DaveKevinAdam
You could call DaveKevinAdam a rapper, but that almost seems dismissive. In fact, his full product speaks much more to a sort of living art project than just being a musician alone. From his insane moniker to his signature tagline (and clothing line), “Not Supposed to Be Here,” Kev (as he’s known to friends in short) has curated a weird place in regional hip-hop, if not hip-hop in general.
The style is hard to pin down, it’s accessible contemporary, familiar, and completely different and weird at the same time. It’s got that new new energy but is clearly rooted in nods to the past without becoming cliche or nostalgic. Kev mostly writes, produces, and records his own work aside from collaborations with friends, often a larger collective of writers, MCs, and producers informally known as Black Market Rx.
You’ve definitely got your own style, but I hear little nods to hip-hop history throughout, there’s an old-school Eric B & Rakim kind of vibe in that funky hardness but I also hear some Slum Village/J. Fills in the production and some more lyrical play and poeticism in the flow that hints at like a Kendrick or even ‘fuck it all’ Odd Future kind of vibe. Do you think about or hear any of that or am I way off base? How do your influences make their way into the work in your mind?
I love and appreciate all the artists mentioned but a lot of my work is subliminal to specifically grabbing from their influences. I’ll say yes and no simply because their music just lets me know what I can do as far as what a listener would be interested in on a mainstream level.
There’s almost an early punk rock aesthetic to these songs, short, fast, and no chorus. They read a bit more like free-form poetry in that sense than traditional rap. Where does that come from?
That actually comes from my interest in punk and hardcore shows. No bands that I like necessarily but just how the show flows. This is also why I choose to participate in those mixed-bill short set shows more often than rap/soul/RnB shows. To be honest, when I was just singularly a poet the showcases were quite boring to me from a personality standpoint so I had to find somewhere more exciting to show my skills.
What’s your typical process for creating a track, do you start with the beat and where do those sounds manifest from? Or do you write first and then compose the lyrics?
Lots of both, I mean I’ll be in the car listening to a song like, “Oh, I like that sound!” and write a verse that just sits in my notes until it’s time to use. But other times I will make a beat from an assortment of royalty-free sounds and just feel where the song needs to go. That goes hand-in-hand with topics as well, basically, just whatever I’m feeling at the exact moment. The lyrics are not always from those moments though. I pride myself on collecting stories over years and connecting the dots to make them sound like one cohesive story. That way I’m constantly talking about my entire life.
Your whole vibe, from the songs, videos, the online presence, and the Not Supposed to Be Here tagline all has this despondent tongue-in-cheek cockiness about it, and all of it together to me makes the art, beyond just the music, which is definitely the heart.
What is your goal in your approach to compiling all these things?
Honestly, I believe I’m the best, I’m the nicest, but I learned carrying myself that way was getting the wrong attention. A lot of times no attention at all because the cocky guy is typically bad but he/she is confident. So, with Not Supposed To Be Here I’m basically saying Nah I’m not supposed to be in these spaces in theory but I am here so shut the hell up (with all due respect) and let me get my rocks off. I wrote my first poem when I was 17 and it was incredible, me unknowingly finding out I was talented. Never pushed to create and never told that I should so when I found I could without assistance, I felt I had no choice but to become a force to be acknowledged and accepted every and anywhere I travel.
