DISSTAR: From Church Drummer to Afrobeat Innovator

We just dropped the ultimate rap battle challenge—can the legends like Kanye West, Jay-Z, Drake or Kendrick Lamar go toe-to-toe with an up-and-coming NG superstar? Smash that Like button if you want to see the big dogs answer the call! 🔥

Join us for an in-depth conversation with DISSTAR, the Nigerian artist blending Afrobeat, Hip-Hop & R&B with striking digital and mixed-media art. Discover how church-born rhythms on drums, conga and talking drum became the heartbeat of his genre-defying sound. We unpack:

• 🎶 Early Roots: Growing up in the church and learning percussion
• 🌍 Cultural Fusion: Infusing traditional Nigerian grooves into modern tracks
• 🎨 Art Meets Tech: How a Library & Information Science background informs his digital art
• 🚀 Milestones: 1,000+ Audiomack streams & distribution across 10+ platforms
• 📅 Upcoming Releases: New single drops Aug 8, EP arrives Aug 24
• 🤝 Collaboration Goals: Partnering with visionary producers & artists

🎧 Tap in, get inspired, and support DISSTAR’s journey!
 🔗 Learn more & connect: https://beatstorapon.com/artist/disstar

What the Video Podcast here: https://youtu.be/5unppAnaZ6A?si=Co4j7_MEcHF4k6AI

We’re building the future—empowering every artist and creator with the tools, beats, and network to share their voice, connect boldly, and leave a mark on the world. 🔗 Visit us at https://beatstorapon.com.

Keep creating. Keep sharing. Keep rising.

Transcript

0:03

eah, we're back on the podcast with Disstar-Star. What's good, man? What's happening over there? Yeah, I'm good. I'm chilling. I'm chilling a lot. What up? What up? I'm D-Star. They call me D-Star the MG. So, I'm on the show with the Cheds. So, you know how we do it. We're going to run the shootout. Because they call me D-Star the MG because I'm the master. Not the gangster. But I fuck up your sister just like a punster. So, that's why I know your sister. Because everybody comes to see me on a poster. When they see me on a poster, they know this is not the real gangster. You know, I love it. It's so good, D-Star. So, listen, awesome name, D-Star. Why don't we start there? Like, where did that come from? Tell the viewers what's going on with D-Star. Let's break it down. Yeah, yeah. A lot of competition. A lot of rap battles. So, when we got to a lot of rap battles, I dissed a lot of rappers. So, there's one day I got in a battle with the rap. And I dissed a lot of rappers. Coming to me, up to like 10 rappers. So, my name is MG before. MG, Mula Guy. Because I love money a lot. So, they call me Mula Guy. So, from there, I dissed a lot of rappers. And I got the competition. I got the money. So, someone just had to come and like, Guy, they got to be calling you D-Star. Because you got to start from dissing a lot of rappers. So, I was like, oh yeah, you can just call me D-Star, the MG. So, just call me D-Star, the Mula Guy. Yeah, that's what's up. I love that, man. Give me something. Give me something. Diss me. Give me something hard. Hit me hard, baby. Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. We're on the beat to rap porn right now. Because I'm with the chair. Because I'm with the chair. We're going to rub the shit up. Because they call me D-Star. Because I'm the master. Baby, why don't you roll with the gangster? I'm not the porn star, but I'm going to fuck all your sisters. Because that's why we're on the streets with the crack stars. Oh! Yeah, that's what's up, man. That's what's up, man. Let's go, let's go, let's go. I love it, man. Just so good. It's so good. So, you know, what's good with you, man? So, let's, yeah, what's going on in your life at the moment, D-Star? Break it down for us. What's happening? Oh yeah, oh yeah. You know, I'm an independent artist. No record label, no record deal. I'm just trying to do my thing. I'm just trying to do my thing on my own. And, you know, I'm good. I'm good. At least we got into some rap. We got into some competition. And I think we got a lot of shows. I got a lot of shows coming. I got a lot of interviews coming, too. So, you know, I'm so happy, like, I'm on the beat to rap with you, hey. It's part of the journey. And I think I'm going to be happy to glad to do a lot of projects with you as well. You know, like, how did you get into all of this? Oh, yeah. You know, I started from the church. Because from the childhood, I started from the church. We were playing instruments. And from there, I got into making music, writing music. So, from there, I played a lot of instruments, though. I played drum. I played African drum. I played African drum sets. And I played some keyboards as well. So, from there, I discovered my talent. I wrote music. Though I discovered my talent through writing some