Before Don Toliver would feature on Travis Scott’s hit single “Can’t Say” off
of AstroWorld.
Before Don Toliver had over 700K followers on Instagram, 100K followers on Twitter, and
was fast approaching ½ a million subscribers on YouTube at the time of this recording…
Before Don Toliver would accompany The Weeknd on his most recent world tour…
Don Toliver has been a fixture of Houston’s hip-hop and R & B scene since dropping his
first joint mixtape, “Playa Familia” back in 2017. Subsequent hits like “No Idea”,
and his collab on “Can’t Say” with Travis Scott and “No Regrets” with Eminem have
only furthered his new-found fame and name recognition the world over.
For years, it’s seemed like the main problem with artists coming out of Houston is that
most people would have trouble relating to the culture down there if they weren’t already
a part of it. It's a bit of a mixed batch of talent from Destiny's Child to the late
DJ Screw and more recently Travis Scott. For whatever reason, the musical identity of the
town just didn’t translate to the rest of the world. So how did Don Toliver manage to
buck that trend? That’s what we’re here to find out.
What's going on fam? It's your boy Michael McCrudden back at it again with a brand new
Before They Were Famous on another rapper primed to break out in a big way. We’re
getting ready for XXL to drop their new Freshman class of 2020 and we predict he'll be making
the list. Any others we should feature? You let us know in the comments down below. Alright,
now let's get into this video.
Don Toliver was born Caleb Zackery Toliver on June 12th, 1994 in Houston, Texas. In fact,
it was the same day the Houston Rockets took a 2-1 series lead over the New York Knicks
in the NBA Finals on their way to their first ever championship. Who could have imagined
that only 24 years later, Caleb would be taking part in a hype video for those same Rockets
who were looking to ignite their 2018-2019 season.
Now, a more talented team might have won the championship last year…
… But that’s still a pretty huge honor that only ever goes to home-town heroes. Unfortunately,
at the time of this recording there isn't a ton of before fame photos out for Don but
with his current trajectory expect we will be making an update in the coming years. Don
grew up in the neighbourhood of Alief, which is also known as S.W.A.T. or, South West Alief
Texas.
He was raised under the loving wings of his mom, Carla, and father, Bongo who always kept
the house full of music with artists like Swishahouse, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Sade,
and Maxwell in heavy rotation. In Alief, he went to Hastings High-School and even though
he was always jamming to personal favorites likes of Michael Jackson, Bobby Womack, and
N.E.R.D, he told Fader that the idea of making his own music really came into focus when:
“I was at the barbershop one day and I heard Musiq Soulchild playing. After I heard that
Soulchild, it pushed me to really want to go crazy. Learn melodies, sounds… everything.
I just pushed forward after that.”
Another big influence of Don was Kendrick Lamar’s 2010 mixtape, “Overly Dedicated”,
especially songs “Alien Girl”, and “P&P 1.5”. He told Complex:
“This is what turned me into the artist I am today. I remember I was in the locker
room one day after school, sitting down, headphones in, listening to “Overly Dedicated”. And
I was listening to Dom Kennedy ‘Locals Only’. That’s what turned me into Don Toliver…
I just felt like I was on a journey and I didn’t even know it. Those records gave
me a different type of persona. The seeds were planted.”
Despite having a bunch of go-to artists, as a youngster, Don didn’t have a lot of posters
on the walls of his room. Instead he had stacks and stacks of video games. “Jak and Daxter”,
“Ratchet and Clank”, and “Grand Theft Auto” were his favourite, or, as he told
Complex:
“Open world. That’s my type of drip.”
In fact, it was this love for video games that ended up unlocking his first documented
moment of creative expression when he recorded his first song “Bitch, I’m in the Building”
using his PlayStation Eye camera. Remember that thing? No? Well here, let me remind you…
What a throwback! The song featured Don rapping over a YouTube instrumental of Tyga’s 2014
song “Make it Rain”. He recorded it by blacking out the camera and playing the beat
in the background while he dropped his lyrics overtop. It was a janky set up, but it did
the trick. Don hadn’t always been one of the most popular kids in his neighbourhood,
so after dropping the tracks on the kids at school, recognition brought with it a new
sensation of gratification and acclaim. He saw an opportunity to seize some momentum
and went back to his PlayStation Eye once more… this time he recorded “Pep Rally”.
