Sugi Dakks is the definition of undiscovered talent. He’s a quality rapper with something to say, blending influences from Anderson .Paak, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar into something that’s truly his own, and while you’ll find his debut project The Business on all available streaming services, you won’t find one interview (not even from The Fader), mention, or even a video on YouTube.
It’s tough to get heard out there, and I’m not going to sit behind my computer and act like I know how to get an artist featured on the home page of Apple Music, but I can say without a doubt in my mind that no one deserves the chance to blow up and force every music publication to rush out “Get to Know Rising Rapper Sugi Dakks” articles more than Sugi Dakks.
Born Kyle Donald, the Los Angeles based rapper is also a jazz pianist and slam poet, and if mentioning his Anderson .Paak influences strikes a bell when listening to The Business and tracks such as “Relax,” it probably helps to mention that the record was mixed and mastered by Jared Hirshland, the same post-production talent behind .Paak’s Malibu.
Like a brainchild of Common and .Paak who was really into Eminem’s cadence, Sugi Dakks sounds as familiar as he does refreshing. It’s a perfectly combined cocktail of influences, displayed on tracks such as opener “7 Sins” and the call-to-action single “Step.” The Business is a sampler of everything Sugi Dakks has to offer, adding his pop sensibilities on “Watch,” downtempo jams on “Move On,” and even more introspective tracks such as “Panic Attack.”
Sampling a slam poem by the name of “The Perfect Panic Attack,” Dakks wrote on his Instagram that his intent with the song is, “to bring awareness to how unwilling we are as a people to admit how much anxiety, stress, depression, and personal mental health are affecting us at our core.”
We’re “often finding every way we can to avoid facing this fact,” he continues, “until it is so engrained in us that it becomes normal, comfortable to feel these things. Then the battle becomes not dealing with the issue, but trying to get the words out that there is an issue… Stay up and stay healthy.” It’s a similar inspirational message as the one in his song “Step,” a call to go out and help make the change you want to see in the world.
“I got plans” he raps on “7 Sins,” and I hope he really does, because it takes a good amount of luck and determination to rise out of the sea of undiscovered talent. With tracks like “Step” and “Move On,” it shouldn’t be too hard, he just needs the voices. He needs the “Who the Hell is ‘Step’ Rapper Sugi Dakks?” articles. Until he gets it though, trust this—don’t sleep on Sugi Dakks.
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