music. I wrote a lot of music. I wrote a lot of music for people. And I'm actually a songwriter as well. If I got an opportunity on Beats to Rap to hire me, we're good. So, I think we started from the bottom, now we're here, you know. So, I think I look up to a lot of projects. I look up to a lot of hiring from the Beats to Rap as well. Man, we're very blessed. You know, thank you. You know, it's very humbling you saying things like that. We're very blessed. You know, like, was there a point where you just went, you know what? This is it. This is what I am. Oh, yeah. I played some drum. I got a mentor. I got a mentor. So, I started from the church. Beats kind of put me on the wave, kind of put me on the line. So, I started from writing music. I write a lot of music. I write a lot of music for people. When we don't have a chance to go to the studio, I write music. I give to people that have a lot of chance to go to the studio, you know. When we started going to the studio, I'm watching everything and everything is going. So, one day, I just told my producer, sir, please, can I just try for once, sir? He just told me, you, this small boy, what are you doing here? I was like, oh, please, can you just give me one moment, just one chance? Man, I took my shots and I get it all way. So, from there, I've been going to the studio, making some music, you know, doing everything with people, doing some features as well. So, from there, I just got a call from a friend like, oh, guy, you got to come to a rap battle. We got a rap battle going on. I was like, wow, you know. Let me just say, I love to be in the real life, you know, in a real life rap, you know, because I'm this kind of people that I'm real. I'm really in love because I believe it's better to be real than to be perfect. Only God is the perfect. So, I love to be real with my achieve. I love to be real with my music. So, anytime I'm doing some music, I always try to talk about myself. I always try to talk about God and I always try to put myself on, like, no other rapper can come to me. I'm from Nigeria, though. What I'm telling you, there's a lot of rap in Nigeria, but they don't really appreciate rap in Nigeria, you know. Afrobeat, Afrobeat, Afrobeat. But I think I believe in myself. I'm going to make it through the rap and I know that the only difficult things are only done by people who are martyrs, I believe. And I believe we're going to make it through the rap. That's just it. All right. So, one thing that I wanted to dig into a little bit, yeah, said some super interesting stuff. I just wanted to touch on one thing. So, you know, you mentioned when you were young, you were like, give me a go, give me a go, you know, tell us about that moment. I want to stop. I want you to linger on that a little bit. I want you to tell all the audience, like, how did it feel, first of all, to get the courage to ask for the mic. And then when you got up there, walk us through that whole end-to-end experience. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, when you're a kid, you're going to love to be doing a lot of things when you see your brother, your elder people doing, you know. I'm just this kind of person. From my childhood, I've been listening to a lot of music. I love Drake. I love Jay-Z. I love Kanye West. I know a lot of my brothers are listening to the jam, so I just got to move to them, like, okay, bro, let's listen to this, let's listen to this. So, from there, getting the mic is just like starting a journey, starting a new journey for me. And I really see it as an opportunity. So, I think I'm this kind of person that I love to make use of an opportunity. I make use of the opportunity, and I feel like there is a chance for me to go out there and, you know, it's not easy being in music and being a musician or an artist, and you don't have no audience, nobody want to listen to you, and you feel like you just want to do your thing, you know. So, I feel like it's a kind of opportunity and a real breakthrough for me. So, I see it as a bridge to the stardom. I see it as a bridge to the stardom. And I feel like, you know, I'm just going to keep doing my thing. I think people are going to know me, and I'm not going to stop, you know. We're starting from the bottom, now we're here, and I'm very sure we're still going to a lot of great, great, great places. So, I see it as an opportunity and a bridge to a stardom. So, yeah, it started my career as well as a rap artist. So, I think I got to make use of the opportunity. So, it's like a dream for me, dream coming true. So, I think, you know, I bless God about that, though. I bless God about that, though. You know, being getting the mic the same day is just the same feeling I'm having getting on the