Meet Daniel James: Vine star to up-and-coming rapper

He has 128k followers on Vine and one of his songs has over 682k plays

Syracuse University junior, Daniel James always knew he wanted to sing and perform when he grew up. As a junior in the Bandier Program, Daniel is learning “all about the music business and entertainment business” in order to become Syracuse’s next up and coming rapper.

“I always wanted to be on stage, perform my music and have everyone hear it,” said the Bergen County, New Jersey native.

He credits the Bandier Program for helping him to contact alumni who are able to help him with his career: “Bandier has really helped me with networking; they have a great network of alumni,” he told The Tab.

In addition to rapping solo, Daniel also formed an unofficial group with two of his friends from high school, Jeremy Zucker and Benjamin O’Connell. The trio call themselves “3OAK” which stands for “Three of a Kind.” The group is always looking to help each other out, whether it is with production or songwriting.

Left to right: Jeremy Zucker, Daniel James, Benjamin O’Connell

As for his own songwriting and production process, Daniel writes all of his own songs by himself, while also contributing ideas to the production process.

“I always try to make music I want my friends to vibe to and bump to. When I’m writing I try to be myself and think about who I am as a writer and try to make it my own.” Daniel also told us he is inspired by rappers G-Eazy, Drake and other up and coming artists like Black Bear.

‘Cuse students may not know Daniel is actually “Vine famous.” At the moment he has 128,000 followers on the app, and credits his Vines and social media in general with helping him get to where he is today.

Although he is not as active on Vine as he was in high school, Daniel is still writing and recording new songs, and actively uses his Sound Cloud account to interact and premiere new music. The song, “Bout It” featuring Daniel has over 680,000 plays on Sound Cloud.

When asked why he wants to perform Daniel said, “There’s just something inside of me, you know? The feeling it brings to me, especially when I get on stage. It’s just so natural to me. Ultimately, it’s been my dream to be a rapper. I want to be a star,” with a smile.

Be on the look out for Daniel and his next endeavor as he tackles the music industry and continues to be Vine famous.

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