It Was Written

If you have been a follower of my blog diligently or sporadically you are more than likely to have seen a post involving music featuring Danny Watts. A rapper from Houston, Texas, he was the first artist to really show me love on the blog sending me his music, when I first started the It Was Written site. I caught up with him the other day for an interview, for those of you that do like his music, but don’t know much about him! Here you will get a chance to see what he is really about, his projects that have already been released, whats to come in the future as well as the inspiration behind the dope music.

I know about you. But for those out that there that don’t, tell em a little about yourself.

Alright, well I’m 22, from Houston Texas and when I was younger I wanted to become a writer. I have wanted to be a writer since I was eight years old. After I graduated high school I discovered that I had a talent for music, so I pretty much combined the two, and now you have Danny Watts, the artist.

Was there any inspiration, outside of your love and ability to write?

I was Inspired by my best friend at the time, he moved into the neighborhood where I was at and he recognized my talent for writing, he molded me in a sense for the style I have now. I wrote my first rap when I was 17 and I was ready to come out then, but he let me know that I needed to take time to perfect my craft. But I Really didn’t start taking it seriously until I was about 21, 22 years old.

Why Hip-Hop?

Well I cant sing and im in this business to express myself. I felt like hip-hop was the best way for me to do that.

Talk about the rap atmosphere in Houston.

In Houston, people think about the big names: Swishahouse, Slim Thug, Paul Wall etc, but there are a lot of dope artists in Houston, underground that all have their own style. I really don’t know how to define myself in terms of style of music. Lyrically I feel like I have it, song style I have it. I feel like Im molded in different styles in terms of my own music.

Speaking of your own music, your first mixtape is titled, The Road Less Traveled, which I thought was dope, Educate the people on your first work.

That project was molded in so many different ways! Just some background on that , I used to call myself Danny Danger, and the mixtape was originally called The Danger Zone. I felt that was too gimmicky, so I dropped that and went with my original name Danny Watts. The Danger Zone was supposed to let people come into my realm so they could understand how I function as a person. It was my first project so as things were getting made, it wasn’t showing myself as an artist or as a person, so I kinda felt like it wasn’t what I wanted to portray myself as, as an artist, hence the name of the tape.

So you weren’t Happy with The Road Less Traveled?

I wasn’t happy with it because of the emotion that was behind it, collectively as a project I like it, maybe 2- or 3 songs on there I felt good about, but the rest I felt I was just making songs just to make them honestly. The Road Less Traveled was supposed to be me letting people inside of my heart and letting them know my feelings. I feel like I didn’t keep that consistent through the whole project.

From that tape came your first official video, “Segway to a Danger Zone,’’ talk about your inspiration behind that track and video.

That’s the most personal track on the mixtape. For the video, nothing was mapped out on it, Clyde, my best friend who made the video came up with the idea of me doing a video. I told him I wanted to make one for "Segway To a Danger Zone" .We really just went to an empty lot. We had a few props such as the wine bottle you see in the video, but we just created it right there on the spot it really took us only about two hours. Its special to me because that’s really how I live my life. Im spontaneous, I just live my life how it plays itself out. The video was made in the moment and that really symbolizes who I am.

That’s obviously a very personal track, as I think most of your music is, where do you think you got the style of being so personal in your music from?

Growing up I was always moving around a lot. I couldn’t really make really close friends, the kind that you share emotional stories with so I resorted to writing it down. My father wasn’t really around that much and my mother was always working trying to provide so she really didn’t have that much time to sit around and talk about my problems at the time. But Im not gonna lie, when I first started rapping it was all about the material things, rapping about chains and money I had that didn’t exist in real life. But eventually the real me began to come out, the artist I am now.

You're also in a group, one half of Surfside Union how did that come about?

We met mutually through artists we know, and just kind of ran into each other. He’s been my friend for about 3 or 4 years now. We didn’t create the group til about 2009 but we always I think had the idea in the back of our minds. We click so well because we are so different if that makes sense. He’s more of a jazzy kind of guy, im more alternative, but when you mix the two together, we figured out a way to bring it together and create something unique with it. You never know what to expect from us because we both want to do two different things which forces us to go completely outside of our boxes and that leads to amazing things.

Where does the importance of music come from in your life?

