DJ Pup Dawg

DJ Pup Dawg

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Shining a Spotlight on Artist Wakai Taft

Although born in South Chicago, Wakai Taft and his siblings were relocated by their parents to McDonough, GA, South of Atlanta. This was because of the increasing gun violence in South Chicago. For Wakai, growing up wasn't exactly easy as he grew in the ghetto - he grew up with drug dealers and gangs in the same neighborhood. Regardless of these negative environmental influences, Wakai still commends his parents for raising him properly and doing their best to keep him out of trouble. Wakai remarks, "...my parents did their best to keep me on a good path." However, Wakai's parents later separated when he was only twelve years old.

For Wakai, when looking back at childhood, there was no "big moment." However, he recalls how his mom got physically abused by her ex-boyfriend when he [Wakai] was only fifteen years old. According to Wakai, this changed his life forever as it made him look at his dreams to escape from the hard times and a route to the good life and happy times. Wakai Taft proceeded to Community College, West LA, to advance his skills as a guard in basketball before competing in a high division school. According to Wakai, his freshman year in college was one of the worst years of his life as he experienced countless nights of hunger, loneliness (being so far from Atlanta), and the overall living situation out-of-state players were being put through.

This was a tough and definitive period in Wakai's life. Living off EBT while receiving only five stamps out of ten, living in a high-crime city in West LA, and just falling out of love with the game of basketball made him drop out of college after his freshman year. Also, having a female friend who was a rapper commend and endorse his rap skills further acted as a conviction for Wakai to drop out of college and pursue rap/hip-hop as a full-time career.

According to Wakai Taft, the name "Wakai" came because of his intense love for Japanese anime since he was five years old. He wanted to put a word from Japan into his artist name for the sake of uniqueness. In Japanese, "wakai" means young. With "Taft" as his middle name and grandfather's first name, he did not want to name himself "Young Taft" as that would sound pretty conventional. Instead, he opted for "Wakai Taft" just so he could stand out from the rest. Musically, Wakai Taft's influences and inspirations remain artists like Young Thug, Travis Scott, Kendrick Lamar, Michael Jackson, and Juice Wrld. Also, persons who influenced his character include Famous Dex and Dennis Rodman. According to Wakai, his admiration of Dex's personality and [especially] his colorful dreads made him get a deadlock. Wakai also affirms being greatly attracted to Rodman's charismatic and "idgaf" attitude.

For Wakai Taft, his greatest accomplishment is staying out of jail and also not giving up on his dreams. His most recent project called "Taftmania" took him over a year to make. According to Wakai, his former manager wouldn't let him put out the project. This, coupled with Wakai's mental health problems, caused a significant delay in the project's release. He had to wait till he had a fallout with his former manager before he could release the project. "Taftmania" has garnered positive responses from his fanbase. Apart from making music, Wakai also has a great interest in sports (basketball), fashion, and learning more about spirituality. Wakai's next single will be called “Don’t Blow My High.” After this, the next single will be “K-Poppen” and the next project will be called “Reflection.” Wakai believes that these coming projects should definitely separate him from the rest in the game. 

https://open.spotify.com/track/3q1dip8lxj7wZ9SSlxJpAl?si=ICj5KlJITNCbwpumjhVAbw


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