DopeAMean
Denver, Colorado, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2018 | SELF | AFTRA
Music
Press
Hip Hop Rap artist DopeAMean has made their debut with one of the most energetic Hip Hop albums which we’ve heard this year. “Blue Faces” is a fiery feat consisting of 14 tracks which any fans of Jay Z, Kanye West, 50 Cent, and Dre will want to check out sooner rather than later as DopeAMean is perceptibly an artist on their way to the top of the genre. - Hip Hop AnRFactory
Where are you from? I was born in Columbus, Ga but most of my life was spent between Columbus, Ga, Atlanta,
Ga, and Auburn, AL. I remember one year we moved 6-times. I don’t have the same
childhood memories as most people do. No lifelong friends.
When did you start making music? At the age of 15-years old in 2005 with a group called Y.B.E. ( Young Black Entrepreneurs), I wrote poetry prior to my start in making music. My market savvy selling tactics won us a
local buzz. Then I left to serve my country 4-years latter.
How do you describe your music? Futuristic, Revolutionary, Mood Enhancing, and Therapeutic. It’s like trying something good
for the first time. It’s different from the rap being marketed currently in the music industry. It’s
conscious without sacrificing the street grit. - Out Now Magazine
It’s enthralling on a sonic level, and the rapper keeps up lyrically, his flow more than malleable enough to fit with any groove put forward.
It is filled with the aggression and bluster that his persona requires to entertain fans, but he is also able to be more nuanced and introspective when the occasion arises. You can probably already guess that this is plenty of fun, with beats made to rattle your vehicle as you cruise down the street. And yes, there are plenty of highlights to be raved about. - Jamsphere
The latest from the southern rapper draws on everything from trap to classic R&B to make a thoroughly modern Hip-Hop statement.
Emerging from the Rap Mecca of Atlanta, GA, Dopeamean has been releasing innovative records as a solo artist and as a member of Y.B.E. since 2005. Now he is releasing his solo debut “Blue Faces,” a genre-hopping record packed to the brim with mind-bending production and world-class lyrical content.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/4515201#ixzz6Atji4tXP - Digital Journal
I’m not going to lie, I love me an authentic trap song! In Blue Faces, Dopeamean’s latest body-of-work, he gifts us with 13-tracks that are full of trap vibes and trill sentiments. Gucci-Bag Shawty, the second track on the project, is one of the trappiest/trillest on the project.
Gucci-Bag Shawty is powered by this grungy trap instrumental that reminds me of some Shawty Redd s**t from back in the day. Over this instrumental, both Dopeamean and Super Kool’in spit tough ass bars about being strapped, sippin’ on dirty sprite, making money and dismissing weak ass hoes.
Do you know what I love most about Gucci-Bag Shawty? On it, both Dopeamean and Super Kool’in rap effortlessly. On the real, it sounds like the two rappers dropped their verses while being on a jet with some bad b*tches. - RATINGS GAME MUSIC
What made you decide to jump into the music industry or music business?
I’ve been fascinated with music for years. When I don’t understand anything going on in the world around me. I understand it…Music. Growing-up, before I could understand things, I understood music. After learning about the hypnosis element of music, I became fascinated with trying to hypnotize myself with music, just to see if it would work.
2. What do you think makes you stand out from all the other aspiring and upcoming artists in your genre of music?
My values. I have certain character traits that I find rare in most that I meet. I feel this gives me an advantage with people that hold those same values. Likewise, my open-mindedness and versatility overall.
3. If you could collaborate with ANY artist/band… Who would you choose and why?
Jay-Z. Hov helped with my mental evolution into a man and by watching him it help me understand possibilities. He really made me ponder certain things. - Street Wave Media
I’m sure if one of those early hip-hop pioneers could time travel from their 70’s South Bronx street corner to the present day, they would be amazed at how far the scene that they set in motion in those youth centres and parties has come. But that is the point isn’t it? It’s all about innovation, pushing forward and looking for the next sound to bend to your will. And DopeAMean knows all about pushing forward, he’s been around for a while and understands that though revolution gets the immediate reaction, it is evolution, the ability to learn and move forward that is what keeps you in the game.
As one third of rap crew Y.B.E. (Young Black Entrepreneurs) DopeAMean earned his strips recording music, playing live and selling CD’s on the street but the love of music that brought the three friends together is what eventually drove them apart, with DopeAMean deciding that he still had plenty to say with his music and would stay in the game. But it is an older and wiser artist who comes at us clutching Blue Faces, one who has been out in the wider world, who has lived on the edge and seen the grim realities of some of its darker places. And it is this blend of optimism and reality, hope and honesty which flavours the songs found here.