show with you right here. That's for real. So, I see it as an opportunity for me, too, for people to get to know what I do, for people to know what I have passion for. And I feel like, you know, they are not ready for me, for real. They are not ready because I'm going to take over the world very soon. Definitely. Nice. I love that. So, when you, you know, so, like, you walked up to the mic for the very first time when you're little, right? You looked at it. You went, holy shit, that's what I am. I am the music. Like, how did you – tell us how you felt inside yourself, like, when your hand reached out to that microphone. What was going through your mind? Oh, no lies. I was a bit scared when I got the mic for the first time. Oh, you know, being what I love to do, a thing I love to do, and being a lady I have got passion for, you know, I was so happy. Because I think even when I got the mic, people think, what is this small boy going to sing? What is he going to say? Who is this? You know, now being given them the lyrics, they see the flow, they see the rhyme, they were like, oh, wow, this is a star. They don't even call me this star then. They only call me the NG. But they only knew that when I got the mic and they see the flow, they see the lyrics coming out, they say this is a star. So from there, I got an opportunity to feature an artist in the studio as well. So that's how my brother get to call me to come and show what I've got in a lot of audience, in the midst of a lot of audience on the stage. So I see it as, number one, getting the mic, it's like a dream come true for me. When I hold the mic and sing, it's like a dream come true because that is what I've got a passion for. So it's now a different case when I get on the stage, facing a lot of audience, doing my thing, oh, yeah, oh. Like, I really love that to happen. I really love that to happen. And I'm very sure, because I listen to Jay-Z well, so it's part of my dream to perform for Jay-Z. And I love Jay-Z. It's my mentor. And I think maybe one day I'm going to diss him as well. When we get, when we see on the stage, I'm going to let him know that this is a D-star because, you know, you're a D-star, you're a hoove, I'm a D-star. But, you know, I respect the hoove a lot. I respect the hoove a lot. So I think it's like, it's like a dream come true and a breakthrough to start on for me. Tell us a little bit about them. So, you know, Jay-Z, Kanye, like how have they influenced you and shaped your sounds? Yeah, I listen to Jay-Z very well. A lot of Empire State of Mind, Rihanna, Kanye West. So I think I love to, I love to check, watch a lot of documentaries. I watch a lot of documentaries about rap, about hip hop. So, you know, I just love the, you know, as an artist, you have to brand yourself. You have to know what you're doing. You know, you have to. So I just love, they inspired me a lot. They inspired me in whatever I do a lot. Especially Hoove, Jay-Z, with DJ Khaled and Rick Rossi. So I feel like whatever they do, for them to become great in life and for them to become this big, I think, you know, we can do it too. We can do it. So they actually influenced my music through watching their documentaries, watching their shows because I watch a lot of shows as well. I watch a lot of shows. Jay-Z's shows, New York, Michael Jackson. So I think they influenced me through, you know, through the rap battle and through the shows, through the documentaries. So, you know, I just love watching their work because they inspired me a lot. By the way, I'm also a DJ. I DJ as well. So when I go to a show, I tell people that, okay, I do a lot of things because Jay-Z too, he'll do a lot of things. He does DJ. He does an artist. He does an entertainer. He's a manager, you know, a lot. So I think, you know, just let me say as an artist, I multitask. I still multitask. I do DJ. I still produce, and I still play instruments. So I think they just influenced me through their documentaries because they are so great in life as well, and they know what they are doing, and they stick to what they are doing. So I think if you don't stand for something, you're going to fall for anything. So I think I really take them as my goals and as my mentor. So through watching them, through watching their shows, they influenced me. So I think that's how they got to influence me through their shows. And I'm very happy. I'm so happy I can still see them now. They are still doing their thing. They are big. They are great now. I believe I'm going to be great like them only. So those are the people that inspired me to do this, and I'm very sure they're going to keep inspiring us as well. What sort of stuff do you like to communicate through your raps, through your DJ, you know, through