Following producer TM88 on Saturday, September 21st, I sat down with sophomore and resident rapper Daniel Irizarry, aka Cryptic, to talk about his past, his new Connecticut College-based rap song “Camp Conn,” and what his ambitions are for the future.
So, the show here on Saturday, did Conn reach out to you or was it something you pursued?
I heard that TM was performing. I knew of him. I watched plenty of videos of him making beats and things like that for years. So obviously he’s a really important producer and just someone I look up to in general. So I went to the SAC meeting and said, “Yo let me open up for him,” they said “Okay,” and that was pretty much it. I mean, they know that I rap. Most people do. So I opened up for him and then I was supposed to do “Camp Conn” at the end of his set because I talked to him in the green room, which is the Alice Johnson Room. He’s a very down to earth guy and he brought me up on stage right at the end of his set and introduced me and then Jeanette Williams cut the audio off and then I couldn’t do it. Overall though it was a good experience– could’ve been better, but overall [a] good experience.
What was your mindset writing “Camp Conn”?
Well, I wrote it over the summer and I just wanted to make a song about the school that everyone could relate to and enjoy. My music has a lot of traffic here and everyone knows that I rap, even if they don’t listen to my music, just from hearing about me. So that song, I felt like it could really pop off here because I formulated it to be catchy and talk about the school. I guess I just made that song to give the school an anthem and increase my popularity within the student body. We’re shooting the music video at the moment with Tommy Awender, he’s the videographer, and hopefully that’s going to be a big thing.
After you performed “Camp Conn” in your initial set on Saturday, you performed a song that was really different…
Like really emotional?
Yeah, tell me about that one.
That was a song I made two years ago. It’s actually my most popular song. I never swore in any of my preceding songs ‘cause I was all innocent [laughs] and then I was going through some stuff, addiction, loss, stuff like that and I made that song and performed it at a show with no plans to drop it, I just wanted to see what would happen, and the whole crowd went crazy and I dropped it the next day and it just shot up. That was a really pivotal moment in my career. I had had songs with 10,000 plays on Soundcloud but this one shot up to 50,000 pretty quick and it’s still getting plays, so I perform it at every show. It’s called “When I Fall Asleep.” It’s out everywhere and it does really well.
Do you think you’re going to keep trying to do shows here?
Yeah, I’m on the SAC concert committee so I’m working from the inside. I can’t speak too much, but I know a lot of big people in the industry that are coming up that are cheap that I’ve worked with before and have songs with. So hopefully those work out and I can perform with them and then obviously I’ll do a set at Floralia. I also do Coffee Grounds just for fun. It’s not necessarily the environment for most of my songs, but I do it anyway which I mean I might gain a couple of follows. You gain one fan, it’s still important. I will do as many shows as I can for sure.
What are you studying here?
I’m pre-med. I’m the vice president of the pre-health club. And then I’m majoring in computer science I believe.
What are your plans with those going forward?
I plan on being a rapper, obviously. If the rapper thing doesn’t work out, I’ll try to do the doctor thing. If the doctor thing doesn’t work out, I’ll be a programmer.
So you’re here for backup plans?
Yeah. I mean it’s not intentionally formulated like that, but it is like that. People are always like, “You’re pre-med? I thought you’d be doing something in music?” I don’t ever want to take a music class. Like, I don’t need to. I have hundreds of thousands of plays and I’ve opened up for very big acts and have performed at very big acts. I don’t need music theory. I know it all. I was taught audio engineering when I was twelve by a Grammy-award winning engineer. I mix and master all my stuff. I know how to do that and that’s part of what they probably teach you so I don’t need to take a damn class on that.
It seems like you have a lot of powerful connections. How do you end up with those?
So it’s just through Wyclef Jean, mainly, who I met originally in Saratoga when he did a show. I knew all the words to a song he dropped the day before. He brought me on stage ‘cause I was singing the words. Then I gave him a flash drive I had brought in my back pocket with my music and contact info on it.
And how old were you?
This was 2018, March.
So what about the audio engineer?
Yeah that was way before. He’s just the only audio engineer in Saratoga. I actually got the connection from my sister who was recording demos and needed an engineer. Then I met him and he taught me how to mix vocals and master vocals and his son taught me how to make beats. Yeah so they just happened to live in Saratoga, my city. Then Wyclef, we call him Uncle Wyclef, he’s a mentor of mine. Then Maddie, Madeline Nelson, is the ex-wife of one of the most important producers ever, Teddy Riley. She used to be the executive vice president of Sony Music but she’s now running her own label, Heads Music, which is woman-founded and woman-staffed. Through her I have a lot of connections. I’ve met a lot of people. I met Lil Uzi Vert’s manager through her. I’m just really good at connecting with rappers. Like with TM, I have his manager’s number ‘cause he just took my phone and gave me his number so I can send music to TM now. I’m just good at making connections. It’s a possibility I’ll sign with them at some point. If I work my butt off, I could see myself signing with them at some point ‘cause they’re an independent label. I wouldn’t sign with a major label for many reasons that I don’t need to get into. It’s a very plausible thing that could happen. It’s not a stretch. Me signing with Epic or Capital or one of those very big labels is obviously a very implausible thing and probably is not going to happen.
Yet.
Not yet. Yeah. But signing with Heads is a very plausible thing. •
