This Denver Rapper Is Selling His Album for $777

Damien Douglas Jr.'s life as a musician began with the death of his father.

Douglas was just five years old when his dad died from a stroke in his family's basement, as he slept soundly upstairs. Consumed by anger and grief, Douglas quickly turned to poetry to work through his loss. The poems eventually turned into lyrics and verses, with Douglas recording his first song at thirteen.

"From then on, it was my life," says Douglas, who goes by the stage name Damien the Architect. "Music became an outlet. It became an escape, an oasis, a safe haven. I found my emotions could be alchemized by putting them into music and expression, rather than anger and rage. ...And so I leaned into it."

Now 29, Douglas is once again using his music to explore loss and legacy. The East Denver native's upcoming self-produced hip-hop album, dead homiez, drops on July 10. He describes the project as an ode to hip-hop, a dedication to his ancestors, and a collaboration between "all of my people, here and gone."
"The journey of making this album is realizing the impact of the dead homies, of my lost loved ones and how I carry them with me every day," Douglas says. "They feel like my reason for music now — to honor their lives, their legacies and their belief in me."

But the subject matter isn't the only thing that sets the project apart. In an era of free music streaming, Douglas is one of few independent creators daring to put a price tag on his work...and it's a big one.

Douglas is selling dead homiez for $777 exclusively through his website, damienthearchitect.com. Each purchase comes with a digital download of the album, in addition to a signed vinyl copy and a Damien the Architect t-shirt.

"My art is worth something," Douglas says. "Artists who are mainly being paid through streaming are getting less than pennies on the dollar. Our value got compromised. ... Artists have been turned into laborers and we have to get back to a certain sense of creative control."

The album sale is part of Douglas's #myartisworthsum campaign, in which he is encouraging other local creatives to recognize the value of their work and demand that they be compensated appropriately. He was inspired by Nipsey Hussle's Proud 2 Pay campaign; half of the proceeds from dead homiez will be donated to the Neighborhood Nip Foundation in Hussle's honor, Douglas says.

As for the $777 amount: "I wanted a ridiculous number that would make people feel like, 'Who does he think he is to charge this amount?'" he says. "My answer to that is through the music."
"My art is a sonic piece of work, but I'm putting it together the same way Warhol is. I'm putting it together the same way Basquiat would or Picasso would," Douglas continues. "Unfortunately, the greatest artists died depressed, trying to look for their value in their work and not being able to see that manifested in the external world."

Douglas wrote, recorded and produced twelve of the album's sixteen tracks within just two days. He says the final product is the sixth or seventh iteration of the album, having repeatedly scratched and restarted the project for a year until it felt deserving.

He points to such artists as Tupac and Kendrick Lamar as inspiration for using music to be a "conduit" for "lost souls to speak their stories and speak their pain." One track in particular builds on this idea, including a verse from the perspective of Douglas's friend who died in his sleep a few years ago.
Many of the people Douglas has lost are featured in the album in some way, from his relatives who died of cancer and drowning, to friends who were killed by gun violence and overdoses.

"These people lived beautiful lives. All the people that I name in the album, they affected people's lives in such a positive way. The tragedy of how some of them passed, it sticks with me, but it's the way they lived their lives that really hit me so hard," Douglas says. "I name a good amount of the people that I've lost, that we've lost over my lifetime. And it was spontaneous. I didn't expect to do that once I pressed record, but it brought a lot of emotion out."

Douglas is a Mullen High School graduate who played football for Colorado Mesa University before leaving to pursue music full-time. He returned to Colorado in March after spending the last several years traveling the world "soul searching," teaching yoga and releasing music about his journey.

He has more than two dozen albums, EPs and singles available to stream for free on Apple Music, Spotify and Soundcloud; though he is confident people will pay big bucks for his new release. Beyond just support from fans, Douglas says his album will succeed because of what it means for other artists and the music industry as a whole.

"There are people out there inspired by the cause, willing to invest in a vision, more than a person," he says. "I represent a vision."

Damien the Architect's album, dead homiez, drops on July 10 at damienthearchitect.com for $777. The album release show is at 8 p.m. at the Black Buzzard at Oskar Blues; tickets are $20.