your production? Like how do you – what do you like to rap about? Oh, yeah. I love to rap about myself, about myself, because I'm a great guy. I do a lot of things. So I love to rap about myself, about my journey, about what inspired me, about my dream. I love to talk about my dream as well. You know, as an artist, as an hip-hop, we all believe in love. Love is what makes all of us come together. It brings us unity. So I think I talk about love as well. So, you know, I think in the continent now, Africa, Europe, America, you know, UK, it's all love that we're all using to do our thing, you know. As an artist, we have to collaborate. We have to feel chose, you know, exporting your music, you know, importing the music, the other artists' music as well. You're exporting your music to the other country. I think that's really inspired me as well. That really inspired me as well. And I think we can just do a lot of things as well to collaborate to each other. Because I love collaboration as well. I collaborate to a lot of people. So, you know, I talk about myself and I talk about my journey and dream. So, you know, because I got a lot of dream. I got a lot of dream. If I'm in a rap, I'm telling you about myself. In 30 minutes, I'm still going to be talking about myself. Because I got a lot of places. I got a lot of things I'm doing. You know, engaging in a lot of things. I do DJ as well. So if I'm still doing my thing, you know, I still got to talk about it that I've been DJ'ed once. You give me my shit. You don't give me my money, but you give me my shit. I'm standing right here. I'm going to still sit on the chair because I've got to get my money and I'm going to get my shit, you know. Nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, love it. That's my chair. Love it, bro. I want to talk about the dream. Tell me more about this dream. When did it start? What is it? Does it involve women? Money? Tell us all about it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. When I do my rap, it involves money. It involves love. It involves girls as well. How many girls are we talking about? How many girls are we talking about? No, no, no, no, no. Don't go there. Dude, I love girls. I love the girls. Yeah, I love the girls. So, I love the girls. I don't mind 10. I don't mind 10 girls. I don't mind. Dude, actually, I'm joking, dude. I'm joking, dude. I don't really. I'm not married. I'm still single as well. But, you know, I don't really talk about girls in my music like that because in rap battle, you have to make real life come to whatever you are doing. You have to make real life. You have to make it look like a movie, you know. So, I talk about my journey. I had it up with a story about my rap. But when I rap, you even talk maybe you're watching a movie in your head because I'm going to talk about my journey. I'm going to talk about what I'm doing, you know. So, I think I talk about my journey mostly and about my dream, about myself. Though, if there's a chance like maybe I want to do some music for some brand or for a future, then if you really want to talk about something, then we can talk about it. But it's only me, me talking about myself, you know. I think it's a great journey. And I got a lot of things to say about myself. But if you want us to talk about love, if you want us to talk about gays as well, I'm good. There we go. We're going to talk about it. I want to hear more about what you're talking about. I want to hear more about you. All the fans want to hear more about you. Keep telling us. We need to know. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because my journey in the music industry is a whole lot. In these days, there's online and everything. I'm thinking we need to do something. Especially Beat to Rap Home. Let's come together for the artists. There's a lot of new talents. I'm watching a show last night when a Nigerian guy is on the stage with Drake. Rema is on the stage with Drake, you know, performing Afrobeat on Wireless Fest. They did Wireless Fest last night in the UK. So as a Nigerian boy on the stage, vibing with Drake, with Popcan, you know, it's like an inspiration for me as well. I'm from Nigeria and I can still get on this stage with Drake. I can get on this stage with Kanye West. I can get on this stage with Jay-Z. You know, it's like a dream. It's like a dream for me that I think I'm going to achieve it one day. I pray a lot about that. I think Afrobeat is on the map right now. Nigeria is on the map all over the world right now. So I think we need to come together and discover these talents. Because, you know, we don't know who is trying to look for a star, who is trying to look for an investor, who is trying to look for a talent, you know. I think if