D-Rick is a fascinating Hip Hop artist. When examining his presentation, the Detroit native exudes stylish fluidity. His albums Here & Now (2020), Taught Right (2021), and Kidd & Licia Son (2022) are the results of a cultural caregiver administering limitless shots. D-Rick’s commanding voice, exceptional wordplay, and ability to craft wrenching songs makes him, in slang terms, sick.
That illness instantly distinguishes D-Rick from his genre peers, artists who follow trend like single file dominoes. What completely separates him from them is not fearing the risk of falling. “It’s always a risk,” he says emphatically. “Every step is a risk, because to do this, if you’re going to do it seriously, it requires sacrifice. Everyday I wake up and think about doing this, it’s a risk...because it might not work.”
The work; that’s the key word, right? That’s the symbol, the trigger, the calcium in the bones. While the chance of success is a blind deal, D-Rick is betting right. He’s holding faith and that’s his ace. “I believe in it, I hope it, I push for it and ride for it,” he says. “I can try to bend the universe’s will as best as I can, or I’m going to die trying. That’s the risk.”
Born Derek Blackmon, in D-Rick’s hometown he battles an astronomical homicide rate for Black men. In his personal life he contends with parenting challenges, dueling the mother of his children about his
dual role as a loving, concerned father and a poignant, emotionally aware recording artist. “Every dollar I spend, every moment I’m away from my children is only because I’m trying to pursue and build something that could change everybody’s life,” he says. “I’m sacrificing relationships, bonding, energy, and in some cases my health! In some cases, my freedom!”
Growing up, D-Rick was given the freedom to explore music. Being both streetwise and book smart, his musically inclined parents provided a generational soundtrack to his education. His mother’s Saturday housecleaning playlist included Motown classics, stirring slow jams, and the heft of R&B. She eventually paid D-Rick an allowance of Def Jam records, setting the stage for his future. That literal stage was at the legendary Fox Theater.
When D-Rick was 7 years old his father purchased a floor-seat ticket for him to see iconic Hip Hop duo Kris Kross at the revered venue. During the concert the house DJ invited attendees on stage for a rap contest. Excited but initially unprepared, D-Rick sprinted down the aisle where, to his surprise, he was immediately selected by a security worker and placed on the Fox stage in front of a raucous audience. Nervous and with no rhymes of his own, D-Rick grabbed the microphone and spat lyrics from “You’re A Customer” by Hip Hop legends EMPD, a song his big sister introduced to him.
“And the crowd goes bananas,” he says. “That experience, seeing that crowd act like that, it blew my mind! I’ve been rapping ever since.”
With his commanding voice, exceptional wordplay and writing ability, D-Rick has progressed confidently while acknowledging the challenges that come with the work. From the beginning he understood that every step was always a risk. “What I had to learn was it’s not about the confidence in the ability, it’s the confidence in the suffering,” D-Rick says. “Do you have the will to withstand everything that’s going to be thrown at you and all the unknowns that you’ll have to overcome.”
What distinguishes D-Rick from his genre peers, those artists who follow trend like single file dominoes, is that he’s fearless enough and sick enough to knock them down. This makes him a fascinating Hip Hop artist. “I’m intentionally, emphatically clear; it’s all love but don’t bring your ass on this microphone. Just don’t even come in here. You’re going to leave here with your head cut off.”

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