One of the University’s own busted a rhyme over the weekend at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas.
Aspiring rapper and business management freshman Dale Tabor Jr., deemed “Deeds” behind the mic, performed songs from his upcoming mixtape at District 301, a bar and venue part of SXSW.
The budding musician got the chance at SXSW to meet rappers like University alumnus Dee-1, Curren$y and many members of Jet Life Recordings, like Trademark Da Skydiver, Young Roddy and Sir Michael Rocks, said Tabor.
“I enjoyed it,” the New Orleans native said. “The audience gave me good feedback. It gave me a lot of drive to go back next year and be more prepared.”
The artist is finishing his “New Orleans 2 Baton Rouge” mixtape, which is slated to be finished at the end of April before final exams.
The mixtape is a storybook of Tabor’s experience of moving from New Orleans to Baton Rouge for college. Though the culture has changed around him since the move, he is still the same person he was in the Big Easy, he said.
“I’m always going to represent New Orleans, the city where I’m from and that made me who I am,” Tabor said.
Tabor started rapping for fun at parties and freestyling with friends until peers suggested he enter the studio, he said. Christian Radke, Tabor’s friend and fellow rapper, knew a studio at a local church that the duo could use.
Radke helped Tabor produce music, and the two starting “spittin'” verses together in the studio. They soon took the stage at venues like The Howlin’ Wolf and the House of Blues in New Orleans and The Varsity Theatre in Baton Rouge.
“We actually opened for Kreayshawn when she came to Baton Rouge,” Tabor said.
Tabor received his stage name from rapping with his friend “Fish.” Fish would say things like, “My boy D is up to bat next,” and “D is” evolved into “Deeds.”
Tabor said the name stuck because he would do almost any thing, or deed, for the people in his life.
The rap game is just a hobby for Tabor at the moment. It’s something he considers pursuing in the long run, but school is currently his main focus.
“You just have to be patient,” Tabor said. “You gotta grind for it, but if you grind too much, sometimes your gears break.”
He plans to attend the festival again next year with a team of promoters in the hopes of playing multiple shows at different venues.
“It takes an army of people to get your name out there and an army of people to listen,” Tabor said.
 
—- Contact Ferris McDaniel at [email protected]