One of the biggest artists to rise out of New York this past year is undeniably Dusty Locane. The Empire artist first broke onto the scene last Summer with his hard-hitting "ROLLIN N CONTROLLIN FREESTYLE". The Canarsie born has gone on took show his diversity on records like “Rolando” (Caught In The Rain), “Rumble”, and “Move Doly” featuring OnPointLikeOP.
Sitting down with On The Radar for his most in-depth interview yet the rapper opened about everything from not wanting to do music early on in life, his mom being a singer, friendship with fellow EMPIRE artist Yung Bleu, his upcoming album, and once and for all addressing all the chatter online about sounding like Pop Smoke as well as his connection to the late artist.
While at first, it seemed like Dusty Locane came out of nowhere the rapper had been getting ready to burst onto the scene for months before releasing "ROLLIN N CONTROLLIN FREESTYLE". Expressing to us that he didn’t want to take the music thing seriously but thanks to some help from his friends he finally got in the booth one day and not long after released his first single and hit record.
With so much of the conversation online about his connection and sounding like Pop Smoke the rapper opened up to us very candidly about their relationship and how everything he does is to pay homage and respect to the late rapper who led the way for new artists to come out of Canarsie.
“I would say for one I grew up with him, as we got older we weren’t with each other every day, there wasn’t ever any hate or any animosity it was always love, but we always checked in with each other. That was there for me it didn’t matter what people were saying it was always genuine and love. So what I started to realize was more or less if you don’t have an understanding of who I am you can go with anything at that point in time, I can't be affected by that I can't allow that to take me out of my character. So I more or less began to tell people about me, who I am, most people will try to get me to bash or talk down on him, but what’s the point of that? He did something where we from n----- ain't do, we ain't ever see that up close and personal, so what do you want me to do, ima embrace that”
With his debut album on the way, Dusty expressed that like his first single with “Life Of A 5” he’s not putting much thought into it and instead is taking a more relaxed route when it comes to stressing about the album. For the rapper it's all about showing people the work he has put in to get here and through that they’ll understand more about him.
“Ima be real this is the one, is I ain't put too much thought into it since it's my first one, same way with my first track, Bobby out here telling me its lit but im telling him to cool it we taking our time with it but he had the faith. With this one I feel like it’s the same way for me I know what I did I know the work I put it, all the months with the politicking going on on IG and social media, I was working, it’s a reflection of that the workhorse mentality and we went see that for sure……
As someone who has been through a lot in his life before leaving us, the rapper sent a message to his younger self expressing the importance of understanding once you make a decision that decision will forever have consequences that you have to live with.
“Take your time, think a little more, well definitely what I learned now is that ill say, everything you do has a consequence and be ready to play that consequence and that helped me understand whatever situation im in im thinking of the worst possible outcome, I took it there im staying there”
Check out the full interview above and listen to Dusty Locane on iHeartRadio below…