Charlie

Hip Hop Wishes and Violin Dreams

Daniel D steps on to the stage.

Clean cut, he wears khakis and a plaid button down – the shining image of a “good kid” – as the first notes of his violin reverberate across the theater. It’s an R&B classic, a safe choice for the crowd mostly made up of straight-laced academia and smatterings of the College of Charleston student body gathered for what would otherwise be a fairly standard Tuesday evening awards ceremony.

Then the beat drops and suddenly he’s playing Jamie Foxx’s “Blame it on the Alcohol.”

This is not what the crowd expected. And exactly what Daniel wanted.

CHARLIE catches up with the 21-year-old entertainer later that week. He’s driving to a soundcheck for an event he’s playing that night as he gives insight on his busy, and constantly evolving life.

Daniel Davis picked up the violin nine years prior, while a student at Charleston School of the Arts.

“I had the choice of either handbells or the violin,” he laughs.

Inspired by a teacher he says, “didn’t fit the stereotype of the typical violinist,” Daniel realized the violin was more than just an instrument for classical arrangements. His father, a radio DJ at the time, would send record instrumentals of Billboard hits which Daniel picked up on the violin, a process that, per song, took him about 15 minutes to learn and now an hour and a half each day to practice.

“People don’t expect it,” Daniel says discussing his decision to pick up the violin. “People expect me to be a rapper or singer, so this throws people off.”

And these days, he’s what you might call a violin celebrity, playing for the likes of Jesse Jackson, Kanye West and Jamie Foxx, while balancing gigs across the Southeast including the finale night for this year’s Charleston Fashion Week. But don’t think for a minute any of this has gone to his head. Daniel has the demeanor of someone who’s been around the music business a lot longer than his age would allow. An attractive mix of swagger and just the right amount humility.

“You have to have confidence,” he says. “You have to be a little cocky to be able to stand on stage and perform. You have to deliver.”

Daniel plans to stick around the music world for a while, not just as an entertainer, but on the business side as well. He muses, with smart insight so beyond his years, that the best musician in the world is nobody until someone is willing to listen and support them.

But for now, he’s quite possibly the best hip hop violinist on the music block. And Kanye will never sound quite the same without the accompaniment of a violin.

Watch and listen to Daniel D by clicking here.

Story by: Caroline Millard