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Photo by Liz Barclay
It’s a rainy afternoon in New York City. Not a torrential downpour, but enough that I look foolish without an umbrella. DonMonique and I are supposed to meet on the basketball courts near West 4th, where we’re planning to do a photo shoot to accompany this interview. I’m nervous that she won’t want to shoot in the rain. Where else could we go? Why can’t I ever remember to bring an umbrella?
Then DonMonique enters the courts. She’s wearing white sneakers and white sweatpants accentuated by a bright Married To The Mob sweatshirt. In the midst of all the grey, she’s a burst of color and energy.
In a lot of ways, this is the same effect her music has had. In a relatively short time, DonMonique’s presence has been commanding. Both in and out of the studio, she approaches her craft with a self-assurance far beyond her mere 20 years of age.
With her upcoming EP—titled Thirstrap because “my style is trap music that’s cute and sexy”—on the way and her July 8 No Ceilings performance approaching, DonMonique speaks on living in New York, how she got started in rap, and what else she’s got coming up.
When did you first start rapping? Was there a point when you knew you could make a career out of it?
I’ve always been rapping on the side but I never had the connects to get into the real scene and do a real song. Then I met Jim Duece (now her manager) and we mobbed for about a year. Then after that I finally got into a studio and that’s when I came out with “We Don’t,” my first song. From there I just stuck with it. Then we did “Pilates” and then we did the [“Pilates”] video.
You’re only 20 right now, so this didn’t all come about until you were 19?
I was 19, yeah.
Were you born and raised in Brooklyn?
Yea. I always been back and forth from uptown to Brooklyn but normally my friends, my family—they’re all in Brooklyn.
How important is that New York sound to your music?
With beats and stuff like that, I don’t necessarily have to have like, a hip-hop New York beat because my voice and my accent is so thick. So like “Pilates” has a West Coast beat, but you can still tell it’s someone from New York rapping on it. I don’t have to have the whole nine, I can switch it up because of my voice.
What do you think of the New York rap scene right now? Because for the past few years, places like Chicago and Atlanta have taken over hip-hop and it’s been a while since we’ve had many New York artists in the spotlight.
I feel like we’re making a comeback. What’s important to me is that even if you’re not from New York, you can fuck with my music. If you’re from Chicago, or wherever, you can fuck with my music because I’m not just sticking to strictly New York New York sounds. I can play with it because of my accent.
Are there other New York artists you’re working with?
Not really artists, more New York producers. Oh, Slayter! He’s always in Texas so I forget he’s from New York. Yeah, I got a track with him and Danny Brown.
That’s crazy. Tell me more about that.
He [Slayter]’s pretty new like me. We both came out with our first track like a year ago. We were just in the studio playing around and we came up with the hook for the song. And Danny [Brown] had followed me on Twitter but I wasn’t too sure because, you know, you can always accidentally follow people and he follows a lot of people so I didn’t really wanna get hype about it. But then like a week after he followed me in Instagram and I was like, “OK, this is real.”
Yea, you knew he was paying attention.
Right. So I DMed him and I was like, “What’s your email?” He sent me it and I sent him the track. And right away he sent me back a verse for it.
Wow. Who made the beat for the track?
Stelios [Phili].
