LUCIDMEDIA

D for D-Sisive

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Friday, 02 October 2009 13:48

“You ever watch Fred on You Tube,” asks D-Sisive. A friend sent him a link to a You Tube video about somebody named Fred who’s the object of scorn for this other guy, Chicken Little, and DSisive is clearly enthralled with it. “This is what I do, I watch clips on You Tube and
see who’s having a beef.”

Not entirely true. D-Sisive, whose real name is Derek Christoff, is also a highly talented rapper and hip-hop artist. Circling the Toronto scene for nearly 15 years now, D-Sisive recently released his first, full-length album, Let The Children Die, last May. Surely and quietly making a name for himself in hip-hop circles for his emotional and occasionally whimsical rhymes, D-Sisive got into hip-hop through one of the most unusual avenues.

“I got into it through my obsession with Nightmare on Elm Street,” he says. Or to be more precise, the 1987 video for “Nightmare on My Street” by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, which ran in circulation on Muchmusic when he was a kid. “I was just like ‘I need to have this.’ So I bought the cassette and bought it for that song only.”

D-Sisive says that he swiftly wore the tape out, listening to the one track over and over again, and when he did, he decided to give the rest of the tape a listen and he liked what he heard. Soon, the young D-Sisive found himself graduating from the Fresh Prince and on to Cyrpess Hill who just released their debut album. They and other hip-hop acts of the late 80s and early 90s ended up inspiring the young rap appreciator into becoming a rapper himself.

Now it’s D-Sisive’s turn to inspire with his first album, and considering that it was originally on the books to be released in 2001, the rapper says it definitely feels good to get it out there; not that he’s resting on his laurels, of course. “I’m enjoying the response that it’s receiving, but I’ve totally gotten myself in this workaholic head space, so I’m always constantly recording and working on new material,” he says. “It’s like the album came out, but we’re already on to the next thing.”

D-Sisive is continuing to work with producer Moonshine and together they managed get the album together in about four months with the exception of a couple of songs. It was personal issues that kept D-Sisive from releasing an album any sooner, but he says that the extra time, and the struggles he went through, helped create a better inaugural album.

“Finally, I’m working on this material, which is way more personal than the music I was making when I was 20,” he explains. “It’s not like I’m embarrassed of that music, but that was all part of evolving and growing. Those were years when I had nothing to talk about, and now I’m making music that I feel means something to people, and means more to me.”

Part of that evolution was getting more confident about his own talent and his own material. D-Sisive says that he’s gone from taking three to four hours to record a song to getting it done in one take; 80 per cent of Let the Children Die was one take, he says.

“It’s not a matter of being a perfectionist; it’s a matter of being confident about the material,” explains D-Sisive. “I try not to stay too long with things. The longer you spend writing songs, [the more] you’re wasting your time and you’re losing the vibe when you try to put too much thought into it.”

It’s also about trusting himself more. “I’ve been getting an excellent response with the music I’m doing, so I figure that I’m on the right track and let’s just keep doing it,” says D-Sisive. “I definitely trust myself more now than I ever did back then.”

This past summer, D-Sisive’s going into his seventh North By Northeast appearance, saying that coming back to do the festival again and again, is “just a fun experience. It’s something that as a musician, you just want to be a part of it.”

It’s also another opportunity to reach new people with his unique hip-hop stylings. “My goal is just for more people to hear the album,” he says. “I just want the music to spread, that’s all I really hope for. If I can maintain longevity and make music people still give a $#!t about 10 years from now, then that’s my goal.”

D-Sisive also likes the surprise of when people put the man with the music. “I think people who have heard my music before meeting me assume that I’m this dark depressing man because a lot of my music is so personal, and that’s totally not the case,” he says. “The songs tell a story from a certain part of my life, but it’s not necessarily what I’m going through right now.”