Meet Diamond Producer DJ Daryl

Daryl Anderson, professionally known as DJ Daryl, is a music producer, songwriter, and DJ from Oakland California. He’s the originator of Mob Music– producing several hits for artists such as The Luniz, Master P, Snoop Dogg, and Nate Dogg among others. DJ Daryl produced and co-wrote Tupac’s “Keep Ya Head Up” on the Strictly 4 My N.I.G.G.A.Z. album, the song reached #2 on the Billboard Hot Rap Singles chart, #7 on the Billboard R&B/Hip Hop chart, and #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. 2Pac’s Greatest Hits album has sold over 10 million copies to date, certifying DJ Daryl as a “Diamond” producer.

I recently sat down with DJ Daryl while he was in the studio with his new artist Eastman.

You’re best known as a 90’s producer, what was so special about the 90’s?

The 90’s was the best era of hip hop to me and the reason why is the music was more soulful, whether it was hip hop or R&B, it had more feeling. People were rapping and making music from the heart. Today it’s just a lot of beats and rhymes. They’re not really talking about nothin’ other than how much money they have… how many chains they have… the cars they drive, you know. A little of that was going on in the 90’s but there was more of a rhyme and reason to it.

What are your thoughts about today’s artists and music?

Today these artists are getting money easy, they’re not really struggling like how you had to struggle in the 90’s. You comin’ from the hood and to have the money these dudes have today back then, you had to do a lot. You had to put in some serious work. Today you have many more platforms… you can stream, you have YouTube, SoundCloud, and other places to expose your music. Back in the day you had to have a record deal to get your music heard the way it’s getting exposed today.

So, are times better now?

Yeah, I came from the era where you had to record on a two-inch reel-to-reel tape that only held three songs, so you had to buy four or five reels for a whole album. Today you have flash drives and hard drives… today I can carry my whole studio in my laptop.

What’s the challenge to the business right now?

It’s saturated, there’s just too many people trying to be in the game with too much bad music. There are a lot of people out here. The guy that was a music consumer yesterday wants to be an artist and a record company CEO today.

Do you feel like the bar for good music has been lowered?

In some ways yes. With all this music out here, it’s hard for some people to know the difference between ok, good, and great music. There’s just too much product out there.

What advice do you have for artists?

Today you gotta know how the internet works and a lot of folks really don’t understand that. I ask guys coming from my era do you have a website or a YouTube or Instagram channel? And they would say, ‘I ain’t messin’ with all that stuff,’ and to be honest, if you’re gonna be successful in this business you gotta have that stuff and more! So, if you don’t understand what’s going on today, you’re gonna miss out and get left behind.

I like some of today’s music but there are only a handful of artists doing special things. In the 90’s you had Tupac and Biggie doing some really big and really deep songs that are legendary songs to this day. I can count on one had the number of today’s artists that have deep songs. Artists should understand the value of real instruments and not just computers. Many guys don’t play instruments or read music.

Also, many artists don’t care to listen to music from earlier eras, they feel like that’s old and I’m doing something different. I believe that if your going to be a well-rounded artist, then you must do some research and understand more about what you’re doing. I’m a producer from the 90’s but I got a lot of ideas and inspiration from the music I came up on during the 70’s era. But instead of today’s artists and producers finding inspiration from the past, they are only listening to what’s happening now and trying to make what people tell them are hits.

Much of today’s music is only good for the moment it’s in. It’s like a faze. It’s good for the summer and as soon as the summer’s over, you forget about the song. Then after time goes by and you look back on to music from the faze and you say I can’t believe I used to listen to that silly song. It’s because you can’t relate to it anymore.

That’s why we keep listening to classic hip hop and R&B, because we can relate to it!

That’s right and you see it in many artists. When the ideas and sounds become harder to find they go back and I hear them saying wow Tupac and Biggie we really good and, Snoop had a lot to say.

You were blessed to work with legends…

Yeah but I didn’t know they were legends then. We were just some young kids from the hood trying to get out of the hood. If you couldn’t play football or play basketball—rap was it. We took that to heart and worked really hard to make that happen. I’m not saying that’s not going on with today’s generation, but they got it easier. They can take two grand and buy a studio and put it in their bedroom.

What’s the future look like for today’s budding recording artists?

We have to recognize that this business is a global thing. There’s a market in Germany, Japan and South Africa where our music is actually selling. Kids in the US want to be rappers, singers and producers. Now I understand how to make the money. If you can find out how the labels make money then you will understand how to get paid. The labels are making a ton of money off streaming. We need to learn how to take our streaming numbers and convert that to dollars.  The business is still the business.

DJ Daryl’s recent work include releasing a Mixtape, Money Ain’t Everything, featuring some of today’s hottest artists like J. Cole, H.E.R., Chris Brown, Ty Dolla $ign, Jay Z, Nipsey Hussle, Rick Ross and many more. Now streaming on Datpiff – http://piff.me/0127811

He is currently working on an EP with his artist Eastman, look for its release later this year.

For more information on DJ Daryl contact:

Amber Anderson
Onyx Entertainment
(424) 303-3410
[email protected]                                                                                                                                                           Kevin, Eastman & DJ Daryl