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Listen To What Desiigner Sounded Like A Year Before “Panda”

It’s always really interesting to hear the progression of an artist’s sound, not only throughout their career, but in the earliest days – especially when they were upcoming or unsigned.One Reddit user has uncovered a video from 2014, featuring a pre-Panda Desiigner. Yes, that’s right – Desiigner did exist before Panda, and he did rap on other songs before his smash hit dominated the hip-hop charts. And thanks to Reddit, you can listen to it now.

At the time Desiigner wasn’t Desiigner, he was Designer Royel (his real name is Sidney Royel Selby III). In fact, Desiigner is his third hip-hop name – before Designer Royel he was briefly known as Dezolo.

Anyway, his verse is found on on a song called Trynna Grind by Young Boy, and also features a guest verse from Young Bart. 

Give it a listen – he comes in at the three minute mark. It’s pretty good, and it’s interesting to see how his tone of voice, flow, style and even his image evolved in the year between this and Panda. 

 

But wait, there’s more. Also back in 2014, Desiigner also featured on a PHresher track titled Danny Devito, also featuring Rowdy Rebel. This one is bigger and fairly trap-heavy, perhaps a sign of things to come. While the track itself isn’t overly interesting, again it’s pretty fun to hear an early Desiigner. Here, he features pretty heavily throughout, taking care of the hook and a few subsequent bars throughout the song.

Oh, and for anyone wondering about the whole “Danny Devito” thing like I was, Genius explains, ““On Danny Devito” is used in a similar fashion to“on fleek” – Danny Devito is quite short and stout, and therefore if your pockets are “on Danny Devito” your pockets are full of cash in the literal sense. It can also be used in the metaphorical sense that you are wealthy and successful.”

Image: Youtube