Donte Thomas Interview
Nehemiah Terry: Who would you say you drew inspiration from the most?
Donte: Definitely Jay-Z and Outkast, my mom’s always been a heavy Outkast fan. When I was a kid I’d say Snoop Dogg, Kanye, and Pharrell for sure. Definitely also Missy Elliott, Busta Rhymes, and Lupe Fiasco, really just all those creatives who are doing the quote-unquote, weird stuff that wasn’t necessarily frowned upon, but kind of seen as that weirdo rap. Those are the kind of rappers I was listening to. Don’t worry about sounding professional. Sound like you. There are over 1.5 billion websites out there, but your story is what’s going to separate this one from the rest. If you read the words back and don’t hear your own voice in your head, that’s a good sign you still have more work to do.
Nehemiah Terry: You have a lot of collaborations with Corey G. How did you guys meet and what is your relationship with him like?
Donte: Corey G’s like the 40 to my Drake. The Kanye to my Kanye. This is crazy, but he's actually one of my best friends now. I met Corey on Soundcloud in 2015, when he hit me up I was like ‘yo bro your music is nuts, we should work’. He sent me some beats via email, and he was just thinking like ‘oh, yeah, these are cool’, and I'm like ‘nah dog, these are crazy, like we need to do some work’, then time went on, and people were starting to recognize him as an upcoming great, and same for me. I ended up moving to LA in 2016 and that's where he's from, so when I first got there Corey was living in Gardena and I pulled up on him. He was still living at his parents house and shit, but they were just moving into a crib. When I pulled up on him I came to find out my man is a carpenter, website designer, he did previous work for Dom Kennedy, the first campaign for Bryson Tiller, websites for Dreamville and their tour merch. He's very humble, plays music, a father-of-two, and he's doing all this while producing music, working a full-time job, and being a homeowner. I'm just like, ‘dog, you're different’. So then us kickin’ it turned into my first album, Grayscale. He produced the rest of that project because I needed like five more songs, and from then on our relationship just been really solid. I really can wholeheartedly say that without Corey I probably wouldn't be where I am because he really gets my sound and cares about the music.
Nehemiah Terry: Who are some other either artists or producers you would look forward to working with in the future?
Donte: I've definitely been building my relationship with people during this pandemic and whatnot, I want to get some work in with Pivot just because we're affiliated with them a bit, I definitely want to do something with Saba. Of course also Kendrick Lamar and Andre 3K. I definitely want to work with Boldy James, Chris Craig, Navy Blue, Pink Siifu, Mavi, and Maxo. Also Chris Patrick, I want to do another one with him. I definitely want to do an album with Madlib, The Alchemist, and Pharrell. Kanye, I’d love to get some Kanye production. Jack Harlow, Ab-Soul, Lil Nas, I got a list. I also need Noname, Little Simz, Tierra Whack, Chloe Bailey, and Doja Cat. There's a lot of dope women in the game, I’m all like ‘Oh, female rappers’, like no, they are just rappers who are women.
Nehemiah Terry: What do you think separates you from other up-and-coming artists?
Donte: That's a very good question, I’d say I look at a lot of up-and-comers and they come from cities that are known for music. Regions that are known for having record labels, resources, funding, and the proper connections to really thrive in the music industry, and we come from a small city so we don’t really have that. We're still becoming the next quote-unquote New York of the West Coast, so I think what separates us is not having a market so we really have to utilize the internet as much as possible. I would say us having our own storefront with our own merch line, because we started a record label first, then it turned into us making clothes and now we own a storefront in downtown Portland called Produce Portland, which is a branch of our record label Produce Organic Records. Definitely having a space for the community and making our own resources to utilize gives us a doper look just because we're really making something out of nothing.
Nehemiah Terry: How have you grown in music making and art from ‘Grayscale’ to ‘BUDS’ ? What have you seen change in the ways you make music?
Donte: When I first started I didn't really have an idea of how making an album works, so when we made our first album we had to take two steps back and be like, ‘okay, what are we missing?’ First off, we were missing a song for women, I like to make sure that I have an R&B song for all the ladies. At least one on every album, sometimes two just because that’s a market that not a lot of people tap into, and I really take pride in that because women are very important. Women buy a majority of the merch and they are more of a consumer of music than men. I started to notice that with my fan base, in particular. What’s definitely also changed is my writing process, my creative process, and just how I go about making a song. I used to just want to sit in the studio and write, now I get a collection of beats together and I’ll either work on a song one at a time, or I'll write down a list of concepts that I might want to indulge or engage in for a song or project. Now the process is a lot more simple, because instead of being in the studio all day trying to come up with concepts, I'll come into the studio and knock out a whole bunch of concepts in one day that I already came up with just by being more prepared and in my element. Even more so, I'm having more fun with it because I used to take it a little too seriously. Even though I take it seriously with my penmanship and whatnot, if I'm not smiling and laughing while I'm recording the song, most of the time I'm not even putting it out. I want to have a good time and remember the energy it took to make the song just so I can be in a good headspace when I'm performing the song, delivering the song, making videos, content, you name it. I'd just say my process is less organized and more open, fun, and creative.
