He was 12-years-old when Dennis Devraj heard ‘Lose Yourself’ by Eminem for the first time. Since then he has been a fan of hip-hop and he has practised writing and singing in that style. He has also collaborated with several artistes across India and has seven studio albums under his stage name D’strucT on YouTube.
Dennis raps in English and Telugu and strongly refutes the misconception that rap music is vulgar and violent. “Rap music also has good lyrics,” says the engineering graduate from Visakhapatnam. He produces music on his computer using a midi-keyboard and designs the album art as well. He is also the go-to music producer for other rappers in the city He produces music from his home studio, Destructive Labz.
- Check out his tracks on YouTube: Run Into You’, ‘Believe’ feat. Adheen, ‘Breathe’ ; ‘Mother’ feat. Swetha Vijapurapu; ‘Running’; ‘Gelupu Needhi’ feat. Arin Dez; ‘Chapters’ feat. Arin Dez
- Favourite rappers from India: Brodha V, Tienas, Divine, Siri & Enkore
- Favourite songs: Tupac’s ‘Hit Em Up’, Snoop Dogg’s ‘Vato’, Dr Dre’s ‘Still Dre’, Dr Dre’s ‘Forgot About Dre’ feat. Eminem, Brodha V’s ‘Aatma Rama’, Divine’s ‘Jungli Sher’
- Other rappers in the city: Jatin also known as (aka) MC JAKE; Sylvester aka Sykotik; Jayanth aka Jay T; Surendra aka Scorpion; ; Vishal aka Insaan; Lokesh aka Kamzu; Harsha aka Hush; Arvind aka Arvi; Chandan aka Trigger; Kartik Ganapati, N Manoj Kumar, Nani Valentine, Manish aka Mr J, Syed Irfan
Game, name and fame
Dennis began his rapping career with diss tracks. These are songs that verbally attack a situation or another rapper. Now he relies on telling story through his lyrics. “I picked the name D’strucT because that’s what I aimed to do while performing a diss track. Now my style has changed but I can’t change my rap name because people know me as D’strucT.” One of his songs is called ‘Change,’ where Dennis shares his thoughts on changing society with his music. The song’s simple rhymes and slow tempo resonates old school vibes. Old school rap, refers to music from 1979 to 1984. In this format lyrics are thought-provoking and the music has moderate tempo. Contemporary rap is the kind of music which is played in parties. Dennis’ can produce both old-school and contemporary hip-hop tracks. He has also covered popular numbers like ‘One Love’ by Blue and ‘Pillaa Raa’ from RX100.
Coming out
Most of his friends didn’t know he was into rap in high school. This changed when Dennis joined college in 2014. “Around this time my first studio track, ‘Pretty Wingz’ was released,” he says. ‘Pretty Wingz’ is a love song Dennis produced with the help of Arin Dez, a rapper hailing from Assam.
This was a big break for him and he began to dream about creating music professionally. Since then he has used social media for collaboration with MC Bijju from Bengaluru, Kronik 969 from Delhi and BMac from Chennai.“I was thrilled to learn there are so many aspiring rappers in India. Most of them are willing to support an upcoming artiste who is serious about music,” he adds.
His mother grew up listening to English songs and understands his art. He jokes, “She often wonders why I say ‘bro’ so often.” He rarely steps out without his cap and loose clothes!
In the following years, he met Suraj Gautam, a city-based rapper. Dennis, Arin and Suraj connected and their friendship grew. They released few tracks under the name Rhyme Tyme. Eventually, Suraj left for the US; but the trio still keep in touch and discuss music.
Stayin’ alive
“Visakhapatnam doesn’t yet have opportunities for rap artistes, but I still want to stay here. My dream is to build an old-school hip-hop community,” he says. In an attempt to do so, last year he along with another city-based rapper Scorpion started Vizag Rap League to organise rap events. Keeping in mind the sensitive nature of the audience, they put down some ground rules — lyrics shouldn’t any personal attacks not swear words. . The first event took place at Moksha Cafe. The next one is expected to take place in March. .
Dennis says until a few years ago most places were reluctant to pay musical artistes for live performances. Now that’s no longer the case. He hopes Gully Boy will change all that.
