For many individuals in the music industry, signing to a label was everything you could hope for, and up until the early 2010s, that was how you could truly envision a path towards success. Back then, without social media as a promotional tool, being an independent artist wasn’t often feasible or sustainable.
Still, with the rise of information and resources we now find in spaces such as Reddit, YouTube, Instagram or platforms like Spotify, things have changed drastically. The gatekeeping of the music industry has been slowly dismantled by ferocious artists who take creative control, autonomy and ownership extremely seriously, leading them on a unique journey many artists still consider foreign.
Today, artists like Angolan-Mancunian Diana de Brito, known to us all as IAMDDB, or ‘Dee’ for her loved ones, are the perfect example. The multidisciplinary artist has held onto her goals and embarked on her independent journey with her head held high. From the moment she released ‘Leaned Out’ in 2016, DDB swept us off our feet through her commitment to redefining the word artist.