Written by: Cecilia of Houston TREND

Dante Higgins

As we go through life music resides in the background; providing a full soundtrack of songs for our most painful moments, making us dance during joyous ones.  Some of its orchestrators, the artists, give us full access to their own lives, while others stand humbly behind their music, preferring that we learn about them through lyrics alone.

For Dante Higgins, who even snubbed a stage moniker in favor of his given name, less is more.

Yet in learning the inspiration behind his potent and increasingly revered lyrics, the air of mystery that surrounds Higgins lifts to reveal the tale of a young man seemingly destined to stand out, despite his best efforts not to.

 

 Snotty Nosed Bastard

After concealing a gradually growing midsection with large, carefully worn shirts and jackets, at eight months a young teenage girl would finally reveal her pregnancy to her astonished mother; and a month later Dante Higgins would be brought into the world. In the years that would follow Higgins would be led to believe that this same young girl, his mother, was really his sister.

The year was 1986.

“I knew who my father was. Everyone did. I saw him at the corner store once; the nigga ain’t even speak to me. He got in his ‘lac and rode off,” says Higgins before adding, “Idon’t forget shit.”

Raised in the infamous Southlawn Apartment complex in Yellowstone, an area of Houston well known for internal strife, Higgins learned at a young age how to navigate through difficult situations with a cool demeanor, and his uncle, a notorious figure both on the streets of Houston and on the music scene, filled the void that his father had chosen not to.

“My daddy was a fucking bum. He told my mama straight up, that ain’t my son,” says Higgins.

By the time he got to Jack Yates High School, the school had become a haven for conflict between Houston’s Third Ward area, and the Southlawn neighborhood that Higgins was from.

“I was from Southlawn, but I had become cool with 3rd Ward people through football. Every time they clashed I was in the middle. I had friends at school and a whole different set in my hood,” explains Higgins.

In the end football, a sport he began playing at the age of six, would prove to be his ticket out, and after being listed as one of the top wide receivers in the city a scholarship would follow.

 

School Boy Music

Texas A & M Kingsville would prove to be an entirely new world for the Houston native; a melting pot of students from differing cities, views, and experiences. Though

football would initially blind him from the bustle of traditional college life, after an injury derailed his football aspirations, time on the field would be replaced with time alone in his room. He found solace in music.

“While I was healing I spent weeks alone in my room. What originally started out as a hobby now became a full time pursuit outside of my classwork, I filled notebook after notebook up with lyrics. ” says Higgins.

What he lacked in structure, he made up for in sheer lyrical content and then emerging skill.

Says Higgins, “I didn’t even know how to count bars, I’d just write and write.”

Though his body would heal and repair itself with time, Higgins now burgeoning passion for music did not recede. The gridiron had officially been traded for the studio.

Having grown up in Houston, Higgins was entrenched in the slow bumping sounds of Screwed music that the city would later become synonymous with. Artists like Big Hawk, Z-Ro, and Big Pokey, (the best friend of his uncle) would remain a heavy influence on him, but he would learn to find his own original sound.

“When I went away to college I started meeting other people who opened me up to new sounds and musical tastes. Artists like Kanye and Lupe began to get heavy rotation, especially since when they came out they didn’t care about what people said about them,” says Higgins.

Eventually he be would unable to complete a day without listening to Lupe Fiasco, Bobby Womack, Jay Z, Lauren Hill, and his favorite artist, Kanye.

Though in time he would craft his own musical styling and combine it with existing lyricism, it would be artists like Kanye that he would adopt bravado and lyrical defiance from. This would become evident during his first competition as an artist. Help upon his campus, they lined other aspiring rappers up one by one, only to fall to Higgins…. One by one.

“That’s when we knew that we had something,” says Higgins with a smirk.

He would go on to release his first project “HIG” in November of 2009.  Far removed from the city limits,  Higgins was not in Houston, though his music soon found its way onto its streets. Passed from hand to hand, his name began to buzz as people began to flock to the project.

It was then that Higgins made the realization that self-investment can yield the greatest results. Not only would he go on to attain a degree in Criminology and Science; he would continue to pursue his dream as well. The gates had been opened, and a swell of music followed.

Says Higgins, “I used my financial aid money to fund those first CD’s, I knew for anybody to invest in me I had to believe and invest in myself.”

It would prove to be a solid investment.

 


Rhymes For Days

Degree in hand, Higgins would forgo a traditional career path in exchange for the pursuit of his musical ambitions. By the time he moved back to Houston not only would he have an entire project already under his belt, but more already churning around his mind.

At the time, no one knew that he would be at the forefront of an intensifying group of young artists coming into their own in Houston.

At the time, Higgins stood out. A lone wolf whose lyrics you instantly recognized and felt amongst the pack.

He would go on to release more material in a dizzying succession; his second project “Rhymes for Days” debuted in February 2010, with the third “School Boy Music” coming less than 6 months later in July 2010. By the time his fourth project, “Rhymes for Weeks” was released, Higgins had solidified himself as a viable new artist.

With each release more heads would begin to turn an ear to the beat, until he had amassed a small army of fans in the streets affectionately labeled “Hig Heads.”  In a city that was still licking its wounds from its brief heyday after the popularity of artists like Mike Jones and Chamillionaire had died down, Higgins was blazing a new path for younger artists in the city.

Though they would pay homage to those that came before them, this new generation would go on to remind the masses that Houston had given the industry greats like DJ Screw as well as Scarface, thus proving that the “City of Syrup” could provide lyricism as well.

And Higgins was quickly proving himself to be lyrical lothario, devouring tracks as if it each were the last morsel of meat around.

The emergence of Higgins proved that one could survive in the Houston market off pure skill without the aid of gimmicks or a radio friendly dance tune. Higgins was determined to provide a voice to what was occurring in the streets, in the hood, in college, he would give voice to it all; and he would either do music his way or not do it at all.

Says Higgins, “If dance songs were my gal I’d hate that bitch. What about the people who don’t go to the club?”

He continues, “If I can’t do the music that I want to do then forget it. I’d rather go get a good job and live pretty good that be a slave and have to live off a damn dance song.”

 

Rhymes for Weeks

Though not ashamed of his humble beginnings, it was clear that while in college, Higgins had picked up far more than just a degree and an appreciation for music, it equipped him with actual wisdom. Aware of the fact that sheer luck and talent would not be enough to launch a sustainable career, Higgins and his manager, longtime friend and former school mate Carl Spivey, devised their own business model.

Every project was released in conjunction with a citywide concert, and Higgins watched his fan base steadily increase.

A slew of memorable features, like “HAM” which introduced fellow Houston artist and lyrical beast Doughbeezy, and performances, including one at a private party held by the legendary Bun B would follow.

By the time the “Frontline” tour, a coalition of rising artists from Houston created by the widely successful MC Kane, came to fruition, Higgins was one of the bestselling artists on the line up.

“I sold so many tickets that Kane said we couldn’t sell anymore,” says Higgins with a smile.

Now poised to release his fifth project, Higgins has proven that his lyrical skill set has matured with every album, his wit and flow combining into razor sharp rhymes.

There’s a reason he was named “Lyricist of the Year” by the Houston Press. He deserved it.

Higgins stands apart as a new age artist, with an old school mindset and soul.  A rarity in generation content with flowing about the aftermath of fame but not the struggle that came before it.

 

It seems as if the school boy is ready to graduate into the big leagues, and he’s equipped with rhymes for years.♠

Edited by: Diana  & Elliot of Houston TREND

Photos by: Daniel T. Davis of 7D Stuidos

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