Life & Work with Digi Kamikaze

Today we’d like to introduce you to Digi Kamikaze.

Hi Digi, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve been an artist and entrepreneur since I was a child, from creating a custom sign to sell iced tea and snacks to the neighborhood kids, to burning myself out all night trying to perfect a dance move. I’ve always been connected to the arts on a spiritual level. My parents instilled a strong work ethic encouraging me to provide the things I wanted for myself in order to value the fruits of my labor. Fresh out of high school I went to The Art Institute of Las Vegas for digital film and video production looking to refine my skills and network for opportunities. I began interning at a film studio I’d rather not name while going to school.

I gained real-world experience in the creative fields and opened my horizons to skills I had yet to gain and traumas I had yet to experience. I soon left the Art institutes due to a lack of study materials, a slow pace, and the fact that I was easily able to get what I needed on Youtube. It had gotten to a point where I was assuming the role of a T.A. as a freshman and I was very unhappy with how my money was being utilized. A lot happened and I moved back to AZ. I met a wonderful woman named Juliet who I would eventually marry. I found her freestyle singing on Facebook and it was love at first sound! She would help me go full-time into my music and sponsor my endeavors and if that wasn’t enough she would give me voice lessons over a 2-year period to refine my voice. This woman was the miracle I needed to reach my full potential and I did. I have not only created a new and much more refined brand for myself, but I have now taken my music to that next level, by now owning my master’s and working with the best engineer in Arizona, Willie Hall aka LilWillieAnimal, and gained the support of local community leaders such as Chanika Forté Sesay who runs the Heart & Soil Peoples Garden.

I’ve taken a much more business-heavy approach to my music recently by partnering with James Sesay Jr. who is a marketing agent and community activist for Fight For Life, mentoring black youth, teaching entrepreneurship, and introducing them to an education they otherwise wouldn’t have had access to and (doing the same running UneedMartialArts.com), this youth includes myself. I’ve also started working with Steve Stavros, who is an entrepreneur and owner of Epic House Productions and ESP Studios, and last but not least my loyal partner and friend Jaycorion Lofton who runs my promotional campaigns starting quarter 2. I am as of right now pushing my new brand organically before the paid promotion, working with new featured artists and collaborating with a new video production team on media projects to release come quarters 3 & 4 of 2023, while maintaining our steady 6-week drop frequency. The moves we have lined up for 2023 and 2024 will create the foundation for Digi Kamikaze and its affiliates for years to come!

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Believing my time and resources could be better utilized elsewhere I began to plot my next moves in Vegas, though this was the right path the pressure landed me in a mental ward after a luckily failed suicide attempt. When life fell apart in Vegas I ended up moving back to AZ which was a difficult move, but a necessary one due to my mental and physical health decline over my time in Vegas.

Once back in AZ, I attempted to jump at any creative opportunity, sadly even the ones that did not value my creativity, although this was difficult it helped to teach me that not every opportunity is a good one. I come from a musically inclined family so music videos seemed to be the way to go for better work opportunities, little did I know that I was both correct and incorrect at the same time. While filming these artists I normally received an attitude and little to no payment for the work I did. The thing that baffled me was that they weren’t even really good musicians, I thought to myself “I could easily make a better song than this” and Digi Kamikaze was born, but oh my god I still had a road ahead of me. I began to study everything I could to start writing music and oh boy was it a ride. I ran with a few crews and all of them found one way or another to use me as a token black member to legitimize their place in the local hip-hop scene, this was obviously frustrating especially when they rarely had me on any track to begin with, not to mention the constant criticism of my lyrical content over the overall construction of the songs I managed to create with no help from them.

I sound salty, but I’m glad I learned from those situations and despite the trauma and time wasted with these crowds it would be nothing compared to the blessings and curses that would soon follow. While pursuing this line of work and looking for the next opportunity I was recommended to a producer who they said could take my music to the next level, little did they know that they would be dooming the brand I was growing at the time due to the legal sabotage from the producer over my masters. Overall, I had some very unpleasant experiences in the beginning stages of my career because there are a lot of people out there who will steamroll you and take advantage of your time and talent. However, I am grateful for those experiences because I think it has helped prepare me for how the next level will be.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a vocalist, songwriter, and overall entertainer! The skills that set me apart from your average music artist range from hip-hop dance and choreography to acting and modeling to increase my overall value and artist potential to labels.

Although I may be a jack of all trades due to a lot of free time as a kid, I very much specialize in specific fields of interest. I competitively work in commercial rap lyricism, I ghostwrite for other artists as well, I am a trained recording vocalist and a very talented song writer, and without tooting my own horn my style is on point!

What would you say has been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Be patient, enjoy the process, and believe in yourself before others do, because if you’re not a fan of your music then who else wants to be?

It was a long road to get to where I am mentally, physically, and in my work, but the hardship, lost opportunity’s and fake friends defined my character and made me a force to be reconned with!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linqapp.com/digi_kamikaze?r=link
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/digi_kamikaze/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/digikamikaze
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/Digi_Kamikaze
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6hNceGKzlgCOlJr6rUrGB3?si=WW5IOtdDTMWPy-8rUqDDmQ

Image Credits
Dego Nichols, Jaycorion Lofton, & Tiffany Nagy