We were lucky to catch up with Drew Verdé recently and have shared our conversation below.
Drew, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
They did right by doin wrong which in return made me choose the opposite of what they did knowing that wasn’t what I wanted to do. Being around drugs, alcohol, prostitution, violence and being poor gave me great insight on exactly what I didn’t want in my future. I never wanted to “experiment” with drugs because I seen the results of so many people who once “experimented” and lost their lives to drugs. Whether it was an overdose or suicide, drugs were the root of the problem. Having to be alert in my own home to possibly save me or my brothers caused me to pay attention to everyone there. Their choice of words, their reactions to one another. It made me interested in psychology, which helps with my music because I understand how to articulate things on a record to relate to others.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My father use to force me to watch Michael Jackson cassette tapes and Martin Luther king tapes from around the ages 5-8. I started off not wanting to and it was more like a discipline in my eyes. I started appreciating it more and more though throughout the first year and became a huge MJ fan. My father loved Motown/R&b/hip hop he would cut my hair in the kitchen at our house to music all the time it was a soundtrack to my childhood. My mother loved that music as well but mainly gravitated to 80s pop music. My father left when I was around 10 years old. My mother raised me and my brothers. I fell in love with hip hop at 11 years old. It felt like a father to me. I loved hip hop In my era though because that was all I knew on Comcast on demand. All day I would listen to music and watch music videos. I began writing music at 13 years old and I was so terrible I wanted to be good so I kept writing everyday until it became an addiction. I met “brodi Ganz” through a friend at the age of 16 and by 17 I was recording at his place with equipment he bought for me. The journey really began there because he put me more hip to the golden age rap that my generation wasn’t aware of unless they had someone show them. I started studying more and never quit. What sets me apart from others is I don’t like to fit in I am addicted to music like my mother was addicted to drugs I have an ear and a distinct voice. The way I write can never be boxed in I can’t be categorized because I change creative formulas almost every song I do clean pop and grimy rap at depthful levels. Just this alone what I’ve typed I feel shows where my minds at in a way considering the articulation combined with the music out and back story. I’m very self aware yet humble and grateful for where I’m at in my career and everyone in my corner.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The feeling of listening to a song that I made that I love and having someone tell me it helped them through tough times because as a kid that’s exactly what music did for me so the tables turning is crazy to me especially when it’s seeming to be a bunch of cool empathetic genuine people that feel for what I speak on
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I honestly think the music industry has became over saturated with so many different artists and a lot of local beginners that people are so overly fed music that they overlook a lot of unknown artists because of the high chance of them not being good at what they do. So in Detroit alone there’s probably around 100 thousand rappers. It’s just tha majority of them are unknown and/or not takin it serious but still posting and expecting support so I can’t even blame society for not being able to help them all. What society can do is help their friends and family thrive with their music in todays music climate. The problem is nobody that knows the artist personally perceives them as a star whether they are envious or not. So the real question is what can the artist do to get society to support the artist. Once society is in support of the artist then society should interact with posts for more engagement for that artist so the algorithm puts the content in front of other states and countries and also support the artists upcoming shows. My overall thought on it though is it’s not up to society at the end of the day its up to the one pushing the art.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://l.instagram.com/?u=https%3A%2F%2Flinktr.ee%2Fdrewverdemusic%3Futm_source%3Dlinktree_profile_share%26ltsid%3D8592db67-5987-42f3-a59c-1423e678d8c8&e=AT2WP77xeWUZLH6wiUxAub4-NrN6kOV62viBfOHgMctzTp5eB8asSmqUjP9E5HppvOlxWLSG15WGDvw9ZnvrlgRW7jYDvHHqdwsXhQ
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drewverdemusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Scalzi2017/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@DrewVerdemusic
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/andrew-green-4
Image Credits
ZLC Photography
Brodi Ganz