Creating their own path in music
Steph Stough
– Art & Life Editor-
Dylan Cunningham and St. Louis Community College – Meramec student Drake Maret are “The ChalkBoyz.” They are making a name for themselves in the world of St. Louis rap with their fun, up-beat personalities which are reflected in their music.
The “ChalkBoyz” rap about pop culture and say they believe they are one-of-a-kind and entertaining.
“Our music is happy and fun. There is a lot of cleverness. It’s real playful. It’s not serious. We don’t really take ourselves too seriously, and that is the key. It’s about having fun,” Maret said.
“The ChalkBoyz” say their music reaches out to everyone.
“There’s something that’s really catchy about hip–hop music. There are a lot of people who can’t relate to hip -hop, and we fill that void. We are the best of both worlds. A lot of people say that they don’t like hip-hop because they can’t understand what we are saying or relate to it. We just freshen everything up and clean it up a bit and make it our own,” Cunningham said. “We try to touch every level. Some songs I might rap for the crowd that really likes rap, and Drake, on the same song, can be rapping to the suburbs. Everything is slowed down and is simplified.”
Cunningham and Maret were dubbed their rap names “Dyl Staxx” and “D-Force” respectively when they got their start in September of last year. They said they grew up listening to rap music and that at first “The ChalkBoyz” was just a joke. Maret explained that after getting a new computer, the boys started to create mix tapes.
“I got a Mac, and I was messing around. I thought, ‘I am going to record over rap beats and stuff.’ We started handing it out to friends, and they thought it was pretty good. Before we knew it, we had done two or three songs. We got our first show after that,” Maret said.
Since then, the boys have started to take their rap group more seriously and they have played at least ten shows, including Venice Café, Lucas Schoolhouse, Old Rockhouse, Off Broadway and The Blue Note in Columbia, Missouri.
“Once we got into it, we thought we were past the beginning stage. We thought we could actually do this. People, at first, thought it was really good and really funny, but it wasn’t professionally done, so we thought it needed to sound good. So, now we go to ‘big boy’ studios,” Maret said.
Cunningham and Maret explained that they had a hard time thinking of a group name that fit their music and personas, but after going to a basketball game, they came across a name that clicked perfectly.
“We were at a Cleveland Cavaliers game. Lebron James is a basketball player and before every game, he throws chalk up. One of the first times he did it, we just happened to be at the game. He threw the chalk and some of it got on us. We thought it was funny and some lady said, ‘Look at those chalk boys.’ At the time, we were trying to think of playful names and it just kind of worked as ‘The ChalkBoyz,’” Maret said.
Cunningham said that he is influenced by Kanye West, and Maret said that he listens to Lil Wayne; but other music inspires the music he creates.
“I don’t think our music would be what it is if we didn’t listen to all kinds of other music because we have to implement different styles into the music. That’s why I think all kinds of people like our music, even though they don’t like rap because they are like ‘Oh, I get that,’” Maret said.
The boys write all of their own lyrics to beats that other artists have already created.
“We will sit down together and collectively come up with an idea for a song then we will come up with a chorus or a hook for that song. Anything that I’m rapping, I have written and vice versa,” Cunningham said.
The ChalkBoyz have a show Oct. 9 at Mojo’s in Columbia, and they plan on continuing to make music until interferes with their friendship that they shared since the seventh grade.
“We are just having fun and seeing where it goes. We are paving our own way. You can’t place us in one distinct genre of music,” Cunningham said. “If you do music for everyone, the sky is the limit. What do you really have to lose?”
