Brooklyn rapper HDBeenDope has unveiled his latest single “Locked In” with multi-platinum producer Dizzy Banko. With the rapper’s signature high-energy style over booming beats and a lyric video to pair with it, the highly anticipated single arrives on the heels of its impressive viral explosion on Tik Tok which continues to amass millions of views.
With recognition from the BET Hip-Hop Awards, co-signers such as DJ Khaled and Rapsody and many others, the Brooklyn Native’s breakthrough return follows his 2022 EP project, What Can They Say, also produced by Dizzy Banko, which marked HD’s debut as a signed Roc Nation artist. With its stand-out Today’s new track release also builds on the massive success of What Can They Say’s lead track, “Mamba” from his latest which has slowly becoming an athlete anthem being celebrated and shared by NBA Miami Heat player Jimmy Butler, major networks like ESPN and sports stadiums across the country.
During Grammy week, we had the chance to sit down with him. Check out our exclusive chat!
The Knockturnal: I read online that you consider yourself to be a student of the rap game. Can you tell me what that means to you?
HDBeenDope: I would say being a student is, doing the research beyond what was given to you, you feel me? Like, I don’t look at it necessarily. I can’t say that I went through the rap encyclopedia and everything but it’s a matter of when you hear things that you enjoy and going deeper. I feel like that’s in all aspects of just whatever you’re interested in, you know, I mean, you find something that you like, okay, dig deeper, go down that rabbit hole because you really enjoy something. It’s so much more beyond the things that introduced you to it.
The Knockturnal: Tell me about some of the rap rabbit holes you’ve been on!
HDBeenDope: So early on for me because I mean, obviously, I didn’t grow up on like a lot of the boom bap stuff like, right, you know, like 50 Cent was booming when I first got into hip hop for real. So that was like a journey for me. Like, I remember listening to Illmatic for the first time, and if I’m being completely real with you, I heard him out. And I was just like, “Oh, this is cool.” So for me, obviously, J. Cole beats and all flows and he’s picking I’m like, “Alright, yeah, this is that.” So when I’m hearing Nas, it’s like, it’s the same level of poetry, obviously, you know, I mean, but it was just like, “Alright, this is cool.” But I was walking to class one time and ‘New York State Of Mind.’ was just playing. And I said, “What in the hell is this?” And I don’t even know why it hit me that way. It hit me when I was going to class because obviously, I heard it by that point. But for some reason, that was like the “Oh, okay, I get it.” It really had me on a Nas kick for a minute.
The Knocktunal: You said you were in school at the time, what were you in school for?
HDBeenDope: I was in school for liberal arts because in my head, I was gonna be in school for two months and then go to Europe. And I just believed it and I was like, Yeah, I’m gonna, I’m gonna, and then I started building a fan base. So, in my head, I’m just like, Yeah, this demand here. I’m gonna be out of here. Any minute. It was like a semester or two semesters. We’re at City College in New York…I did a year and a half. But I mean, the whole time. I was about to go to Europe the whole time. And then I flunked out. But it worked out. So I flunked out because I wasn’t doing homework. That just wasn’t my thing. When I got home, I recorded in my crib. So make music when I get home. And I had an English teacher, and he was just like, Yo, you’re good in the class, just do this assignment. Just make it up. And you’ll be good. Because right now you’re going to fail. And I was just like, I left that class. I said, Damn, that’s gonna be the last time I see him. I knew it. I knew I didn’t do this. I knew I wasn’t doing it because I was going to record. So, that happens. And when I go to sign up for classes next semester, they were like, Oh, you’re on academic probation. Well, I’m going through the process, right? I’m telling my mom, I’m like, alright, well, I gotta go talk to my academic advisor. I’m dragging it. And then I got an email from my booking agent in Europe, and he was just like, Yo, we got this tour opportunity…I think it was like two or three weeks. And I told my mom, “Yo, so they want me to go out there. They’re gonna pay me. You think I should go to school this semester?” Like, come on. She’s like, “Okay, I get it.” And that was it on school for me.
The Knockturnal: What made you decide to go to college in the first place? What was your major?
HDBeenDope: Just liberal arts? It was really because I just felt like that’s what I had to do. You know, I mean, because especially growing up in a family I come from like, I come from immigrants, you know, so like, that’s a part of success, you know, as an immigrant parents, like Alright, cool. I’m making a better life. My kid even went to college. I got a degree they got this good job. So for me to kind of deviate from that was like “what are you doing?:
The Knockturnal: Where are your parents from?
