Christos “DEP” Hibbert was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario on March 21st, 1988. He is an artist, song-writer, producer, musician, and a recording engineer. He began rapping at the age of 13 and by the age of 16 he was signed to an independent record label in Vancouver for a year. His genre of choice is Hip Hop, RnB, Soul and Jazz; his musical background came from his parents whom are both musically talented. He had his first musical experience at the age of 5 when he played the drums for the first time at his family friend’s house, after being told not to.
Dep was greatly influenced by Gospel, Jazz and Hip Hop which he grew up listening to in the home. As a teenager however, his favorite genre of music was Gangsta Rap and he was a big fan of DMX, Cameron and Nas. Some of the “Big Moguls” that Dep looks up to in the music industry are P.Diddy, Irv Gotti, Dr. Dre, Suge Night and Russell Simmons.
In the summer of 2009 Dep released his first single entitled ‘Put You On’ which became a hit on the radio. Following the success of his hit single Dep released a mixtape titled ‘The First Installment’. Experimenting with different genres ranging from R&B, Hip Hop, Soul to Heavy Metal, Dep is on his way to being a well-rounded artist. His experience playing various instruments, creative writing capabilities, technical experience as a producer and a sound engineer makes him completely self-reliant.
Now Black Cornerstone has presented Dep’s highly anticipated mixtape “No Obligations.” The work includes productions from Enkredible, Lexi Banks and Sure Fire, as well as features by Cush and Vin Keatin.
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Dep’s got a tight flow and his raw lyrics entice the listener. Sure some of his songs might be sexually over-explicit, but when was the last time you heard a rap album that was perfectly clean? Of course all rappers have a give-up song; if they didn’t then nobody would have a particular song they liked. This mixtape is not meant to change the world through socially-impacting lyrics. This one’s here for the best beats in hip-hop and some real off the chain verses!
Dep is one of the rawest indie rappers in the game today. He spits like he is trying to get signed on this album. Every track is tight from the lyrics to the punch-lines,and down to the beats. He talks about guns, sex, crime, sex, drugs, and sex…and then some more sex. Dep is the raw and real deal. Some of stuff he says is pretty forthright, but hey if you want it low-down and hard, then there’s not many ways to do this differently.
Standout tracks include: “Fornicated Money,” “Cornerstone Sh!t,” “Bloody Murder,” “No Love,” “Jezebel” and “How We Living.” You can knock yourself out with this album. “No Obligation” is solid from start to finish. With production from top producers and Dep’s supercharged grinding voice, it was probably difficult to go wrong here.
This album is definitely better than what I expected. I knew it was going to be good, but I wasn’t expecting full star quality. Each track presents something new and unique. I can tell you; this album was definitely well worth the listen. Most mixtapes are a little scratchy around the edges and not so good technically, but that’s not the case with this. This one is very well put together. You can tell Dep and his work crew put a lot of time into the songs on “No Obligation”.
OFFICIAL LINKS & WEBSITES:
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