you don't put yourself out there or as an artist as well, if you don't put yourself out there or do all these kind of things, you know, at least you try to level up with them as well. So that I think they will know that you are also doing some things. But I believe in myself a lot. Like I'm going to get on this stage with Jay-Z. I'm going to get on this stage with Kanye West, with Drake, with Kendrick Lamar, you know, all sort of people that inspired me a lot. I wish to be with them, performing with them and have a rap battle. Even if it's not a rap battle, it's just a rap for them, you know. I feel like I got to do that. I think you heard this first there. We just had Disstar put a battle challenge out to Kanye. Or are we talking about Drake? I mean, who are we putting it out there for? Is it Drake? You can put it up right there. Oh, we can do that. I mean, it's on the podcast, right? So you want to put it out there. You can put all the challenge you want out there. And you know what? If they respond. If they can see it, if they invite me to come, like they want us to do it, I'm good. I'm good. I'm good. But they're still my mentor. I respect them all day. It's not maybe I'm trying to, you know, put on a rap battle, like maybe I'm better than them. No, they're my boss. They're my mentor. But I need them to let them know that, oh, you inspired me a lot. Whatever you do, I really want to do as well. And I even really want to do more than that. But for what they do to inspire us, we young guys, like we young artists as well. So we got to let them know that they should keep doing whatever they do. Because we are also coming and we are the future as well. And we're going to let them know that. Whatever they are doing now, we're going to do it more, a lot better in the future. Even when they are not here anymore, we're going to stick around the legacy alone forever, forever, forever. I tell you what. If we can get a rap battle. Let Jay-Z see. Let Drake see. Let Kendrick see it. You know, we're going to fuck shit up, man. Yeah. I tell you what. If we can get Drake to battle you, we'll pay for it. We'll put our own three beats to rap on and off we go. Okay. Okay. No problem. If Drake is ready to be in a rap battle with me, I'm cool. We're going to do it. We're going to do it. Disstar is already dropping some dis. All right. Throw down some... All right. Let's hear some bars. All right. We talked about a lot of it. Disstar, drop some bars right now for the viewers. Let's go. Yeah. Is there a way you can give me any hip hop beats right there? No beats, brother. It's all freestyle. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Let's go. They're calling me disstar because I'm the master. Baby girl, why don't you roll with the gangsta? I'm the real star. I'm not the gangsta. Because if I fuck you like a punk star, this is you killing me like a rock star. You know? I got a chair. I got a chair. Anybody going to come here to gather me and do the heavy things, you just simply got to hear, I got so many heavy. I got children to fix on the alley. And on my leg, you just stay sitting here. I don't deal with the small boys. Yeah. We used to the store stocks. Everything I do is the outboards. Yo, wait for the call, boys. You wait for the call, boys. You wait for the call. I don't mind anything. You can still see. Call me once. I'm going to be right because I'll be right there. I'm building my empire with shark, shark, shark. Every day digging. Every day swallow. We don't do shit. Every day we don't dig in. Every day thinks anything. Before it got really heavy. All that girls want to treat me really hard now. Yeah. What you say? What you say? What you say, bro? Yeah. Let's go. Yeah. What you say? I love it. I love it, man. I'm sorry. So that's why I like doing it with no beats because it really, I love it when, you know, skilled artists like yourself can do it with no beats because it's the hardest. And it's like, that's where you really see your talent coming through. You know, it's like raw, you know, dista only talent. Have you got any tunes coming out? Are you on stage doing any, any shows? Let's talk about all that now. What shows have you done? What shows have you got coming up? Yeah, I got a show coming up. I got a show coming up on August because I'm having my birthday on August. So I got a show coming up with a lot of artists as well. So I'm still working on it now. We're looking for a lot of sponsors from some brands. We're looking for a lot of shows. Maybe I can feature in as well, you know. So I think I got a show coming up next month. So I think we still got a lot of shows coming up by December. We're in Nigeria. We got to do December. So we got a lot of shows coming up. But I personally, I'm having