Music is important to me because I like to connect with people. That’s really what I want to do. I feel like making music is one of the best ways to connect with people. I also like to travel to meet new people. I have never considered myself to be one who likes to stay at one place all the time so I feel like for me gaining exposure would be the best thing. A deal is really not my most important goal in making music, I just love to connect with people.

Im sure you wouldn’t mind ending up with a deal though!

No doubt! Getting a deal would be the best thing an artist could ask for, if you could still be the owner of your ideas. I feel like labels take your ideas away and sale them as if they were their own. I cant just make a song and sell it to them. I cant write a song for someone else to sing or rap. I feel like its my job to do my own song. Music to me is like an autobiography, and no one can tell my story better than I can.

How important for you is it to make a name for yourself in Houston?

Being big in Houston is extremely important for me. Houston is so big and there are so many people from different areas so gaining the respect of all those people, and my own city gives me connections to pretty much everywhere else in the world.

Talk about your work with some of your producers?

I really like establishing personal relationships, with that said I don’t work with a lot of different ones. I feel like when you have many different producers on the same project the sound is not consistent. The producers I work with recognize my talents and I recognize theirs as well and we just work well together.

I know you work closely with the Broke College Kids, How did that come about?

Myspace actually! I have been knowing them for a while as well. I work real closely with them even know though they are in Cali and im in Texas we do a lot using technology...skype, phone etc. to get it done. They are actually putting out a mixtape soon called New Student Orientation , which I will be featured on, so look for that to drop in December or January.

Do you do any producing of your own?

As of late, I have been taking stabs at producing. There are a couple beats I have been working on, and a couple I have actually released to the public for people to give me some feedback on. Personally as a rapper, I feel like my beat selection is great! Not to sound cocky or anything, but I feel like its better than a lot of peoples. People used to tell me all the time I should try to make my own beats to get that perfect sound for me, so I picked up fruity loops and started working with that.

Your newest track out, "Human Paradox", is off The Nature of Feelings, talk about both.

As an artist, I feel I have grown tremendously from my first mixtape. I feel like I’ll be regressing if I in a sense, repeat a mixtape. The Nature of Feelings is allowing me to do everything I feel as if I didn’t do with The Road Less Traveled. Im drawing inspirations from things that let me understand myself a little more, then putting that into the form of songs. As far as “Human Paradox,” its about me and this imaginary voice inside my head. The voice of self-doubt coming out that I constantly have conflictions with. I feel like I have a very good talent for rap, but when I sit down in my head and just reflect over my situation a lot of negatives pop in.

When can we expect to hear The Nature of Feelings?

I had a set date, right now im not too sure because I have been getting requests to be featured on other peoples projects, which people want me to a lot on. So hopefully it will be dropping in the first quarter of 2011.

As a whole, what can we expect to see in Danny Watts’ Future?

2010 has been essentially my breakout year, for myself. I have been doing shows, and I have gained a pretty good fan base. Right now whats most important is The Nature of Feelings. I also have the Broke College Kids mixtape that I will be featured on, as well as another mixtape called Bonus Stages, that’s being crafted my Nameless who is another producer. Doing those projects allow me to fulfill my competitive spirit, it’s a way for me to gauge my talents with other rappers. Im looking to gain respect in 2011 I think that will help me break out as an artist. People around me tell me all the time If I commit myself more than I have been. I got potential to win Best New Underground Act for 2011. Which in Houston is a big deal.

Danny Watts-Shoutout to whoever took the time reading this interview, I hope you learn more about me as an artist. Shoutout to Fat Tony, ADB, Clyde Grant of IMAGE.IN, MykeyIso, B.Lloyd THA ISH, broke college kids, nameless. If I forgot anybody shoutout to yall too! Shoutout to all my family and friends too man! Shoutout moms, shoutout my girlfriend Dalychia (I didn’t forget about you this time).

Ayycee1-Thanks to Danny Watts, for making this happen!

Here is where you can catch up to Danny Watts, as well as download his music!

Email him at dannywattz@gmail.com

http://surfsideunion.com

http://twitter.com/DannyWattz

http://myspace.com/whoisdannywatts

http://dannywattz.bandcamp.com

http://youtube.com/user/whoisdannywatts