WASHINGTON, D.C. — Dominik Kelly, a German born American based in Washington, made a name for himself as a poet on Twitter and other platforms, and now he’s turning to his true love, music and rap.
Going by the stage name MarleyIBe, Kelly released “Bone,” an 11-track mixtape featuring songs that show a very different side to the poet that made a name for himself with his “Bittersweet Tuesdays” poetry.
“Most of my poetry fans, when I first released music, they were expecting something totally different,” Kelly said. “They were expecting love songs or, you know, things catered more towards women. When I rap, I just rap. And I don’t only make rap music. I like to consider myself a more broad artist, I just haven't had enough time to release an extensive catalog to show what I feel like I’m capable of.”
Kelly was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, to an American father serving in the U.S. Army, and a German mother. He spent his early childhood in Germany before the family moved to Maryland in his middle school years.
Kelly said he got into poetry by accident writing to release emotions at first.
“Really I just started writing as a way to vent when I didn’t have anybody to listen to me,” Kelly said. “One day I posted a poem on Twitter, I don’t know what it was or why I just had a feeling one day. I posted a poem on twitter and got a good reaction, way more likes, comments, responses than I could have imagined, so I kept posting poems out of my notebook until I eventually ran out. People were so receptive that I just kept writing and kept writing and for about a year or two I was just on a strong streak, just trying to put out poems as much as I could, I was burning myself out.”
Music was always Kelly’s first love though. He played in the band in school, then decided to try rap music. He said while some good music includes poetry, he is still working on a way to combine the poet and musician in himself.
“I don't really think they're the same, rap and poetry,” Kelly said. “To me they're different, they come from two different parts of me. I’m trying to find a way to combine them and put a more poetic touch to my music.
“When I make music, I just have fun. I listen to the beat, whatever the music makes me feel, and that’s what I put on the beat. So the transition from poetry into music, I just use the wave of momentum that poetry had built for me to do what I actually wanted to do from the beginning anyways.”
Kelly said he got his stage name MarleyIBe from what friends and fans told him was his resemblance to artist Bob Marley.
Kelly said he released his “Bone” mixtape on Aug. 13 on all platforms and he likes the reaction it’s getting so far.
He called “Bone” his stepping-out party, introducing his music to the public. Kelly said people really seem to like the track “Skrt.”
“I picked that as a single for the album because I felt like it had a catchy hook,” Kelly said. “There’s kind of a chant-like hum in the beginning and that came to me when I heard the beat, it was the first thing that came to mind and I actually wrote it down in my notebook. When I went into the studio I recorded just like that with that same idea and it came out very good so I kept it. The song is just a fun song, I recorded it at a race track and a racing event. I wanted to give the video something that went along with the song. As far as the rest of the project, I tried to just give different, I didn't want each song to sound the same so I tried to do something different with each song. Some songs there’s more lyricism, some songs there’s just a vibe, some songs get you hyped with a lot of energy.”
Catch MarleyIBe on the following social media and music platforms:
Apple music - https://music.apple.com/us/album/bone/1580836776
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/album/1QomYGfDjD8lYrqUgc5tXb
Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/marleyibe-1
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiQOS6gicYGYwHNYA7Q8nxw
Twitter - https://twitter.com/MarleyIBeOTMT?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/marleyibe/?hl=en