This #NowPlaying discovery comes to us from this year's Tiny Desk Contest. You can see DAP The Contract on the latest installment of the Tiny Desk Contest Top Shelf livestreaming series with co-hosts Bob Boilen and Bobby Carter.
Dolapo Akinkugbe, a producer-rapper-singer who goes by the moniker DAP The Contract, penned his song "Love The World" about Ahmaud Arbery's death while studying for the bar. He went on to record the video for his Tiny Desk Contest entry three weeks before passing the New York bar exam. "Studying constitutional law is the reason this kind of information comes out in my music," Akinkugbe told NPR Music. He said can't separate his life as a lawyer from his life as a musician; instead, he's motivated by making the two make sense together. On "Love The World," he raps: "The boy grown up now reaching for the stars / it's time to graduate again I gotta set the bar / and still I'm writing all these bars / I swear the kid goes super hard."
Akinkugbe has always had a relentless work ethic. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, he began playing the piano at age four. By 14, he was producing music, and by 18, he put out his first mixtape. After attending Berklee College of Music for two years and graduating from Brown University in 2016, he worked with producer Mark Ronson and opened for rappers Skepta and Burna Boy.
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