Aside from music, Crownheights Brooklyn artist DKGotAura also runs his own clothing line business known as Paidinyen, where the feature designs are based on asian culture. It's a brand he started four years ago which gained a lot of attention to this day.
There's a career switch and when it comes to his music though a DKGotAura has his mindset of dominating the rap game as leader of Gangular City, a record label which consist of other hungry artist who has a vision to win as well by working hard everyday to make a name for themselves while representing the label.
Check Out DKGotAura's interview below as he discussed Gangular City and what to expect from the crew, followed by his Paidinyen brand and the inspiration behind his clothing line:
News For People: When did you decide to pursue a career in music?
DKGotAura: I've always been interested in music, since like yungin'. I think I was around like 14, I started get into recording, and it was just fun to me. I actually started to record in my school basement at the time in ninth grade and when I turned 18 years old I was like I wanna take it serious as a career. So I put stuff out on Youtube, MySpace, all that stuff. I started getting more attention, people telling me this sounds good, so kept on going still till this day.
News For People: What makes you stand out from other artists in the hip hop game?
DKGotAura: I feel like what makes my music different is tire's no defiant sound. I don't think I have the same sound as far as constructing music. I can formulate this type of song. I like to play around with sounds. Not saying that I'm not a rapper per say. There's melodies on there. There's bars, storytelling, carribean vibes because that's where my family is.
News For People: Who are some of your inspirations in your music?
DKGotAura: Lil Wayne of course. My middle name is Wayne. My dad's name is Wayne, and my mother has the same birthday as Lil Wayne. So I always followed them because of those attributes. Nas, Bob Marley, Celine Dion. There's just a whole bunch of people who I grew up listening to that I study, and took different things from their music to create my own sound. My own like Wayne. I would like to say Jada Kiss of course, The Lox, 50 Cent, but a lot of New York artists.
News For People: Brooklyn News 12 covered your story, back in 2016, in terms of your music and how asian culture inspired you to include their culture into your music. Furthermore, and through your clothing line, Paidinyen. What was the idea behind Paidinyen clothing line, and including asian culture through music?
DKGotAura: Paidinyen clothing started out as an idea back in 2012. I realize I was spending too much money like on other brands and stuff. I always wanted to have may own real swag identity. At first, it wasn't for sale. It was not for retail sales. It was just me wearing myself, and people asked me 'Yo, where you get this from? Put me on.' I did like a partnership with Spread Shirt for a couple of years. They would do distributions for me. I would make the designs. I always been interested in learning other cultures. The original asians were african americans. So, we always had connections. I just took interest into it. I found an ecology system that represented what I wanted to do and I just put it in. Every chance I get, I try to put it into my music so people recognize what it is. Just market it.
News For People: What impact does Paidinyen have throughout the community?
DKGotAura: We're working on new designs to release for the spring and summer. Paidinyen has seen an increase of sales. When I was in college, I remember I started in the year of 2012, there's a whole bunch of people on campus with different personalities, and it was like let's target people and see how many people would buy our stuff. So the business cards, the posters, the pop up shops. We decided to the students of the campus. College students are young hipsters of what's going on right now of the fashion world. I would definitely like to think my college experiences were like teaching me how to become more business oriented.
News For People: How did your record label Gangular City form?
DKGotAura: Besides the music, we always here stories in te meadia new artists and their contracts. They don't have that creative control to do what they want to do. so I decided to make Gangular City Commitee ever since pride with myself. I think Nas said it best. He said to find yourself that's a major key. It shows like I wanted to create something of my own that I can see unfold in front of me and potentially become something great where I can also bring in other artists with the same vision of my mindset in me.
At this point I feel like if I were to be picked up by a major label, they'll have to bring in the entire package and they will recognize he had his own situation because he knows what's going on.
So, I guess whatever partnership he would have, would be kind of in my favor because they see what I bring to the table. They see that I can bring in others with the same talent or the same impact tat I can possibly give to them. We don't really need majors anymore, in respect.
When you create your own, people respect the ground work. It's always a good look to have home base. You gotta have that structure. there's a couple of people in Gangular City. It's me, Fitty Kun, he's an artist. We have lord Intelligence, AR 22, cryson Drilla, Banks Philly, Kujo Knights. So we have a couple of artists here.
Some are more prepared than others right now. Some are working on their projects, and some of our artists just stepped in the game learning the business. In the meantime, to just put me in the forefront to just kick in the door. These are just people who helped me build the establishment. We're all learning right now.
News For People: It's understandable tat members f Gangular City is working but is their any upcoming projects from the crew momentarily?
DKGotAura: I put out my project in August. Right now, we are working on a Gangular Conciliation project called Gangular City: Round Table Vol. 1. It's gonna be like a playlist of singles with all the guys here. There's probably 5 tracks. it's just a couple of us. I'm just trying to figure out who's songs would be put here and if I want my guys to feature each other. It should be coming out pretty soon. We're still working on getting everything else right now.
News For People: What was the response you received after the release of your ep, “Respect Don’t Come From Currency”?
DKGotAura: It was fun for me because the ep was really dope. I had two projects out. "Respect Don't come From Currency one" and I put out part two in August. When I released part one back in 2016, the response was great. People knew I made music for so long it was just that the body of work was pretty good.
When i announced that I would make a part two, I just had to make a deadline for it. When I put it out, it was good. It's available everywhere, on Youtube, Sound Cloud. I think it's a great body of wrk. Theres a couple of videos I have shot for it so we can release them, maybe on WorldStar.
News For People: Will there be a part three for "Respect Don't Come From Currency," in the future?
DKGotAura: There's definitely gonna be a part three. I feel like part three will be like the best one ever. In the meantime I did wanna drop another project called Sweatsuits And Gold Chains. It will probably be the spring or summer time, with probably four tracks.
News For People: What motivates you to continue moving in the hip hop game?
DKGotAura: You can't deny good music. When other artists come out and they have gimmicks and things like that its cool but I don't really feel like personally me or anybody on Gangular City music gimmick to put our music out there more. We're just raw talent. We're hungry, were talented. I feel like there's some things we can do to put our music out their more but we don't necessarily need gimmicks to shine.
News For People: What advise would you have for other young artists who plans to pursue a career in music?
DKGotAura: The advise that I have for other artists is to just be consistent. Just keep putting stuff out and don't worry about the views. Don't worry about who's checking you out. Good music can not be denied. You can keep putting it out. Be a go getter. The more you show your face because the internet is small but at the same time you have to do your ground work.
I'm from the era where like hip hop is outside; if there was a concert event, you would go to a dj and give him a couple of bucks. It's all about taking different approaches. try to do something different.
News For People: Is there anything you would like to add?
DKGotAura: 2020, Gangular City, we're here. DKGotAura, find me on Instagram, Twitter. It's gonna be a great year.