Exploring Life & Business with DMonkz of Black Sun Academy

Today we’d like to introduce you to DMonkz.

Hi DMonkz, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today.
Born and raised in Rockford, IL. I was a quiet observant kid if I didn’t know you, but, on the rare occasion, I did want to know you it was nothing but laughs. I had a complicated childhood. Spent some of it living with my young single angry mother I didn’t have a great relationship moving around the city a lot but she’d always play Fantasia, Alicia Keys, Monica, and Destiny’s Child. But I spent most of it living with my grandparents. That’s where I found my love for music me and my grandpa played pool he’d play old classics like Otis Redding, Sam Cooke, David Ruffin, James Brown, etc. I spent hours and hours researching and listening to as much as I could.

Most of my time I spent alone in solitude. I think that’s where my imagination grew. When I wasn’t outside playing basketball or football, I was in my room reading, drawing, and writing oh, and playing with my wrestlers. I was a big WWE fan. Jeff Hardy and The Undertaker are my favorites. I’d go down the street to my friend’s house to watch episodes and Wrestlemania. A lot of the kids on my block didn’t click cause I didn’t want to follow them. I got in a lot of fights with the older kids but it made me tough. Didn’t have a relationship with my pops even though he only lived about 10 mins away. But he did have to pick us up every other month and get us a meal. That’s where I found my love for hip-hop. We wouldn’t talk at all when he picked me up. He’d play songs from artists I never heard cause the radio never played those songs off the album. old Jeezy, Jay Z, Scarface, 2 PAC, Biggie, etc. Ever since then I was hooked. I knew what I wanted to be.

I didn’t take it seriously as a career until right before I moved out to Phoenix with a couple of friends in 2018. Before that, I was working odd jobs, and running the streets chasing money. In my city death at an early age was too familiar. The path I was on I knew where it ended. So I left. Got a new environment. I still did what I did to make money but now it wasn’t just for me it was for my art too. Chasing funding for my art has put me on floors and sleeping in my car and it’s also put me in high rises.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I knew choosing to not follow the trend or the ever-changing sound popular sound would be a long road. But I was after something deeper than 15 mins of fame or flash in the Pan hit song. I wanted to make classics. I wanted to make classic songs and projects that stood the test of time.

I wanted my pen to be respected by the gods of rap. I look at every song as an art piece, every project as cohesive as a let’s say a Raf Simons Collection. Taste. But of course, I faced Kendrick Lamar’s disease. It’s too deep. Too much to digest with attention spans dwindling. Finding my niche audience has been a challenge. Listeners who still….listen. Still crave attention to detail and appreciate the craftsmanship.

I have the ability to make catchy quick hit songs so my brother’s always telling me to make more catchy radio music. I had to fight for my vision. My family disowned me for the most part. Thought I was crazy for my aspirations. My city is a small factory town. My family is from Arkansas. They don’t know anything other than hard labor. I worked those jobs but I wanted more.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Black Sun Academy is a brand for creators. It honors the essence and disciplines it takes to create at a high level.

Black is for the mind. The soil. The darkness from which the cultivation of light comes. The light is ideas, dreams, and creations.

The Sun represents the expression of light.

The Academy is the organization, it’s the school of life. Forever learning through discipline and order.

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and are any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Nothing changed in my routine. I’m a pretty private person anyway. A lesson I could say I learned is fear is a weapon.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/dmonkz00?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@dmonkz5891

Image Credits
NZURILOOKS, IINFERNO, and BYVINTAJ