Dylan Reese is a 20-year-old rapper from Chicopee, Massachusetts going through a reinvention of who he is musically. To be perfectly transparent (something I will always strive to be), I was apprehensive about this interview. For one thing, I have next to zero experience in conducting interviews, but I am all about the cliché of diving into the deep end head-first. For another, I listened to some of his older music and was not incredibly impressed. His music was good but by no means special. Then I took his age into consideration, “This guy is young, and there’s a whole lot of potential there for sure,” I said to myself. After a little bit of research, I noticed he had changed the name he was using. All of the music I was listening to was “Reese McFly” and he was coming to me as “Dylan Reese.” This detail piqued my interest. This past Sunday afternoon, I sat down with Dylan to find out a little bit about his story and his new, soon-to-drop tape, Ellis.
MW: First off, where are you from?
DR: I’m from Chicopee, Massachusetts. It’s about two hours outside of Boston. It’s a small town. Have you ever heard of Springfield? It’s right next to that.
MW: How old are you?
DR: I’m 20. I’ll be 21 in November though.
MW: Where do you go to school and what are you studying there?
DR: Regis College. It’s in Weston, a few towns over. It’s fucking small. I’m studying Communications I guess. I’m not really studying it, but it’s my major, I’m getting through it.
MW: When did you first start listening to hip-hop?
DR: A long time ago, probably when I was 8 or 9, nah, I’m lying, I was more like 10 or 11.
MW: Who were you listening to then?
DR: The first album I ever bought was 50 Cent – Massacre. That shit was tight, 50, Eminem, all that hood-ass, hard-ass music that I didn’t know anything about. I remember seeing the video for “Yeah!” by Usher and thinking, “Yeah, that’s really tight.” That’s when I really started paying attention. And then after that I found out about Nas, Big L, Biggie, and all that. That was my favorite stuff ever, once I heard all of that, I went through this phase where I just hated everything else. There’s so much music that came out before we did.
MW: So when did you start making your own music?
DR: That’s a hard answer because I made a lot of bullshit, like, I made really bad music for a long time. I probably started when I was 16. Me and my friends were just fucking around, making dumbass songs. Everyone at school thought that shit was fucking hilarious and I loved the feeling of people going out of their way to care about what I was doing. So, me and my friend kept making parodies, just funny songs that sucked really bad. But I noticed that I could write songs really fast. My friend was like “Yo, why don’t you really rap, because you know a lot about rap and you can write songs really fast,” so I got a rock band mic and a shitty laptop and I made the worst music ever. It’s crazy; you wouldn’t even believe it’s me. This Ellis tape is going to be like my 10th mix tape even though they all sucked up until my last one that I did. I used to go by Reese McFly. I don’t know if you know that.
MW: Yes, actually I was going to ask you about that.
DR: That was up until last February when I changed it, so this is kind of like my first project again, it’s almost like a new career. That name and the persona of who I was as an artist is boyish to me, and I’m a grown-ass man now. I don’t really want to go by Reese McFly anymore that just sounds like I’m kidding.
MW: You’ve performed with guys like Chris Webby and Aer, can you tell me a little bit about that was like?
DR: Awesome. Have you ever heard of a guy named Henderson? He’s kind of popular, he worked with Kinetics and Mike Stud a lot before, and that’s my homie, he’s from somewhat where I’m from. He was doing a headliner in Northampton and he was like, “Yo, you want to open for me?” I had never performed before, and I sucked. It was my first show and I ended up selling like 130 tickets as the opener and I only had a 20 minutes set, because it was my first show and everyone was so excited, because I was still in high school it was so easy to be like, “Yo you want to come to my show?” The box office was like, “Holy shit, who is this kid? Why did he just sell 130 tickets?” So after that is when I started getting shows easy. Every single time a touring act would come, anything hip-hop wise, they would just call me. That whole year I was just doing everything. First it was the Aer show. That was really tight. It was really small; they were not as established as they are now.
MW: When was that?
