In a world where trap music is dominating the radio, Cadillac Muzik is going old-school with their original hip hop style. Comprised of Beseja "CaddyMack" Moses and Scott Campbell aka "DaddyDvill", this alternative hip hop duo began in San Antonio and has now grown to being #8 on the European Indie Top 200 Charts, and charted top 40 on the DRT National Airplay Top 150 Chart with their song "Mind Play."
Moses and Campbell have loved music since they were kids, giving them an outlet to express themselves and to stay positive. “We’re both from the project area of san Antonio. [Music] was our only outlet besides playing sports, so we really got into music, the creativity, starting to create and do some as extracurricular activity to take ourselves away from the negativity in our environment.”
They believe that religion and family morals play a big role in their music as well, something that Moses says he and Campbell were taught by their mothers. “God is the only reason why we are pursuing what we are doing. It’s really a strong spiritual connection between us and god and it just flows that way. We were raised in real moral grounded households. We both were raised without a father figure. Our mothers were real firm on morals and believing in what you believe in and just staying positive.”
However, their families were not so supportive of their music at the beginning. “When you say hip hop, you automatically think negativity,” says Moses. “The artists now, trap music is based off of negativity. At first, they didn’t like it but when they listened to what we were talking about, they could feel the spiritual connection. They’re really understanding of what we are doing through our music.”
Moses also contributes their success to being savvy businessmen. “We went through a period of our music career where we actually had to put the music down and start learning more of the business side of things. A lot of people [starting out as musicians] don’t understand the business side. They go at it from an artist perspective. But we had to put that down and start learning the business, like how to market ourselves, how to self-do everything. We had to teach ourselves. It came from research and experience in certain things, and then applying it to our music.”
However, Moses says that the connection to their fans is always their number one priority. “We are strongly influenced by artists like The Temptations and Otis Redding. Their connection to the audience is what we try to keep in our music so people can feel the music. Music is organic; it’s almost like its own religion. That’s what we base our whole infrastructure on. We try to keep it to where there’s actually a connection between us and fans. That’s what it’s all about. Over time we’ve gotten away from that but that’s what we strive to do, like in a marriage. We want our fans to grow with us over time and to feel what we’re going through. Whatever you’re going through, it’s like a connection between you and the artist and that’s what we try to do.”
As far as the potential to grow in the San Antonio music scene, the duo is excited. Moses shares that “there are a lot of talented artists here and we believe that San Antonio’s music scene is excellent, especially R&B. It hasn’t really exploded here, but we do believe that it will. San Antonio is a military based city but there’s a lot of people moving here. You can feel the city growing.”
This growth is dependent on venues being open and receptive to new artists like Cadillac Muzik. Moses adds, “Right now it’s pretty tough when you go to a venue and you try to get a show. It’s like a marriage; you have to marry that venue by proving yourself. But I believe the city is in a good position right now as far as growing and people catching on to the music scene.”
As far as the future, Moses and Campbell see Cadillac Muzik becoming San Antonio’s Motown. “we don’t see ourselves as just artists,” says Moses. “A lot of people look at our image and think that we are artists. But we see ourselves as businessmen and entrepeneures. Becoming more of a Motown and expanding to where people in our area can come to us and were producing and writing for them. We are helping them put music out and expand and travel. We see ourselves as a household name in our area and helping others in our music community.” Campbell knows that with their team of producers and the duo’s strive to make a difference in their community, they are taking a step in the right direction.