my birthday next month. So I'm doing something for all artists around me and some future artists as well. We're going to come up together. We're going to vibe. We're going to sing, you know. But it's going to be fun. Like, I want to have it in studio, in my studio, in my home studio. So we're going to vibe a lot inside the studio. It's just going to be like a boot camp, like recording boot camp. You get me? So I think I got planned. But I got planned by December having a big show on the stage, you know. A free show, though. A free entry. Everybody should come. Everybody should come up. Let's celebrate music together. Let's celebrate the journey together, you know. That's what's up, man. What are you working on? Yeah, and when's it coming out? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm working on my album right now. I'm working on not a debut album, rather. I'm working on an EP, extended playlist. Well, it's like an album. Album EP. EP album, rather. So, you think? I'm working on it right now. So I'm looking up to Future, my mentor as well. I don't mind if you can help me get to Jay-Z or Kanye West or Kendrick. If they can jump on my music, it's going to be a dream come true for me, for real. So I think, though the album is ready, but I'm still looking for some artists to put on it, to jump on it. So I'm thinking maybe if I got, because I'm also trying to, I'm a graduate as well. I went to university, and I'm a graduate. So I'm thinking about putting it in for my master's in the UK or in the US. So I'm thinking when I go there, maybe I can, if I got an artist from another country or another continent, jumping on my shit as well, you know? We come together, doing a lot of great things together, you know? That's how we do a lot of great things together. Different kind of people coming together and do stuff and make sense, you know? It's going to be great. We're going to put B2Rap on the map as well, you know? That's my plan. Exporting my music out there, all over the world, in Europe. And I'm also thinking of having my tour as well by December. I'm having my tour. So from there, we're performing in a lot of different countries, different continents, in Africa, in Europe, and in the US. But like I said, the greatest plan I'm having now is if I can get all my mentors as well on my project. It's going to be a dream come true for me, for real. I think it'll be a dream come true for everyone, quite frankly. If we can get Drake or Lamar on the podcast in a rap battle and on your EP. Tunes, have you dropped in? Yeah. Who are you after? Put the call out on here. Millions of people will be listening to it. Who are you calling out to? Oh, yeah. I'm calling out to a lot of great artists from Africa. Not in Nigeria though, but in Ghana and in South Africa. So I'm calling out for some African artists as well to come jump on it. So like I said, I'm thinking about exporting my music. So I'm thinking when I get a chance to be there, we're going to still do a lot of things together. But right now on the EP, I'm thinking that's why I'm holding to release the EP. Because I want to put a lot of great artists on it. So I'm still waiting though. I don't mind if I still get some artists. If I still get Drake or Jay-Z. If you said I'm going to get Jay-Z next year, I'm going to wait till I drop the album next year. If you said I'm going to get Jay-Z tomorrow, I'm going to drop the album tomorrow. That's what's up, man. But actually, we're still working on the album. We're still working on the album right now. We're still working on it. A lot of good work is going on on the album. So I think it's going to be dropped real time soon. Anytime soon. It's a pro key. It's going to be dropped. It's going to be dropped. So I think I already got just two artists on it now from other countries. So I think they are doing their thing. They're going to send me very soon. But if I can get Jay-Z on the music tomorrow, I'm going to drop tomorrow. That's what's up. I'm thinking of dropping it on my birthday, which is August 8th. August 8th. So I'm thinking of dropping on that very day. Just stay tuned for me. We got a lot of projects coming up. I still got a lot of videos, a lot of content shooting about the EP as well. It's going to be dropping real time soon on my YouTube as well. So you just go check it out on my YouTube. D-Star on my YouTube. I got a lot of content on it. So I've been thinking after the African artist featured on it, they got their stuff coming here. At least we're going to release the album. The set up date, the management set up for now is just August 8th. So you got to be expecting my dropping by August 8th. It's going to blow you out. It's going to blow everyone out. Just get ready for a real rap song.