So we have a modern rapper making modern rap, well, when I say rap, there is a lot more going on than that. A lot more. Percussive trap beats provide spacious platforms here, R&B grooves drive a song along there, it takes in classic rap, southern trap sonics; wandering electronica and trippy riffs fill in the middle ground but as always it is all about the vocal delivery, the flow and the lyrical bite, the balance of eloquence and aggression. And it is in this last area that the album really stands above the competition.
Diss How It Is is an onslaught of heavy sounds and hard hitting words, skittering hi-hat beats and a pumping bass drive the pace of the song but it is the weight of the lyrics that hang in the air, claustrophobic and threatening. By contrast the title track is built on the most minimal of groove, a blend of sweet and sour rhymes, lyrical light and shade that seem to exist in their own sonic world. I’m All That is a brash and boisterous vocal attack, it struts with attitude and swaggers with confidence and Gone is a shimmering blend of almost pop accessibility and darker musical forces. The perfect blend of cultish sounds and commercial potential.
Everyone looks to the past for inspiration but the art is to take those inspirations and use them to move the music on, not to buy a nostalgia ticket to past glories but to instead write the logical next chapter for that sounds or scene, that genre or style. And that, in a nutshell is what DopeAMean does so well on Blue Faces. Welcome to the future, it starts right here! - David Franklin
Twist Online : First of all please introduce yourself to our readers.
DopeAMean : My name is DopeAMean. I was born in Columbus, Ga and raised about 30 min outside of metro Atlanta,Ga. I’m a Rapper, Producer, and Audio Engineer.
Twist Online : Who or what inspired you to get into music industry?
DopeAMean : I was about 4-years old and I saw Will Smith’s I’m going to Miami Music Video. It happened at that moment but I don’t think I became fully conscious of it until later on in life.
Twist Online : Tell us about your recent release “Blue Faces“?
DopeAMean : It’s an album that I feel represents different stages of my life. The album was totally spontaneous but it all came together as if I had planed it. Blue Faces was just a metaphor for change. - Twist Online
Discography
DopeAMean - Blue Faces - November 2, 2019
Blue Faces was the artist known as DopeAMean’s first independent album released on most major platforms. Prior compilations include Street-Creed 101, The Col All-Stars Mixtape, and The Best Unsigned released while DopeAMean was known as HeBeKodac and apart of a teenage rap group called Y.B.E. (Young Black Entrepreneurs). References to kodac is in no way referring to kodac black as the tracks referring such were recorded between 2004-2005.
Blue Faces is a album that represents DopeAMean over coming homelessness and prejudices after being discharged from the U.S. Army for 2-years, 11-months, and 29-days; on which he served one tour of duty in Afghanistan, while going through hell. The come back album Blue Faces should not be miss understood to signify any gang affiliations, disrespect any gang culture, or to make any political statements outsides of its marketed content.
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Bio
DopeAMean is a southern-born African American/ Native American rap artist, music producer, and audio engineer. Born Josephis Kwamane Wade, to a single mother (Lisa Denise Ceesay) in Columbus, Ga. Raised in Atlanta, GA, and Auburn, Al, DopeAMean has a broad southern musical influence. Once a third of the musical rap group Y.B.E. (Young Black Entrepreneurs), which dropped their debut album The Best Unsigned in early 2005 and created a total of 3 albums from 2005 through 2009. DopeAMean enlisted in the US Army in 2009 and was released from service after serving one correct in Afghanistan in 2011. He has grown and developed both as a person and artist. DopeAMean’s solo debut album Blue Faces, released on November 2, 2019, with 14-Tracks and loaded with premium lyrical content.
I’m me, none of the extra. No lingo to make me look cooler than I am. No dressing to impress anyone but myself. No gang activity, hating, snitching, or faking. I ain’t looking for any static with any artist in any genre but I’m not dodging any either. I don’t do the crowds but when I do, I’m nothing short of the life of the party. Life is too short and I’m here to have fun and improve the lives of others. In my journey to develop as an artist, one of the things I find to be most important is reaching back to help others. I’m far from perfect but that doesn’t stop me from attempting to reach the mark.
Growing up I often wrote pomes to deal with physical and emotional abuse I was subjected to as a pre-teen, a bit overweight, and far removed from the street life that would become my safe haven. My poetry slowly evolved into rap, my childhood into the trap style, and my mother was the light that guided me away from street life. She moved me to Auburn, AL to Columbus, Ga, where I had to learn to blend in a College Town. At 16 I received my G.E.D., at 17 attended SUSCC, and at 18 enlisted in the U.S. Army.
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