, more likely to have a customer convert from being a potential consumer to a definite consumer, and the message sticks. I can always tweet something and ask my 10% of my strongest followers to retweet, like and share...but what’s the purpose when nobody has no relation to that? It’s more likely to happen if they heard your music being discussed amongst others in a social setting, and then they witness it being virtually displayed. So it’s best to lay out that word of mouth foundation. Gather the organic reach, literally go outside and make people aware of it. Or at least have some evangelists doing the work for you, and then watch how social media will leverage it.

As demand for rap music increases, so does supply; it seems like everyone and their cousin has a mixtape. How do you set yourself apart in this genre?
What’s funny is that I was having this discussion with my boy WA$E the other day about how rap is becoming well over-saturated with rappers with different genres, everybody is trying to push a certain image or message, like you said. Everyone has mixtape, or a record label, some sort of ties in with somebody in the game to where they can be your manager, it’s just an extremely over-saturated market.

So how I believe I set myself apart...Recently, I was taking a look at my analytics. I was studying how much my audience engages with every single strip of content I release from day one. I took a look at the comments, as well as the personal messages I receive. A lot of my consumers really appreciate the tone I set for myself. I believe it’s within the lyricism, the brand imaging, the content I’m releasing such as The PPL.™ MAGAZINE. I’ve received a lot of praise just from staying in my lane, and producing the greatest content I can produce. Just them acknowledging my creativity alone, is enough for me to realize that I don’t have to work too hard to set myself apart within this genre. My creative and spiritual energy is powerful enough on it’s own to do that.

But I’m not going to settle with that. I like to seek challenges. I feel like hip-hop/rap is getting a little lazy. Honestly, I’m still the type to start the whole track over if I fuck up on a verse because I like to deliver. When people listen, they hear the real. They know what’s real and what’s not. People can listen to me and pick up on my energy, and know that I put my all into it. I have to focus on them, and let them know they are my evangelist. They’re going to be the ones building up social currency for sharing things about me. So, I believe it’s all about brand imaging and marketing on my end. The PPL.™ is a developing brand with a strong following, and I’m going to be persistent on making sure that marathon continues...RIP NIPSEY

Who are your influences, musical or other?
Damn, I have quite a few. Musically… My influences go from Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Pac, Kendrick Lamar, Kanye West, Nipsey Hussle, Puffy, Swizz Beats, Timbaland...and that’s just rap. And speaking of such, I need to add another song to that list of my favorites: “Huey Briss – Break/Bend”, that shit is one of my favorites. And I can go on and on. But outside of music...Steve Jobs, Nikola Tesla, Gary Vee, Tony Stark, Walt Disney, Sam Walton, Bobby Hundreds, James Jebbia, Gianni Versace, Dan Houser, and that’s all I can think of for now.

You’re a cross-platform artist; we can see that in your influences. It’s not just about the music, but the visuals, the branding, the overall vibe. Could you speak a little about your non-music endeavors?
Music is really the foundation to everything else I’m initiating.

Something I noticed I’m gaining a strong interest for is photography and cinematography. I have a shitload of pictures and videos of random things in my archives. Homies, sceneries, my family, consumption of drugs, sexual shit, music, food, culture, the list goes on. I tend to capture things in the perspectives of angles and motion. An aerial or bird’s eye view footage of the homies gives off a certain feeling, then if you switch angles, and get the homies staring down at the camera, similar to how N.W.A did for their debut album “Straight Outta Compton” it gives a different feeling to that as well.

The PPL.™ MAGAZINE is where those hobbies in photography come into play. Earlier this year, I began curating what I like to call an “interactive digital magazine.” Basically it’s a magazine that can be consumed digitally, with the power of interacting with the sources included within the pages. The majority of some pictures and films myself & others are included in there from different parts of the globe. I’m also looking to gain some director credits on some of the homies videos, I’ve been shooting some scenes and I know I got the angles and the motion on point. I can’t literally hold the camera and shoot my own videos, so I’d like to do that for others. I’m also writing a script. It’s either gonna be a short film, or a mini series. I’m not sure yet. Along with the other endeavors, I’ve been getting into designing fashionable calligraphy for my developing clothing brand: The PPL.™ CLOTHING. Majority of these clothes will be focusing on words, and the imagery surrounded by those words, hoping to get them embroidered & patched. I’ve been into designing words for as far as I can remember. I was more into that than I was designing whole figures. A lot of this costs major money, but I believe that the brand deserves to be launched on a high quality scale, since I’ve developed a quality brand over the months and lil years.

I’m also looking to get into philanthropy as soon as possible. I have some economic plans I’d like to initiate. Basically, I’m looking to get rid of the value of the dollar. Did you know that in Australia, I believe…there’s a non-profit organization that’s doing positively and largely impactful actions towards treating the homeless? I was reading this article sometime last year, took notes on it, and I must be forgiven ahead of time for not remembering the organization’s name. This guy had somehow made a keycard, similar to a debit card, that’s issued to homeless ppl.™. With this keycard, you can walk up to a vending machine, slide it into a port, and choose from. fresh fruit, hand warmers, socks, gloves, water, things that can be used to alleviate the unfortunate problems the homeless have to deal with. I’d take that vending machine, and literally blow it up into a whole store. Getting rid of the value of the dollar. That’s my lil philanthropy proposal. Hopefully some NPO’s or somebody will get at me. I’ve been doing research on getting rid of the value of the dollar since I was about 18 years old.

Can you explain your “902 Fuck The 5-0“ campaign?

This campaign focuses on the unjustified shootings from police officers, unlawful arrests, the abuse of the justice system from within, the corruption of our government. This is for the countless black men and latinos that have been forced to comply with angry police officers (who not only threaten them with brutal force), just because they fit a stereotypical description of a suspect. This is for the innocent lives that have been taken by a police officer, when they weren't even part of the crime to begin with.

#902fuckthe50 screams out a powerful yell towards the unlawful officers that practice corrupted acts against our neighbors. OUR neighbors. The man you see taking his walk every morning, the mail-man with his regular routes, the lady you see pushing the stroller, the homeless man that collects cans, these are our neighbors. And we need to protect each other. It screams out a calling to our neighbors and join together and rise for a cause to push a righteous image of unity among each other. The foundation begins at home for me, in Los Angeles, 90250 area. (Incidents like this date back even further with Hawthorne Police) And this message can spread even further in any creative but truest form.

What’s your five-year plan? Where do you hope to see yourself?
My five-year plan…Sadly, I’ll be 28 five years from now lol. I don’t like getting old. But, shit...I hope to be alive then. A lot of ppl.™ around me have lost their time, and I’m still here. It’s odd. On the contrary, I hope to see myself well-established. Musically, spiritually, mentally, and financially. I look at the age 28 and possibly see myself with some kids, or at least one kid. I’m trying to have children before I turn 30.

But definitely not right now. I want to have some businesses running. Hopefully more than one. I wanna ball. Like swimming in a pool full of money ballin’. So, right now I’m going to make a lot of sacrifices to get where I’m trying to get lol. Definitely just looking to be a lot more evolved. Everyday I’m looking to enhance an area of my life. ★