Donnis: Southern Hospitality

Before Donnis walked into the Manhattan offices of Atlantic Records it was relayed that the interview would double as a tattoo session. Unfortunately (because it would have made great video footage), the tattoo never happened, but the second the charismatic 26-year-old walked into the small meeting area, I knew it would still be a fun interview. He wore sunglasses, a smile, and Southern hospitality as he cracked jokes and laughed as if he had entered a room full of old friends rather than a business appointment. In fact, he was so down to earth that everyone was caught up in conversation and it took a few minutes before I realized the interview was writing itself. I had to cut him off mid-sentence to hand him my phone in order to record the following conversation…

TWV: How do you feel landing the 2010 XXL Freshmen list impacted your career?

Donnis: The cover motivated and surprised me. It also put a lot of pressure on me that shouldn’t have been on me that early. I came out of nowhere. I released one mixtape, and XXL held it in high standards. Everyone was expecting me to blow up overnight. It was a lot for me. It’s just me, my team, and one mixtape, and now we have to figure out what to do next. Put out another mixtape? We didn’t know what the hell to do. It was intense, but all of that has passed. We play our lane and do it well.

TWV: What have you learned since you started?

Donnis: You can’t look at another man’s success and judge your situation off of theirs. Everybody has their own road they’re going to take to get to where they want to be. A lot of people are winning from that [XXL] cover, and we’re not hearing from a lot of them anymore. It’s part of the game. You have to figure out who you are and just do you. You can’t compare yourself to anyone. Take your own lane and run with it.

TWV: What were you doing before you got into the music scene?

Donnis: I was in the Air Force stationed in Tokyo. From there I just was doing music all the time. I took all my military checks and used them toward recording. My first real mixtape was “Diary of an ATL Brave” but I was putting together little CD’s like that and handing them out in Tokyo, and performing at all the local bars in and around the city.

TWV: The Japanese scene, in music and beyond, has a reputation for being very innovative. Do you feel living there gave your work a different type of influence?

Donnis: A hundred percent. People say my sound is a little left, but that’s because I was listening to shit that nobody out here was listening to. I feel like when the electro and street wear scenes got really big over here, it was late to me. What the Japanese kids were doing, the American kids were late getting to. The Japanese are always a few steps ahead, that’s why I love looking to them for what’s next.

TWV: What brought you to Atlantic Records?

Donnis: All the success they were having. There was an A&R over here at the time who I felt really understood what I was doing. At a label everyone has to come together and be on the same page as to if they want to sign someone or not. He really painted the picture and made them realize this was something worth investing in. Also, there’s good competition over here to drive me as an artist.

TWV: How do you feel you’ve changed as an artist since your first mixtape?

Donnis: I’m older and have experienced more. I’ve traveled and seen things I had no idea existed. You can read books, but you don’t know this business until you’re in it. I’m continually being conditioned by doing interviews and shows. With life comes life lessons. I’m becoming more mature and figuring out who I am. Me knowing who I am helps me be the best artist I can be.

TWV: Every rapper I know has a crazy show experience…

Donnis: Wow. I can tell you a really bad show experience I had. It blew my mind. The mic didn’t work. I was in Philly. We fixed that, and I’m pretty good on stage so it wasn’t really a panic moment or anything. It was alright, we got the situation under control, let’s do the damn thing, I’m ready to rock. So I start, it’s going good, and about mid-way through the show, I took a fucking fall. Not “oh, I tripped on some shit,” nah. I took a fucking fall. I slipped, fell, boom. It was really, really bad. That was a bad show experience. No “crazy” stories, cuz I just smoke my trees, hang with my peoples, watch some TV, try to find out if How I Met Your Mother is on. Things like that. I’m easy.

TWV: Did you hurt yourself? Was it a stage-to-floor fall?

Donnis: No, no. Thank God, no, none of that. Stage-to-floor is not the move. It was a stage-to-stage fall. I’m not hurt or anything. The ego was a little hurt! And I really appreciated my fans for not putting that shit on YouTube and embarrassing the hell out of me. Nobody even tweeted it! I searched it. Oh God, it was so bad.

TWV: If it wasn’t on Twitter, then no one knows.