DR: January, 2012. There were probably 60 people there but there was a really good vibe. Those are some really cool dudes, for real though. And it’s cool cause they’re my age too. They’re dope, they have a really unique sound. I’m really big on originality. After that I did the Chris Webby show that was on Valentine’s Day. I had class, had to take a bus home for two hours, got there, did a sound check, did the show, killed that, that was one of the funnest shows ever. There were 600 people there. It was wild. I was just jumping around and the crowd was going nuts. I had class at 8AM the next morning up here so I had to get on a bus at 5:30 in the morning and I had a midterm at 8AM and I got a 98. And then I did a bunch of shows with Moufy. I did a performance with ScHoolboy Q, that was tight, but that was when I was Reese McFly. So that’s completely different from what I’m doing now. Now I wouldn’t even fit on those shows, except Aer probably.
MW: You’re 20, a lot of these other guys are also in their 20s, what do you think about the effect of so many young artists doing their thing here?
DR: I think it’s really cool. In Boston, it doesn’t really affect what I’m doing at all because I’m not really form here. I don’t really have a market in Boston. My biggest fan base is at home and out of state, scattered. Boston scene is cool, I don’t really know them, I know of a few. I’ve heard a few local mix tapes, Cam Meekins, Michael Christmas, Pilot Nation. It’s a cool movement they have though; they’re definitely doing it in a correct manner. Instead of just having a bunch of dudes who sound the same and oversaturating the one market, they all have a unique style. I don’t know the ins and outs of their campaigning, I just know of what I’ve heard.
MW: Who are your biggest inspirations?
DR: There’s so much, man. My favorite artist of all time is Justin Timberlake. That’s not even debatable, he’s probably one of the most talented men on Earth. Nas is my favorite rapper, I used to try and rap like Big L all the time. The Weeknd, Logic, Mac Miller because of the way he’s evolved into what he’s doing now, Jon Bellion when I was working on the Ellis tape I was definitely listening to his shit the whole time, Pharrell, I would hate myself if I forgot to mention Pharrell.
MW: What’s your favorite piece of advice someone has ever given to you?
DR: I was in LA, having lunch with Robin Thicke’s drummer, Lawrence Breaux, LB, I introduced him to what I do and he told me, “There’s nothing here that separates you from any one else,” and that I needed to create a brand for myself. Now my music is no where near where is was, a different direction and I think it’s really in a place right now where you won’t know what to compare it to and that’s really awesome, me and my producer, Moses D. Jean. He’s incredible, I think what I’m doing now is a brand, this is me, this is what I do, and you can expect this from Dylan Reese.
MW: How about a little inside scoop on your new tape Ellis, dropping on the 30th?
DR: Ellis is my middle name, I chose that title because this material covers what my life has been for the first 20/21 years, I’ve gone through a lot of different shit and this was the best time to speak on it in a detailed manner because like I said, this is kind of like my first project, again, like me re-introducing myself to anyone who gives a fuck. Sonically it’s not even comparable to the R.A.W. tape that I did mainly because of Moses. Moses and Aaron Zuckerman produced my last tape. Moses became my full time producer, he’s like my brother now, and he’s just as vital to this musical process as I am. It’s kind of like a duo. This dude on the fuckin’ beats, oh my goodness, he’s on another level. We’re on Skype all day, every day because he lives in Virginia. One of the best producers in America, I’m not kidding, yo. These beats are incredible. Ellis is about my life, it’s about a lot of things that I’ve been through or scenarios that I’ve thought about, I really wanted to let people into my mind, I want people to feel like they know me when they hear this tape, even if they’re in… uhh… Utah. What I think about, things I’ve done, things I want to do, it’s very personal, very honest, I love it a lot. I’ve been working on it since last December, I’m very excited to share it next week. I’ve already put out two singles, “November 23th” which is my birthday, so my beginning and “The Girl of My Dreams.” The tape is very chill, some shit you put on when you’re relaxing and you just take in what I’m trying to say, what I’m all about. I meant something by each word, if you don’t know what something means, just ask me, tweet me, I’ll answer. The tape will be free on datpiff.com.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
I have not heard the tape yet, so I cannot speak too much. I am looking forward to listening to Ellis to hear new Dylan Reese, to see if he has found his niche, and consider whether the action lives up to the talk. That being said, after talking about what it takes to be successful in this industry and what success really is, I do believe that Dylan has some ideas and a lot of potential. I look forward to watching where he goes in the future.
You can find Dylan’s YouTube channel here and catch Ellis on September 30th: http://www.youtube.com/user/ReeseMcFly and @DylanReeseMusic on Twitter/Instagram
By Marci Wolfish | @WOLFandaFISH
wolfandafish 