The Musical Sensation That Is Drei Ros

Drei Ros, is one of the biggest rappers to emerge in recent years. Originally from Romania, this hip-hop artist has gained millions of fans all over the world with his infectious fusion of European dance music and hip-hop. At age 16 he moved to Seattle, Washington where he immersed himself in the urban culture. That is when his love of hip-hop began. As a rapper, he has collaborated with major artists like Rick Ross, Akon, Gucci Mane and countless others and even plans to extend his influence across South America and Africa (Don't be surprised if he comes out with a hit single with a major Nigerian artist) thus granting him the earned title, Mr. International. I recently had the opportunity to chat with this musical sensation.

Congratulations on your huge success on Youtube! The single Loco with Romero and Kap G already has 1.2 million hits... 

And it has 1.3 million hits on spotify. So it's doing really, really good.

How does this make you feel? 

It makes me feel amazing. From the beginning when I first started working on this record, I knew it would be a special record. I am happy that people really love it. I have been getting amazing feedback from everybody; kids, people from all over the world sending me videos on Instagram dancing. So it is an amazing feeling, you know, to have such a big record.

Did you face any obstacles as a Romanian rapper trying to make it in hip-hop?

I mean, I've been grinding for like 9 years. I've been trying to put records together, just doing it. Finally in the past couple of years I started to get real results and people really reacting to my music so it's definitely been a building process, you know.

That's awesome. Your music is fun, dance music. Songs like Secret Agent, Jazzy Chick makes me very happy and want to dance. Did you set out to make that form of music from the very beginning?

You see, it's because of my background. I am from Europe, and I've always been around dance music and fun instruments like the saxophone and trumpets. But also when I moved to the U.S as a teenager, I was around like the urban music a lot so that had an influence on me. So my music always tries to merge those two styles; the uptempo style European sound with the urban, trap, hip-hop feel, you know. So I am just trying to create my own lane that can work in both urban and hip-hop radios.

It's definitely working. 

Thank you. I have a lot of stuff coming up. Tomorrow I am releasing a song (the song was released as of February 6th!) with an artist from Mexico and one from New York. Marvelus Fame, he is a Cuban rapper from New York and Domenica is an up and coming artist in Mexico. And we have this song called "tenecesito," I need you. It's going to be on like 300 radios in Mexico. It's going to be a big, big song so that's my next move that I have lined up.

Awesome. So you are an Independent Artist?

Yes, I am independent. I had a couple of situations with major distributors but right now I am independent. I have some big labels that want to sign me but I am just waiting for the right deal, you know.

Who are your musical influences right now? Who are you listening to?

Right now I listen to the new Migos album. I listen to this guy, his name is Gashi. He is an Albanian rapper from New York. He has that trap beat to his music. I also listen to a lot of latin music. I listen to a lot of J. Balvin, Ozuna, Daddy Yankee...

Daddy Yankee is a legend...

Yes, he is such a big artist. I listen to a lot of people. I like listening to different types of music, anywhere from R&B to reggae. I always like to discover new artists and check out their style and figure out new collaborations.

Sounds great. Where can fans get your music?

You can find my music on spotify. You can find me on youtube. I have two youtube channels, regular youtube channel and vevo channel. You can find me on sound cloud. I am everywhere, all the platforms.

Awesome! Well, that's all the questions I had for you.

Okay, cool. Thank you.

Thank you. 

For more on Drei Ros, check out his Instagram @dreiros 


By Ebele Chizea