DeJ Loaf is definitely the artist to watch heading into 2015.
DeJ released her first mixtape, Just Do It, back in 2012 and joined Sayitainttone’s IBGM camp. The Detroit native generated a ton of buzz after dropping “Try Me” as a single this summer and landed a deal with Columbia last month. With superstars like Drake and Wiz Khalifa singing her praises and recognizing her work, her visibility has been rising steadily in a relatively short time. She recently talked about her appearance on the posse cut “Detroit Vs. Everybody,” an Eminem track that features a small platoon of Motor City rhyme animals; including Royce Da 5’9 and Danny Brown. She explained that she didn’t know the superstar Slim Shady would even be on the song until he was on the song.
Royce called and asked DeJ to take part in the cut, and she learned the song was for Eminem after-the-fact.
“He was like, ‘I got this record,’ and I wasn’t sure if they were gonna make it. He said it would be [a track] called ‘Detroit vs. Everybody,’ but I didn’t know it was gonna be Eminem,” she said, indicating to the Metro Times that the experience is still hard for her believe.
“What would you do?” she asks. “How would you feel?”
Along with the grim-yet-tuneful “Try Me,” her latest mixtape, Sell Sole, highlights a versatile and passionate 23-year old. With her combination of combative street rap and melodic digi-crooning, it’s not hard to see why the tough-talking spitter is getting so much attention. Born Deja Trimble, Loaf says she isn’t looking to mimic what worked for any of her predecessors and isn’t focusing on anything but expressing herself as she wants.
“My style is free, I do whatever I feel at the moment,” she told Rolling Stone recently. “If I feel like singing, I sing, if I feel like rapping, I rap. I used to be too shy to sing on my earlier songs when I first started out, recording now is more comfortable. So I let loose and do what I want. Swanging!”
“Nowadays I feel like women rappers come into the game with the same mentality from way back. They think, ‘It’s hard to be a female in the industry.’ They come in using that and it gets them nowhere. My mentality is just to create. No rules. No old-school remedies. What’s next for me is to stamp my name everywhere and become one of the best to ever do it.”
Sometimes as dark and violent as Chief Keef, sometimes as melodic as Drake–at all times, she’s herself. DeJ Loaf is an artist who’s name you should probably get used to hearing.
“SOMEBODY” BY DEJ LOAF [EXPLICIT]
“TRY ME” BY DEJ LOAF [EXPLICIT]
“WHERE THE LOVE AT?” BY DEJ LOAF [EXPLICIT]
