Transcript (en)

DDG is blurring the lines between musician, entrepreneur, and content creator. After turning his first week-long hit-a-thon live stream into a charting album and breaking Twitch records, he is back now for round two. And starting September 14th, DDG will once again spend seven days creating a project from scratch, live online, with fans helping shape every step of this project. Rapper and online streamer DDG joins me now. DDG, welcome to ABC News Live Weekend. Okay, so talk to me about this because you did this for the first time last year and it turned into a huge event. What made you say, we got to do this again? It's just like changing the rollout because I feel like a lot of artists these days are like very mysterious. Yeah. You know, and my life is already in the forefront. So making it live and showing the process, I feel like it helps artists get to see or upcoming artists see how the process is and seeing how music is made. And it's just bridging the gap between streaming and music. So I do both at a high scale. Yeah. You're essentially putting the entire creative process on display for an entire week. Why let fans have that much influence over the music instead of keeping it behind closed doors? What gives you more control? I mean, my life already on the internet. So it's like I can't have that mystique that a lot of other artists can have, but I can show my talents. You know, and, you know, I think it's just, it's easy for me to be in front of the camera. It's easy for me to make music. I do it every day. So just showing the process, I think it makes the supporters and the people that's watching feel like they're part of the project. So it's different than me just putting out a body of work. It feel like it's ours together. Are you ever surprised by some of the recommendations that they give you in the chat or the feedback Yeah like you know I be making a song and then they might say oh this ain good or this trash or they tell me it good oh this fire this the one So I let them pick the beats. Yeah. I let them pick the songs. I let them help me with the track list. I help them pick the feature artists. So it's like a whole thing. Yeah. It's great. What's been your favorite song that you've created with your fans? That a tough question. It is. I love all the music that I make on stream. So I would say like the first one that really went crazy is called Pink Dreads. Yeah. I made it with Black Boy Max. And it was the first time that I did the music on stream. And that's kind of how I got into the hit-a-thon, which is me making an album in a week, like you said. Do you think this fan-driven live stream approach is just the new wave of this artist-fan connection or the future of music? Well, I feel like I'm the first one. So, you know, I think I'm creating a new wave. I would like to see more artists try it. You know, it's not nothing that I'm gatekeeping or saying, like, I wouldn't like other artists to do. Because as supporters, as I'm a supporter of other artists, I would love to see my favorite artists make music on stream and see the process and see their mindset or how they come up with the lyrics, you know. What is the key to being a successful streamer? Is that connection with the fans, having interesting content? I mean, what's really been the one thing that has set you apart from other streamers? Really my consistency. It's the consistency. It's the dynamic of doing music at a high level and streaming at a high level and like bridging the gap seamlessly. So I don't like to say like I'm too much apart from a lot of streamers, but, you know, I'm myself. So I think that's what makes me different from other people. Authenticity. Authenticity. That's what's important. DDG, thank you so much for joining us here.