Devin Di Dakta On Why He Makes Difficult Conversations The Subject Of His Songs

Following his Grammy Award nomination, Reggae/Dancehall star Devin Di Dakta has been blazing his own trail, with a less weighted perspective from the typical Dancehall artist. From the EPs brought to you right before the pandemic, like Bare Thoughts and Bare Meds, to some of his formative hits like Rrri Bam Bi Deng Deng, When I’m Gone, and Internet; Devin’s range has been proven.

Now, as post-pandemic plans are underway with the release of his latest EP Freshman, the artist offers a much more celebrated side of his range. The St Mary native sat down with DancehallMag to discuss his new EP, staying clear of creative boxes, and why he chooses difficult conversations for the subject of his songs.

Why that EP? In the sense of, I’ve seen you display the ability to do many different types of music. You don’t want to be known for one thing and because of that you showed your toolbox very early. But this EP feels like it’s in a particular vein, which is like the feel good, partying, enjoy yourself kinda vibe. Why that now? It feels like a prelude, like it’s a piece of something, but not the whole thing. 

Most of whatever I release now, like you said, is a prelude to further down. ‘Cause me is a youth who think about all mi great grandkids more while. But yeah, definitely and like you said also I never want to be boxed in because I realize that Jamaicans tend to put artists in a box.

For example, during Magnum (Talent show), and the Rbang bi deng deng type of, jump up kinda songs. People would say ‘Oh dat bad. He can really dance, listen to his lyrics.’ Then after that I realized, whenever I realized anything else people didn’t really want to listen to it. I realize that they just want to hear me sing about the girls dem a whine up. They just want to see me on stage, in that element. So I said alright.

Then I was doing some studies and during that time I just felt like I needed to show people that there is more to Devin Di Dakta than just have di girl dem a whine up on stage. So I did release the project, Bare Thoughts. People loved it. I consistently released music like that instead of just drop one and then go back to the girl songs. I kinda just released and kept releasing.

The first one was, When I’m Gone, that went well, and then Internet. The whole project was well-received, and then directly after that the pandemic came. Immediately after that. Then there were so many issues that affected Jamaicans, some directly to me, some indirectly. Because if it’s affecting people in my surroundings, we might not be friends but–just seeing it affect you. Then again, you’re not the only one. I can say that anything that affects me and my friends, also affects at least 70-80% of Jamaica. So I said alright let me touch some of these topics. I’m definitely not the smartest person in the music industry or Jamaica.

However, the way I write there’s not alot of artists out there who can really touch on certain topics the way I do it. So I just feel like nobody is really touching on these topics and even if one or two do it, it’s not in-depth and I feel like I could bring something to that, and that led to the project called Bare Meds. So we go Bare Thoughts, and then Bare Meds. Bare Thoughts was more personal to me, and then Bare Medz was about Jamaica. So we have Systematic, and then we have Too Late, addressing all the crime going on with the youths who feel like we are the biggest and the baddest thing. Mama talk to you, you don’t want to listen and then the next conversation you and her have, she’s the only one talking and you’re laid down. So we make songs for things like that.

So after those two projects now, this one named Freshman is like me done prove to people that I can do this type of song. So now we are coming back fresh for the ladies, because the ladies miss me, most times when I see them on the streets they say I’m too serious, they want to whine. So I think it’s the perfect time and now with the knowledge of the music business and even myself. I learned a lot about myself, during that space, a lot about how people overall operate. So I think it’s the perfect time and the perfect name, Freshman, is like we’re coming back fresh. And like you said this is only the beginning of what’s to come, literally because this is the first project of an EP series leading up to my debut album. Which is further down. But for now, Freshman it is.

The Internet song was something I wanted to talk about. Because now we’re in a more forward time. But before when you used to try to talk to people and tell them that these platforms are designed by these tech gurus to keep you on it, to keep you thinking and feeling a certain way. They don’t necessarily care about your mental health, people wouldn’t listen. 

Definitely not.

What was the song born out of? Were you and are you still having these kinds of conversations with people?

Conversations like this still, once the internet is alive and people use it, convos like this will always be one of the important things. Recently a teacher link me and say the only reason why he doesn’t play it in the class is because of the expletives. So he asked me to do a clean version, which I’m thinking about. Like I said, things like this will always be something that people need to talk about. Even with that song, before I released that song, I released a teaser picture just to show how the internet is. Just like you said, people just took it and ran with it.

Then I dropped the song and the greatest thing about that is that they were saying ‘yo, he shouldn’t have done this, but the song bad.’ But this but that. That was the greatest thing. Like I said conversations like this we need to have, we need to make sure especially the kids know that there is more to life. I recently see a post saying this guy says he is 36 and he just understands money. He just owned a home and bought a car. So it’s like he’s saying he’s just starting when you have kids 25 watching him on social media not knowing what he went through to live this life. So even if it’s not me having this conversation people will always have it and kids need to listen.

You chose some of the more difficult conversations too. 

One of the thing with difficult conversations is that, at times it might lead to arguments. But I feel like that’s how we learn. Because if I don’t say something wrong, you can’t correct me and you might have information that I want but you just keep it to yourself. Because at no point did I say something for you to correct me, so you will just keep your information, if you pass it on then ok. So I will always be the artist who, will say it and if I’m wrong, I hope someone corrects me and I’ll just stand corrected. So like I said, we need difficult conversations. We need conversations like this and if I don’t say it, nobody will correct me.

How do you feel about the release of Freshman? Do you have any reflections from the listening?

The listening vibe was nice. I think people love the lead track more, which is why we used that. Pretty Pretty, big up Romieikon on that. Then you have Easy Deh which is more of a drama kind of song, so you done know people want to hear drama. Then I realized that people really love the song Bed Spring. It kinda have that dancehall flavor, similar to Pretty Pretty, but a bit more unique, Dale Virgo on that track big him up.

Then my personal favorite Dale Virgo produced that again, Electric. That track is my favorite. Reputation is also a next favorite for me. I like the more chilled kinda vibes. The Ride is more of a Hip Hop vibe, big up Jamrock Vibes. Reggie produced Easy Deh. Yo Christian produced Reputation. The project has hardcore dancehall, and then a bit of UK and US hip hop.

Then we brought it back a yaad again with One Night Stand, which has some drums on it like a little afrobeat sounding vibe. So it’s a mixture. Nice vibe, nice project. Freshman.

You mentioned Storytelling being important in your songwriting and the science of that but it seems like you take the sound just as seriously.  

Yeah whenever I’m listening to music, sound is the thing that catches me. You might send me a song right now and it might take me until next year I might not hear one word the person is saying. But you see if the sound catches me immediately, I will listen to that song every single day until I move on to the next one. So I’m really keen on sound and it was a big part of how I organized this project.