Dee-1 loves New Orleans like few artists love their hometowns, but for business purposes, he may move.
“Everybody knows me in New Orleans and they respect me,” Dee-1 said, “but does that turn into them buying my EP, or does that turn into them coming to my show? Not really, bro, ’cause I’m giving people medicine, and people don’t always want to have to pay for medicine.”
Dee-1 has become a public figure in New Orleans to an extent, even being appointed by the mayor to speak at the city’s annual MLK Day Opening Program. But on “Show on the Road,” track No. 2 of his 3’s Up EP that RCA Inspiration released in February, he expressed the conflict between his loyalty to his hometown and the concern that his career could blossom more in another.
“It pains me sometimes,” he said. “I did a show in New Orleans with Macklemore when I was on tour with Macklemore, and all the people who came to the show were Macklemore’s fans — in my city … I start crying on stage, I teared up.”
Dee-1 added that even if he does move, though, he’ll never stop serving and giving back to New Orleans.
