23-year-old social media sensation and artist D’rock is poised to climb the charts. Born in Cape Verde and now based in Los Angeles, he was already known by the masses via Vine before building an extraordinary following across YouTube. D’rock possesses a unique sound that can be described as a harmonic blend of neo-soul, hip-hop, and reggae, which stems from his Cape Verdean heritage.
Towards the tail-end of 2020, D’rock shared his debut single “Arenas” as a way to show his versatility and ability to captivate audiences alike. A rather new era for D’Rock, he later followed up with the release of “Don’t Wanna Talk,” yet another stellar single. Most recently, the R&B talent shared his Valentine’s Day offering “All Me,” a cuffing season ballad that many would enjoy. It’s clear that the state of our world hasn’t stopped D’Rock from doing his thing with more music on the way later this year.
In our latest interview, we spoke with D’rock about moving to LA in pursuit of his goals, making a shift into artistry, and new music to name a few topics. Read the interview below.
Although from Cape Verde, you moved to LA some years back in pursual of your dreams—how would you say your life has evolved since you’ve moved there?
LA has provided great opportunities that I would never come across in Cape Verde or in Boston, moving out to LA was the best decision I ever made and it was life changing for me! Music would probably not even be happening right now!
You kicked off your career after going viral on Vine. How has social media influenced you, both personally and professionally?
Social media has given me a chance to see how fast my dreams can actually come true, my followers that show support and show so much love is what keeps me going and influencing me to do more and get in the studio everyday! being one video away or one song away from going viral or getting my name out there is a blessing! I don’t do it for attention or anything. I just act like myself and people love my personality and that is what I love about it all.
What inspired you to gravitate towards being an artist and what are some of the obstacles you faced along the way?
I’ve always enjoyed music, I listened to music every single day as a kid, my mom would play loud music in the house while cleaning, and I always enjoyed dancing! So music has been life for me, but my dream was never to become an artist until I decided to go to the studio one time and play around, and from that day on that’s what I knew I wanted to do, but with that being said it was very hard going to the studio a lot because some People didn’t really believe in me cause I was just starting and they were charging me a lot of money just for a session and that made it real hard for me until I met my manager that just believed in what I could do and he got me studio time every single day.
Where do you go to for creativity and inspiration in your music?
I love listening to island music, soul music, Michael Jackson, Chris brown, Akon, Pop Smoke , Burna Boy. I put these people on and they get my creative juices going!
What has been your most memorable experience so far while working on music?
First time meeting my manager in the studio, I had came there for a friend that was recording and this one special day I asked if I could lay down a reference for my friend cause she could figure it out and my manager said yes but in reality he didn’t want me to because he didn’t know me, so finally I got in there and lay down a whole hook and verse and from there on he ain’t ever doubted me ever again.
Can you tell us about any forthcoming projects you’re working on? What’s next in store for you?
Yes! These new projects that are coming are going to make gangstas wanna bust out they 1-2 moves in front of they’re crushes! All that acting hard is going to go out the window in the club! I promise. But these new projects are also going to contain the Caribbean sounds and also a little bit of hip hip all mixed in one.
If you enjoyed our interview with D’rock, check out our interview with Kye Colors.
