We recently connected with Davontea Scott and have shared our conversation below.

Davontea, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

As a kid I grew up around music with my brothers captivated by the hip hop culture. We all watched 106 & Park, every episode, with hopes & dreams of becoming the next Lil Wayne. I free-styled and dabbled in music so often that all my friends and peers knew me as the guy rapping at the lunch tables and drumming his own beats with his fingers. I never took it seriously because coming from where I’m from, things like that don’t happen, So just like BIG said, “it was all a dream”.

As a student i hated English – everything about it. From the papers, to the research, to writing and reading – I disliked it all. I was good at it, i just didn’t care for the forced curriculum like books I had to read, what i had to write about, and how I had to write. I gave all my teachers friction about until my junior year with Ms.Ally. I gave her the same push back all year until we got to the poetry section of our curriculum. I became very interested and I started spitting them out left and right. I instantly became active in class, a full 360 from the start of the year. She noticed my avid interest and engagement and offered her prior music knowledge from playing guitar and encouraged me to pursue it. She published a few of my pieces around the school and gave me some resources to research. So now I find myself doing everything I hated: reading, writing, research for music – and loving it. Thats when I knew I had to pursue music.

Davontea, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Davontea Scott “Tay” and I am a 28 year old Hip Hop artist from Austin, TX. Although I was musically inclined since I could put words together, I started looking at rapping more as a craft around 2014 as I was exiting high school and looking into colleges. In 2013, a friend of mine helped propel me into the artist industry and find a balance between school, being a student athlete and my passion for music. Coming from similar upbringings, I was reminded constantly that I was fighting to give back to my family. At this time, I learned that my brothers also had a passion for music so I started taking things serious by actually going to a studio, creating a Soundcloud and uploading music regularly. We didn’t have much money or resources but, my brothers and I worked tirelessly so that our whole paychecks would go towards studio time, any equipment we could get our hands on and investing in our passion. It’s truly humbling to look back at these times, with broken recording equipment and laptops on their last legs, and see how far we’ve come since then.

For as long as I could remember we collaborated on music and posted our music to platforms regularly as I prepared to attend college at Boise State.

In Boise is where I truly learned all the ins and outs of the music industry and how it really works. It was such a slow pace living and market that I was able to take that time to really step back and lock in without loosing my momentum and position. I quickly got plugged into the music scene with other artists, studio engineers, photographers, promoters, and even developed a solid fan base. It was home to my first live performance – a performance that set the tone for all of the ones that have followed.

After 5-6 years of diving into my music, juggling college, work life, sustaining my cost of living and trying to maintain a social life, I made the decision to move back to my hometown of Austin. Boise gave me opportunities and experiences I’ll always cherish, but my home town, being the Live Music Capital of the world, could open up doors for me that I never thought would be open to someone like me.

Through this journey, I’ve learned where I stand and where I’m trying to go. It’s been humblin, motivating and eye opening. There wasn’t always people in my corner. I was met with fake love and shady intentions, and still I chose to rise and work harder. I started to figure out the basics and held myself accountable to stay consistent. While I’m always working to sharpen my craft, I’ve recently taken a bigger interest in the business side of the industry like furthering my career via social media presence by creating and marketing my own brand. My hopes are for my brand to highlight my expression of my life experiences through music and hopefully, resonate with others that experience similar obstacles. My motto is show love, get love (SLGL = Show Love Get Love) and being genuinely myself, to hopefully inspire other people and aspiring young artists to do the same.

I’d say I’m most proud of the shadow work I’ve put in over the years and the progress I’ve made thus far. From rapping in the cafeteria during lunch to performing on stages, from recording in a lab room on a broken computer to recording in top tier studios, I’ve come a long way and still have so much further to go. I want all my fans, family, and friends to know Tay for who he is – a genuine, stand up guy who has a natural talent and passion for music. I don’t care to be the next Drake, i just aim to be the best version of myself and make a living doing what I love – I dream to be the first Tay and inspire many others to stand in their own truth, talent and passion to do the same. I believe music is food for the soul and I aim to do my part in spreading nourishment.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

One thing that I want to stress is that support is FREE. People that supported me throughout ‘the struggle’ part of my journey mean so much more than the people that chime in when they see you’re doing good and on the way to big stages. Support, although greatly appreciated, doesn’t have to be monetary. A simple like, comment, share or subscribe means the world to artists, I personally love when people comment about relating to a song or thanking me for writing it because it helped them in some way, shape or form in their life. I get genuinely happy when people share my music on their own platforms and put my name and songs on paths that I would’ve never been able to cross all on my own.

As an artist, we can’t do it all ourselves, that’s why I’ve always put emphasis and taken pride on the 3F’s: fans, family, and friends. Without people like them, us artists can’t progress much outside of who we know. To me real support, real love, and real growth extends beyond buying merch, going to shows, and purchasing music – genuine support, love for a song or me as an artist is priceless.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

One of the hardest lessons I had to learn was to get out of my own way. “It’s All in Your Head”, by Russ, really put this into perspective for me. I noticed I was blocking my own path and progression because i was stuck in bad habits and cycles that were doing nothing to propel me forward. At the start of my music journey I stuck to what I wanted to do, made the type of music I liked and pretty much neglected anything else. I never thought it was a problem because, after all, it’s my craft and my music. With the help of my 3F,s I realized that in this business and career path my opinion isn’t the only one that matters. The overall choice is up to me, but it’s not all about me. Now when I make music, I still consider what best aligns with me first and foremost, but I’m also more open to new ideas, beats and genres to practice versatility, diversity and challenge myself. I had to learn to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. I’ve had so many people show love and support for my music and when I try new things, sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t, sometimes it’s mixed reviews either way, but I still love showing my fans that I’m willing to step out of my comfort zone for them and for myself. I strive to show them the same dedication and support that they’ve shown me all these years.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/d32tmusic_tay
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/d32tmusic?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/d32tmusic/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr9vEjIAu-g3rc9_4kGx5hw

Image Credits
@studio_vibin @fockedmedia @goodeatz_deezy