For our final installment of New Artist Month on Freestyle 101 we bring to you a true player, a real spitter, and a really dope MC: Damani of Dub Union.
Formerly known as Western Union (forced to change their name by some no-name delivery service), Dub Union features the Inglewood MC alongside Watts-bred rapper Bad Lucc and Long Beach reppin’ Soopafly and is overseen by the great Snoop Dogg, who brought them to the attention of Koch Records and appears on the recently released debut album, Snoop Dogg Presents Dubb Union.
Having appeared on Snoop’s albums Tha Blue Carpet Treatment and The Big Squeeze, the group has already garnered a sizable following around the West Coast, and the group’s first single, “Westurn Union,” displays its to its home-coast. But it’s Damani efforts on the mixtape circuit and the streets that keeps their name alive around the rest of the country. Always on the grind, Damani has been bangin’ out mixtapes (dig Congratulations Playa) and underground joints for years (check 2007’s “Only In LA” with Daz and WC) with the help of playas like DJ Warrior and the Dogg Pound.
Freestyle 101 was lucky to get Damani to strut into the booth at The Engine Room in Hollywood over a pimped out Bruce Yi beat, and chatted with him about the influence of the West Coast and the importance of N.W.A. to hip hop. And make sure to check for his rad Nintendo Wii joke…hilarious.