Don Toliver interview: How gaming influenced rapper\u2019s music career Dexerto sat down with Billboard Hot 100 artist Don Toliver to discuss his roots in gaming and how the rapper\u2019s love of video games influenced his current musical career. Don Toliver is coming hot off the release of his 3rd studio album, Love Sick \u2014 but it\u2019s not his prolific music career that the singer wanted to talk about when he stepped into the FaZe Warehouse to speak with Dexerto. Instead, we picked his brain about his love of gaming. Don is an avid gamer, and currently plays a wide variety of titles, both at home and on the go when touring or traveling with his crew. However, the artist also claimed that some of his earliest music was made using a gaming console, proving that his passion for video games played a big part in his current musical pursuits. Don Toliver says his first music was made with a gaming console \u201cWhen I first started making music, I had this big TV with these big speakers on it, and I would go to YouTube on it or whatever through the TV,\u201d he explained. \u201cI would play a YouTube beat on the loudspeakers, and I would have the TV with the PlayStation, with the iCreate, I think it was called iCreate,\u201d he continued, referencing the PlayStation Eye camera for the PS3. \u201cWhere you had the camera and it had a microphone on it, and there was a way where you were able to record whatever you were saying on it.\u201d \u201cI would just press play on the music and I would record something. I would write it. Write a song down and record with the music playing in the background.\u201d Although Don doesn\u2019t have those tracks in his possession anymore, he did confirm that some of his earliest music was created using a gaming console \u2014 and that\u2019s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to his passion for video games. What games does Don Toliver play on tour? The rapper also revealed that he\u2019s constantly gaming on the go and brings a plethora of systems with him when he travels, be it a PlayStation, Switch, or even a PC\u2026 and he has a pretty creative way of storing his consoles. \u201cThis is so crazy,\u201d he began. \u201cRecently, I\u2019ve been traveling with the Xbox. I have all the systems. I travel with my Switch, and that\u2019s usually my go-to thing. But recently, I\u2019ve been traveling with my new Xbox, the smaller one. And I found this crazy \u2014 I don\u2019t have a case for it. One day, I was like, rushing out the house. I didn\u2019t have a case, but I don\u2019t know if you ever bought like, a hat case.\u201d (For those out of the loop, hat cases are specifically for storing one\u2019s hat to keep the brims straight and the tops from being crushed in while traveling.) \u201cIt\u2019s pretty big. I found this hat case when I was rushing out the house and the console, the cords, and the controller ended up fitting right, perfectly in the hat case.\u201d As for what he plays when he\u2019s on tour, Don says that he often plays more competitive titles with his buddies \u2014 more specifically, fighting games or Call of Duty. \u201cMe and my friends, we get into Fight Night Round Three a lot. We love it, that\u2019s a classic. We get into Tekken 6 a lot, that\u2019s a classic. When friends come around, we get into it and just play Call of Duty. We\u2019ll probably set up TVs and just go crazy.\u201d Although Don rubs elbows with a lot of famous figures, when it comes to gaming, he likes to keep his circle small and prefers to play with his friends. Don Toliver loves GTA IV\u2019s radio stations According to Don, GTA IV is a current favorite of his, in no small part due to the game\u2019s huge tracklist that can be found on the in-game radio stations. That\u2019s not all; when asked if he\u2019d like to help compose a game\u2019s soundtrack, his first answer was \u201cGTA.\u201d \u201cI\u2019m playing GTA IV right now,\u201d he said. \u201cI solely play it because of like, the way the mechanics of the game work. I really like it. And regardless of the way the mechanics of the game are, the music that they have on the radio station is crazy.\u201d \u201cYou know, like, you go the Vibe station or you go to the Hip Hop station, or you go to the Eighties rock station. The music taste on there \u2014 it is immaculate. Yeah. And it\u2019s always kind of been like that.\u201d But Don doesn\u2019t want us to get it twisted \u2014 he plays GTA V, too, but for now, he\u2019s tapping into GTA IV for some \u201cvery inspirational reasons.\u201d Don Toliver is a pretty competitive gamer Of course, Don does love some Call of Duty, and claims that he gets pretty competitive when he\u2019s in the zone. However, he\u2019s not one to trash talk on the mic. Instead, he says he\u2019s pretty quiet when he\u2019s taking names \u2014 a silent but deadly threat. \u201cSecretly though, I might be on the game quiet the whole game and might mute my headphones or something, just be going crazy trying to get where I need to get,\u201d he said. Don Toliver opens up about what music he listens to while gaming Games and music go hand-in-hand for Don. When he\u2019s on the game, he\u2019s also making sure to play some music, too, whether that be new artists he\u2019s just discovered, or his own unreleased tracks. \u201cI like to jam to Baby Drill,\u201d he explained. \u201cLike, I really get in there and go crazy a lot, like I\u2019ve been jamming that heavy on Call of Duty. Um, my bro put me on this guy \u2014 his name is Tony Snow. I really like his music, too, playing Call of Duty. I go crazy. It just really puts me in the mood.\u201d \u201cI listen to my album on shuffle a lot too, when I\u2019m playing the game. I like to do that. \u2026when it comes to my own music, I like to listen to a lot of my music that I record on the daily. I record a lot, so I\u2019m constantly listening to what I\u2019m doing.\u201d \u201cSometimes I just ride in my car solo and I\u2019m like, \u2018Yo, let me listen to some of my unreleased [songs].\u2019 I\u2019m like, okay, I see where I\u2019m at, and I might listen to somebody else\u2019s music for a second. I\u2019m like, \u2018Man, lemme listen. Let me hear how my music sounds through the speakers today.’\u201d It\u2019s clear that gaming has influenced Don\u2019s life in a major way. From making his first songs on a PlayStation Eye webcam to hauling around a slew of consoles on the road during a tour, video games remain a constant in his life as he continues his journey into musical fame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Don Toliver interview: How gaming influenced rapper\u2019s music career Dexerto sat down with Billboard Hot 100 artist Don Toliver to discuss his roots in gaming and how the rapper\u2019s love of video games influenced his current musical career. Don Toliver is coming hot off the release of his 3rd studio album, Love Sick \u2014 but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}