By Slops Shot Ya
After surviving a nearly fatal gunshot wound, Memphis artist Dreek is has found a new reason to rap. He sits in with AllHipHop to talk about his new project Do or Die, and relives the near tragedy. Growing up wasn’t always easy. He felt he was a star ever since he hit 12-years old. He started taking music seriously after an encounter at a Florida-area gas station.
Down in Orlando, FL, Dreek perused a gas station, and a cipher magically formed inside the store. The clerk heard Dreek getting busy and said to him, “Bro, you’re hard for real, you’re gonna be big, I can see it.” Dreek didn’t pay much attention to the comment because he had his eyes set on a career in basketball.
But due to some favoritism by his coaching staff, he decided to divert his attention from the court to the recording booth. Using instrumentals from YouTube and local young producers, Dreekdadon started putting his music out via SoundCloud and caught a lot of early attention. While in the studio with a friend, he played some tracks for an industry veteran, Thuy-An Julien who immediately knew he was a star and signed on as his manager.
When she played the music for Cortez Bryant, he was hooked as soon as Dreek’s vocals exploded out of the studio monitors, and saw the vision that Thuy-An sees in the Memphis spitter. Cortez signed Dreek to be one of the founding artists on BluePrint Distribution. With three commercial releases under his belt, “Don Style, Pt. 1”, “Trap N****” ft. NLE Choppa, and “Come Closer”, Dreek looks to make 2021 his year. He was almost killed in a shooting that he discusses in this exclusive interview.