drag-on

                             

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                   "I fuck with Drag - On 'cause he spits the flame/Drag - on, motherfucker/Don't forget the name"
DMX "No Love 4 Me"

Me and my niggas done ripped shop.../Bet y'all can't wait 'till my shit drops"

Drag-On "Down Bottom"

Hip-Hop years are like dog years. And every few years, the genre reinvents, revamps and redefines itself. It reevaluates its zeitgeist, updates it, and makes the old new again. And there are always voices that accompany this urban renewal. There was the ghetto bohemia of the Native Tongues, the hot-potato tag team of Leaders of the New School, the bad-attitude of Naughty By Nature, the secret society codes of Wu-Tang Clan, the verbal portraits of Nas and B.I.G.

Today there is the refusal of floss and dross, the return of the raw and hard, represented by the chart-topping success of the Ruff Ryders. A Camp like no other, the Ryders have already blessed us with DMX, Eve, the Lox and producer Swizz Beatz. Poised next to leave an indelible imprint upon the hip-hop consciousness is Drag-On.

"I'm bringing a lot of fire, " says Drag-On. "When I leave this industry, I plan to leave a whole lotta burning building, because I'm fire. I plan to bring a lot of fire, a lot of heat, a lot of steam, a lot of sweat, whatever."

He's off to a good start. In addition to his appearance on DMX's three multi-platinum albums, Eve's debut platinum album, and his work on the Ruff Ryders Ryde Or Die Vol.1. Drag has scorched DJ Clue's The Professional (Gold), The Belly Soundtrack (Gold), Harlem World's The Movement (Gold), and the recently released tri-regional compilation Turf Stories. Not bad for someone who has a stuttering problem. "That's why I say'youknowwhuti'msayin'a lot, " he confesses. "I just say that a lot instead of stuttering."

"It don't affect me when I rhyme, " he says. "Whey I'm flaming, I'm in another Zone. I won't be where I'm at no. I'll be someplace totally different."

Drag-On's verses are like, well, fire. They're conversational and confrontational, capable of building and destroying. His flow is unique, uncloneable, and erratic: it flickers crackles, "Ryde Or Die": "You wrong tryin' to touch me/ What kind of shit you on?/You better throw your boots on/ Your unflameameable suits on .../Tryin' to out the flames/ What are you fireman ?/ Step back, it's a hell of a draftback/ ' Cause my fire it retires me."

"The name 'Drag-On came from Dragon,'" reveals the rapper. "My name was 'Dragon' because everything that comes out of a dragon's mouth is fire, it's hot. And that's what people used to say about me- everything they comes out my mouth is hot like fire."

Born and raised in the Bronx, Drag-On was first introduced to rap through his uncle."When I was mad small, he was always rhyming, banging on tables and kickin' flows," Drag recalls. "I was just lovin' it. Just to hear him say it." But things changed when Drag-On toured 9. "He got locked up."

Drag rhymed while ingesting the work of Rakim, Kool G Rap, Slick Rick, and Big Daddy Kane. Years of writing and practicing culminated when Drag-On met Ruff Ryder CEO Darrin Dean while working as a street vendor selling sweater, jeans, coats, hats and more on Harlem's 125th Street. ("We had one of the biggest tables out there.") Dean, a mutual acquaintance of Drags vending partner was impressed with Drag's lyrical acumen and invited him to a studio session for DMX's It's Dark and Hell Is Hot. "They always put you in a test to see if you could hold your weight," says Drag-On, In the studio, he had to go head to head, line-for-line with DMX. "DMX. "DMX was spittin', but I held my ground. I was 17 at the time."

Now 20, Drag has completed close to 40 songs for his debut album Opposite of H20, which drops March 14th, 2000. "That's when the fire is gonna emerge," he says.

Flame On!