Donnis: That’s right. If it wasn’t on Twitter, it never happened. [laughs]

TWV: Things like social media are really revolutionizing the music industry. What value does the Internet hold in your career?

Donnis: I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the Internet. We kept everything viral with my mixtapes. We never really went with hard copies out in the streets. We relied on the Internet to get us everything. I love the Internet. Download my music! Everything is going digital. You can’t alienate something that’s helping. It shows the transition. I remember hearing Ludacris’ stories of filling the trunk up and selling CD’s from the trunk. The Internet is the new trunk. You gotta go out there and work it to your best ability.

TWV: How did you link with DJ Infamous?

Donnis: I was texting Infamous, over and over and over again, because I wanted him to be the DJ for one of my mixtapes, but he wasn’t writing back. There was a mysterious aura around him at the time – it was right before he signed with Heavy Hitters. He just wasn’t replying at all. Fast forward not even three weeks later…I didn’t even know what he looked like, but he was in Atlanta. We were at a Converse celebrity basketball game playing ball – well, they were playing ball. I was on the sidelines. I’m not really into sports. I was hanging out getting introduced to people, and Green Lantern introduced me to Infamous and DJ Holiday as being that kid with the “Gone” record. They started spazzing out like “yo, that’s your record? It’s gonna be the hottest record of the summer man, we’re gonna make shit a movie! It’s gon’ be crazy!” You know Infamous, he was gonna make it a “movie.” From there, I played him a lot more records and he’s been with it ever since.

TWV: You left Atlanta at an inopportune time to come to NYC with this crappy weather. If you were down South right now, how would you be spending your perfect spring day?

Donnis: I’d wake up early in the morning and go for a nice jog in the excellent weather. I’d come back, hop in the Mustang, and get some Chick-fil-A breakfast. It’s really good breakfast.

TWV: What’s your order?

Donnis: I’m going to get the biscuit with chicken, egg, and cheese, you know, because I live big. But I don’t order that bagel shit they do with the seeds on it. You know what I do? I do it with a biscuit. I get hash brows on the side. They have Simply Orange – I hope you’re very familiar with the Simply family, because if you haven’t had the raspberry lemonade or the apple…

Anyway, I’m going to go back to the house and watch some How I Met Your Mother, and lunchtime is gonna come around. Probably going to put something on the grill, go to the backyard, I don’t know if you really want to call that cooking, but I can grill. No apron, just outside smoking some trees getting my grill thing going. I’m going to eat that food, call up some of my homies, then we’re going to fall into the night time. Maybe go to MJQ, it’s a dope little club spot. Who knows, may not be enough ladies, and might decide to go over to Magic City or Onyx. Make it rain trick, make it, make it rain. Have a good time doing some of that. Then who knows what’s going to happen. Some of my friends might get lucky or hang out with some beautiful strippers, I don’t know. But I know one thing – the night will end at the waffle house.  I’ll have my eggs with cheese, I’m going to have bacon, I’m going have hash browns, and it’s going to be awesome. I’m going to ask for my waffle last, and I’m going to get a Sprite. A vanilla Sprite. Have you ever had a vanilla Sprite?

TWV: I’ve had a Sprite with vanilla vodka in it. Does that count?

Donnis: I don’t know, that sounds kinda intense! I’m kinda with that though! But I don’t know how cool I’d look if I’m at the bar asking for a Sprite with vanilla vodka. Not very cool.

TWV: You’ve admitted you’re not the athletic type, but if you’re eating all this cheese, eggs, waffles, etc. how do you stay in shape?

Donnis: There is no workout plan. I try to just…I eat kind of healthy sometimes. Sometimes.

TWV: Um…Simply Apple?

Donnis: That’s not healthy, come on, really? [laughs]. I don’t know man, skinny man genes. It’s awesome.

TWV: So what’s next for you? Is there an album coming?

Donnis: Yes, I actually just spoke with Mike Caren. I’m going to do one more mixtape. My goal is to polish out the sound, which we definitely found on “Southern Lights.” I want to find a sound that can’t be duplicated at all. So if people try to remake it, everyone will have to say, “Oh, you’re trying to sound like Donnis.”