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Introducing AV's first listed artist - Sugi Dakks (pronounced Soo-guee Dakks) a.k.a. Kyle Donald! Hailing from Lakeport, California and now working from Los Angeles, Donald has utilised his background and upbringing to shape his musical style and creative finesse. As a talented pianist and poet, he decided to explore his abilities by studying Jazz Piano at college. He used this musical knowledge to develop his own songwriting, whilst concentrating on his childhood influences of R&B, Funk, Soul, and Hip-Hop to evolve into the inventive and distinctive Sugi Dakks!
Dakks explained to me that his motivations and inspirations throughout his music career have always been from living in a cosmopolitan society - allowing him to meet different people from diverse backgrounds with contrasting opinions, then connecting through music. This is very refreshing for me, and it's why I really value Sugi Dakks as an artist. As we know the music industry is already overloaded with self-centred, egotistic a-holes that often forget about what really matters and abuse the positions they have found themselves in. This industry lacks genuineness, but rising talents like Sugi Dakks can change this through their actions and most importantly through their music and performance.
Music time... When I first discovered Sugi Dakks on Instagram (check him out: @sugidakks), I was really impressed with the way he managed to fuse together jazz inspired piano and hip hop. I'm a sucker for live instrumentation, which I believe is lacking in the world of hip hop and R&B, so I was immediately intrigued and began intensely scrolling through each live video to catch that vibrant sound (I'd recommend doing the same). With his latest EP Black Coffee, Sugi Dakks has demonstrated his distinctive sound and melodious compositions. Black Coffee is really a joy to listen to - every track is varied and reveals the wide-ranging skill-set of Sugi Dakks. Notable mention to All I Need & The Journey - two really well-written tracks that perfectly showcase his natural piano-playing brilliance and flair, as well as his charismatic rapping and singing. Check out Black Coffee on SoundCloud, Apple Music, Spotify or TIDAL.
Here at AV, we are all about supporting up-and-coming talent! We want our readers, fans and friends to be excited about amazing talents like Sugi Dakks. Be sure to check out his album The Business and keep updated with his latest releases, show dates and musical performances by following his socials:
Instagram - @SugiDakks
Facebook - @SugiDakks
Twitter - @SugiDakks