Priority Records

Hip-hop has always been about reinterpreting the past in unexpected ways: a genre built on the reassembled shards of parents’ record collections was always bound to value reinvention and regeneration. So it’s only natural that, when Priority Records recently relaunched to the world, the storied label did so by sticking to a neighborhood essential to rap’s early crossover success. Though just 15 years old, Sugarhill Ddot represents a key link in the chain that stretches back to The Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” by reflecting the current sound of New York City—rapid drill music and all its brash, hyperkinetic offshoots—while retaining the spirit of youthful innovation that made rap a phenomenon in the first place.

Despite Ddot being in the spotlight for just a short time, breakout hits like “I Wanna Love You,” “Evil Twins” and its sequel, and “Stop Cappin” have confirmed him as an unmissable talent, his voice irrepressibly unmatched, and his energy positively infectious. “I Wanna Love You” his biggest breakout so far, finds Ddot winding intensely around a candy-coated Akon sample, flipping old R&B come-ons into something more intense and sinister. Now, on the precipice of national stardom, he’s aiming to bring a mass audience along with him as he discovers the sort of artist he wants to be in real-time. “I haven’t even really found myself yet, you feel me?” he says. “I’m trying so many different things. But I definitely found my flow.” He’s not afraid to challenge himself.

Though outsiders imagine the city to be united in a New York-vs.-the world mentality, Ddot revels in the good-natured interborough rivalries that stretch back decades declaring what makes Harlem stand out. “I’m a Harlem baby—I’m gonna say where I’m from,” he says, getting a glint in his eye, “Harlem is where the clean, get-money boys at.” That swagger and self-assuredness courses through Ddot’s evolving music, which is a natural extension of his magnetic personality. Ddot was only 13 when he began making music for fun but didn’t take the pursuit seriously until a couple of years later upon encouragement from his friends. Today he approaches the creative process with an insatiable hunger to put on for Sugarhill: writing at home and in the studio, freestyling in the booth pulling inspiration from all NYC has to offer.

While Ddot is proud to represent New York’s next wave of rap superstars, he cites major influences from other cities, including Chicago’s Lil Durk. The love is apparently mutual: Durk joined Drake, and Meek Mill in co-signing Ddot as a major part of hip-hop’s future, even going so far as to have him open at a recent concert. “The shit was so lit, bro,” Ddot says of the concert, noting the resounding energy he received, even from the members of the arena-size crowd he imagines were unfamiliar with his work. “I’ll never forget that day of my life.” Based on his current trajectory, Ddot, a charming and confident Pisces will have to develop a long memory for all the unbelievable moments that are still in store in his budding career.