We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Abu Da Don a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Abu thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?
Honestly, that is an extremely tough question. Sometimes I do look back and wish I started making music earlier. Taking music more serious when I first had an interest. I feel like if I did though, I wouldn’t have the knowledge or resources that I have today. I feel like a lot of the situations that I went through in high school, in football, in college, in my fraternity. All those things helped build a story that if I would have started my music career earlier, that story would be completely different. My focus wouldn’t have been on being the best I could be in those different periods of my life and those long lasting memories and lessons, that ultimately made me into the man I am today, wouldn’t have happened. I feel like my music would be in a completely different direction than what it is in now. So, I would say, if I knew the same people and built the same relationships and experiences earlier, Yes, I would rather have started sooner but if I am not able to change that as well then I would keep everything the exact same.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am Abu Da Don. I was born and raised in Nashville, TN, Bordeaux to be exact. Growing up my parents introduced me to almost every sport possible. I was introduced to the alto sax, guitar, violin, drums, and piano. I looked at music as a cool hobby but never thought about pursing anything musically because I was so dominate in athletics. I played football, baseball and basketball year around. I played travel baseball for Performance Academy of Nashville and football for the Gra-Mar Pirates up until middle school. If it wasn’t sports I didn’t want any parts. I ended up playing football at Hendersonville High School. Where as Quarterback, I led us to a Class 6A State Championship appearance. I was an O-D All -American. I ended up taking my talents to Tennessee State University. During high school I ended up getting into hosting / MC parties. This passion followed me to college. I have been blessed to host in some of the biggest arenas in Tennessee. I have hosted events at Bridgestone Arena, The Fedex Forum, Hale Stadium, from Tennessee State University to University of Memphis to Austin Peay to Western Kentucky and anywhere in between. You name I most likely have been there on the microphone. I didn’t develop my passion for being an artist until quarantine. I was sitting around with SpiffyBoyDanny and Warren Kashh and they were cooking up so many beats that I said forget it let me hop on something. So, that started everything. From that point on we recorded music in Warren Kashh bed room. I sent my very first song I every recorded to my girlfriend at the time and she laughed. That was the turning point in just making music, having fun and proving a point that if I want to do something, I will truly do it and not only do it but be great at it. This sparked a fire in me that later developed in to what we now have as Top Flight The Brand.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
When I first started on social media, my page was focused on football and football only. Once that wasn’t my sole focus anymore I changed it to a personal page. Not, it is an artist page. Social media is weird. You cant let it stress you out but you also can make big bucks off of it if you doing it right. The biggest thing is, focus on what you are going to post the most and ONLY FOCUS ON THAT. When it comes to social media, stick to 1 brand per page. If you do hair have a hair page, if you are an artist have strictly an artist page. The biggest issue is people doing too much on 1 page and people getting confused and just unfollowing all together.
We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)
My view point on NFTs is simple. I don’t see it. The NFT does not have any actual value besides what you say the value is. Its all digital. Its not like gold or diamonds where you know its valuable, Anyone can make an NFT and put a price on it but once it is sold, how does it hold value or increase in value? There is no way of truly showing value in an NFT unless it comes with something and we are using it to truly show value. If I can’t use this NFT to get something valuable that I can physically touch, does this file I have really have a value?
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @AbuDaDon
- Twitter: @AbuDaDon__
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2daki6o5tz05u8zVBodjTg
Image Credits
TaylorMadeImages WhatsSleepTV SuperBamera