HDBeenDope: My parents are from Grenada. But it was just like, “what are you doing?” So I kind of just went in just to appease more than anything, and I feel like that’s a big reason why it’s like, you should do things for you. You know, I think it’s very important, but yeah, it was a time.
The Knockturnal: When did rap become a career for you?
HDBeenDope: I would say I mean, at that time, I was really focused on it once I started going to Europe and things like that. But I would say it became in like 2018. This was when I was getting paid for making beats and I was making records and things started moving like that was when he was like, alright, everything else like the job that I was doing before I was shooting videos. Okay, now shooting videos and out once 2018 came, it was like, Okay, we got to put that to the wayside. 2018 was definitely the turn.
The Knockturnal: So I feel like every new artist, they go through a period where they have to find their own unique sound. And for a lot of artists today, because of social media everything is so instantaneous, I think artists oftentimes end up replicating the artists that they listen to without even realizing it. For you, how would you describe your sound? What is your unique sound?
HDBeenDope: I think the sound is bounce. But it’s also very intricate, like an intricate bounce. So No I.D told me this thing with music, people gotta know what to do when they hear it, you know, I’m saying I’d be able to move like, the music has to kind of teach them that. And when he told me that I kinda like, restructured the way I was approaching music, you know, I mean, like, really allowing the beats to kind of speak to me first. So that’s where the bounce comes from. But the intricate part is just because being a writer, like, I’m very focused on like, I what am I saying? How am I saying it? So that’s always implemented, you know, even the records. I feel like you could just turn your ears off. When you turn them on. It’s like, Oh, shit. That was you saying some shit.
The Knockturnal: Take me through the process of writing ‘Mamba’!
HDBeenDope: So Dizzy Banko sent me this beat, and he was like, “just throw something on this and leave a second verse open, we’re gonna throw somebody on it.” And I sat down with it for a little bit. I had the voice memo with me just like mumbling the first part of the hook. So I was figuring that out. And once I got it, it was just like, oh, okay, we’re off to the races. Mumbled a little bit of the verse. You know, I mean, to just get the structure, And then I’ll start putting the words together, you get what I’m saying. And I sent it back to Dizzy and he was like alright just do the whole song. I’m glad he did that. Because that second verse to me is like the one, I really like that second verse.
The Knockturnal: Who did you grow up listening to?
HDBeenDope: So my trinity is 50 Cent, Lil Wayne, J. Cole.
The Knockturnal: 50 Cent, J. Cole, Wayne. Three vastly different styles. What was it about each style that appealed to you?
HDBeenDope: So, 50 cent was like the epitome of a rap superstar. Amazing, like, nobody has had a run like 50 did to this day. Then, Wayne, it was the way he used words. And then J. Cole was very transparent. When I got to Cole, it was like, “Okay, I can be introspective with my music.” When I was 50 listening to Wayne, like, I was very much making music that sounded like my rap style, all that shit. But when I heard Cole was like, okay, cool. I can kind of just use these same elements that I got from these other two artists, but put it into my story.
The Knockturnal: Growing up in Brooklyn, what were your parents playing?
HDBeenDope: My mom wasn’t into hip-hop heavily, she listened to a lot of Calypso music, Soca Music, gospel, and country. My mom used to ride around listening to Johnny Cash. But, she was very big on like, kids being kids type shit. So I got all my hip hop from my brother, my brother’s 13 years older than me. He kind of like anytime he was “watching me,” he would be in his room blasting all the music and I was like “oh what’s that?” So that was my introduction to it.
The Knockturnal: What’s bringing you fulfillment outside of music?
HDBeenDope: Okay, so recently I’ve been going by water in the morning. I’ve been going by the beach, just sit there and just write, not even music. I sit on the beach, might smoke a J, its serenity. I feel like that part of my day will exist throughout my life, wherever I’m at I’m going to find some water.
The Knockturnal: What’s next?
HDBeenDope: ‘What Can They Say’ is out right now. Those five records I really want to keep pushing those records, but I got a deluxe on the way. I really want people to fully digest these records. I don’t want to just jump to the next one yet. So I’m gonna extend that project and then we got another one on the way in the summer with my homie, Plus from EarDrummer.
