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He's done his time, and now the time is right for Drama to take it up the charts.
Five years ago it would have been nearly impossible to tell that Terrance L. Cook - more commonly known as Drama (Drastic Retaliation Against My Adversaries) - would become one of rap music's hottest superstars unless you had unshakable faith in human potential, OR better still - if you were psychic. By age nine, he'd learned to cook crack from his father. By junior high he'd become a regular street hustler. And in his late teens the College Park, Georgia native was sent up the river to serve a three-year bid after being caught with $9,000 worth of crack cocaine. Jail provided plenty of time to think and when Drama got out last year he knew changing his life was the only option.
So far the change from thug to rapper has been a good one. "Left, Right, Left" his military styled debut single sold 90,000 copies regionally before attracting the attention of Atlantic Records which now distributes his project and projects from the entire Tight IV Life Atlanta-based record label he is signed to. With Atlantic's help, Drama has quickly become a national artist - having marched right into the hearts of legions of music fans who delivered both his single and debut LP, Causin' Drama, to platinum status. Still, Drama's not content to bask in the glow of past accolades. Already, he's been in the studio working on album number two and collaborating with other artists on some new projects. All of this has the nineteen-year-old who raps with the fury of a mad lion feeling pretty good these days as he recuperates in his south Atlanta home after spending a few weeks on the road.
So you just came off of this hype concert in Houston. You're blowing up all over the country. You've gone platinum. Did you expect this much success?
Drama: "Well, it's like I'm glad it came. I feel like I deserve it because I worked hard enough for it. I put in my work, so it's cool, the love that I get, and I guess it's funny because I really didn't think it would be like this."
Where were you when you found out you reached the platinum mark? How did you react?
Drama: "I was in the studio."
Still working. Not resting on your laurels.
Drama: "Please believe it. What happened was Raheem (the president of Tight IV Life Records) hit me on the phone and told me it was platinum. First time around, it's cool man especially because I didn't have anybody on my album. Ain't nobody rappin' on there but me. So they're not buyin' my album for no one else. They're buyin' it for me, because they dig me."
Why do you think people are feeling you and you're music so much?
Drama: "It's just treal. Everything I do and say is treal. I give it to them and if they don't feel it, I'm gon' make them feel no matter if they want to or not. I'm just gon' make them feel what I feel."
It's hard not to feel you with all that intensity. You are like dynamite exploding all over a track or the stage. Where does all of that energy come from?
Drama: "That's just me you know. I am explosive. I am a grenade. That's what the symbol is for."
You've got the pin in you now though right?
Drama: "Dig dat. Dig dat. But when that pin gets pulled, it's on!"
How did you hook up with Tight IV Life president and CEO, Mr. Raheem?
Drama: "Well, I had just got out of jail, and it was my cousin's birthday. So it was like we had a little picnic - barbecue or whatever. We were celebrating his birthday and me getting out. We was outside rappin' and Raheem was there. We were really just flowin' and puttin' it down and Raheem heard me and he dug me. We exchanged phone numbers and it was on from there. I came at it straight raw."
What did you rap for him? Was it a freestyle?
Drama: "I rapped about fifteen songs I had wrote to and did right there on the spot. Then I switched it up and freestyled about ten, fifteen minutes straight, just snappin'."
He knew you were dead serious right off hand because you were well prepared. You freestyled and you had your memorized rhymes ready...
Drama: "Dig dat."
How long have you been rapping?
Drama: "I started writing poetry when I was seven. I started rappin' when I was nine. So I have been at it about eleven years."
What kind of poetry did you write back in the day?
Drama: "All kinds. I wrote about the birds and the bees and all of that. But I wasn't too much about the birds and the bees. I was about what was going on - what I was feeling. If I felt sad, I would write about it. If I felt happy, I'd write about being happy. I was a writer. I could write about the leaves and really just snap. You know what I mean?"
I hear you are working on all kinds of new projects. Can you tell me about some of those?
Drama: "I am on the Tight IV Life compilation album. I just did a song with Pastor Troy. I'm doing something with Missy Elliott. And I got this thing with Nicole Ray. It's really going on down here. I just shot the video for the "Double Time" single. It's cool. And be looking for my next album coming out in October."
What are some of your goals as far as your music career goes?
Drama: "I'm trying to go platinum on everything I drop. Everything I do, I want to go platinum. But really ain't no want in it because my fans, they love and I love them and we gon' do this thang. I'm gon' keep dropping what they want."
What are some of the things you hope to achieve business wise?
Drama: "Next year I will be starting my own label, PDPR, which stands for Pull Da Pin Records. A grenade will be the logo. It's really going down. I got seven or eight groups that's gon' drop. It's gon' be my whole click, like Drama's Guillotine. But they gon' have their own names and identities."
What did you look for - or how did you pick the artists you wanted for your label?
Drama: "Three of them were locked down with me and they got out and I let them know what it was. I knew they had that raw talent and I was like somebody gave me a chance, let me give somebody else a chance."
What inspired your hit "Left, Right, Left"?
Drama: "I was locked down when I came up with that. We used to have to march. They had us leftin' and rightin' all over the place. A time came when I was like, if I'm gon' do it, I'm gon' do it and like it. So, I put a little groove to it."
How did you get the name Drama?
Drama: "When I was a kid they used to call me Trouble. So as I got older it went from Trouble to Drama. And the name Drama stands for Drastic Retaliation Against My Adversaries. Notice I said drastic retaliation. Not drastic go out and shoot somebody up. Retaliation means I only move if something is done to me. Something must be done to me first."
You are a person who has been through a lot of things. You've lived the illegal side and the legal side. What made the difference to you? What made you want to change your ways?
Drama: "For one, I've done it all. Ain't too much I ain't done. I'm a young man and I'm a soldier, a real trooper. Going to jail happened because of what I did - not because of what anyone else did. I can't say 'So-and-so did this, and now I am locked up.' No, it was because of something I did and I got to suffer the consequences. But I made the best of it. A mistake is not an error unless you refuse to correct it. Why make the same mistake over and over again if you know where it'll get you? But the thing is what you say to yourself inside is, 'Man when I get out, it's gon' be on.' And it's like this: You can't make no money locked up. The playas may say, 'I want money so I'm gon' get out here and make this money. Trap or whatever. But man, its way more money out there than just that. Long money is out there. That crooked money, that there is short money."
Talk to your fans now. Anything special you want to share with them?
Drama: "I just really want to say thank you to everybody who bought Causin' Drama and helped make this thang go platinum. We gon' keep doin' it!"
A quote from Drama
"The playas may say, 'I want money so I'm gon' get out here and make this money. Trap or whatever. But man, its way more money out there than just that. Long money is out there. That crooked money, that there is short money." - Drama