If there’s anyone who managed to build a career out of his hip-hop-drenched young adult years, it’s Darryl. At the age of sixteen, the Amsterdam-born rapper was already spending all of his time in honing his craft. He launched producer team Art-Officials in tandem with his cousin Reverse, rode the waves of D-men’s sought-after ‘Straatremixes 2’ and ‘Straatremixes 3’ mixtapes and teamed with rapper Dio to form ‘Double D’, the moniker under which he had a small hit called ‘Minderjarig’. It proved the start of a fruitful, over-a-decade-long career.
In the following few years, Darryl linked up with The Partysquad on numerous occasions (‘Wat Wil Je Doen’ and ‘Dat Is Die Shit’). His contributions not only earned him a deal with their label (‘Good Life’), but also got him in the support act line-up for the global tour of American rapper 50 Cent, a feat trumped only by his nomination for a TMF award in 2006. Yet, none of it comes even remotely close to the endeavors that followed.
After splitting up with Good Life in 2007, Darryl joined SPEC artist management and teamed with Ali B for ‘Groupie Love’ as well as follow-up collaboration ‘Shit Is Gruwelijk’. And after several other successful singles and link-ups, Darryl dropped his debut album, ‘Dichtbij’, in 2011, with featuring performances of Brace, Brownie Dutch and more. All of that led him to today, a moment in time where Darryl just lent his fine-tuned craftsmanship to Ali B and Brace for their new single ‘Auditie’ (1 million streams). It shows that Darryl has successfully gone from promising young adult to fully matured Dutch rap icon and bodes quite well for the future, as Darryl has plenty left in store for the coming decade.