“It got to the point where even the coolest kids at school would walk up to me like ‘Sing
that song, bro’. It let me know like, man, I might be able to do this.”
After graduating from high school, his best friend Josh moved into an apartment on Dairy
Ashford Road and bought a ton of proper studio equipment. The two spent all their time in
this makeshift studio after that and Josh ended up taking the stage name of YungJosh93,
while Caleb took on the moniker of Don.
Josh and Don formed a partnership called Playa Familia and this enterprising duo pushed their
rap product hard. We found old footage of them in New York city handing a copy to Joe
Budden and Roc Nation.
As
Travis Scott was ascending into a recognizable name, Don began looking up to this hometown
hero as someone to emulate and he began mulling over the switch from hip-hop to more of an
R & B sound.
One day in the studio, a friend of his told him that while his rapping was tight, it was
his melodies that really set him apart. Don locked into his skillset with a fresh mindset
after having had this conversation. After spending years trying to perfect melodies,
“Company”, a three-and-a-half-minute song with only one verse, was the result. In terms
of inspiration for how he sings, Don says that the biggest influence in his life is
his father, Bongo.
Apparently, there was a reason that dad used to play so much Swishahouse back in the day.
He had actually appeared on a few of Swishes’ tracks including “Swang Wide” in which
Bongo sang the hook. When Don was only 19, he and his father even recorded a song together
called: “South Side”, but at the time neither one of them took their collabs too
seriously. Instead, Don continued to focus on his project with Josh. With Don making
the change to singing, Playa Familia hit local showcases all over Houston with a new sense
of motivation.
Their biggest break came through a promoter known as ByxBreezy who had a concert series
called HouStock going on.
In the spring of 2017, after finally dropping their Playa Familia mixtape, Josh and Don
saved up their money to fly to New York City and hustled to get their music in the hands
of as many people as possible.
And when I say as many people as possibly, I mean as many people as possible, even if
said people are living on the street with no real way to play their music…
Then in the Winter of that year, Don released his solo songs “I Gotta” and “Diva”,
on SoundCloud, each of which quickly amassed over 100,000 streams. This success spurred
him to hit the clubs back in Houston even harder.
“I had to take over the city. That means every night for like three to five months
straight I was in every strip club, every club, in every DJ’s face getting my records
spun.”
This newfound solo success meant that Don was able to sign a record deal with Atlantic
Records, but at the time he was still living hand to mouth.
“I was sliding by. It wasn’t glamorous. I left the streets alone to focus on music.
I was losing money because I had to stay in the club all night and I couldn’t work the
way I had been working. I lost a lot, but, then again, I gained so much, because I focused
on me more. I took my shit seriously, and I was doing what actually made me happy.”
Don released his first mixtape: “Donny Womack”, which received a co-sign from Travis Scott…
…And soon, he after signed with Scott’s Cactus Jack Imprint.
Then life started moving really fast. He was recording in Hawaii with Travis and jumping
on the ASTROWORLD tour. After the success of his hit single “Can’t Say” with Scott,
Don took a calculated step back as he tried to create an air of mystique about his work.
When he ended his self-imposed hiatus, he hit us with the fire track: “No Idea”.
It was released just before his 25th birthday, but the track really didn’t take off until
closer to the end of last year when it became a viral sensation on TikTok. To date it’s
been shared in over 8 Million individual TikTok videos, with many of its most popular shares
clocking in with over a million views, each.
After that, Don released “JACKBOYS” with the other artists signed to the Cactus Jack
Imprint and most recently dropped his newest solo album “Heaven or Hell”.
Don’s effortless style epitomizes where hip-hop and R&B is at right now. He’s young,
trendy, and making lots of kick ass music, which is exactly what Houston has been missing
for a little while now. As for where Don Toliver goes from here? Well that’s a story for
another day, because this is Before They Were Famous.
I hope you guys enjoyed this video. We’re trying to get back into the rap game here
on this channel so if there are any other up and coming rappers you guys would like
to see represented with their own video, let us know in the comments below. Until next
time, Boom!