Born Oswald Damien Morgan also goes by the pseudonym Lil D. He was born on the 27th February 1982. Damien was born and raised by his single mother in the city of Birmingham and is a sibling of three children on his mothers side, and a sibling of six on his father’s side. He has lived in Birmingham all of his life. Damien has grown up in various places of the city such as Aston, Hockley, Handsworth, and Smethwick. Close people who know Damien will tell you that he has a passion and a talent for being extremely creative and has been from a very young age. He has always been interested in the arts in someway and from a very young age he could draw and write stories and poetry. He also liked to perform on stage and tried his hand at being in a rap group. All of these experiences instilled within him the desire to pursue his creativity into various fields, hence the creation of his brand new book.
Damien has always been a fan of music, and Hip Hop became a cultural following to him. After attending Aston Manor School in Aston, Birmingham, Damien went to Sandwell College to study Media and Communication in 2000. He would receive a BTEC Intermediate GNVQ certificate. After completing this course, Damien then attended Sutton Coldfield College where he would study Media Techniques: Television and Video Competence. He would then receive a City & Guilds certificate. After studying in Birmingham, Damien had left to attend Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College in 2001 [now called Bucks New University] in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. He studied Film studies, Video Production and Drama. After three years of studying at University, he graduated in 2004, with a BA (HONS) Degree. In 2005, Damien had returned back to Birmingham after living in London for a year. While back in his hometown he created his own business in called ‘Dynamexx Enterprise’ with the intention to create a variety of activities involving his creative outlook on film/video production, creative writing, music and events etc. Since developing his business he has interviewed some of the top music artists and professional characters in the mainstream industry, and has written books due for release over the next few years.
The idea of the book series first started off as Damien’s dissertation at university. He was in his final year of his BA (Hons) degree, and wanted to do it on something that he loved and followed dearly. Film studies was his major subject, but doing up to 10,000 words on just films after writing about them for three years did not seem like a challenge to him. Although Film Studies was his major, and he had no choice in the matter in doing his dissertation based around this, it had got him thinking about doing his dissertation on Hip Hop; so he thought ‘why not combine them both? After receiving a BA (Hons) degree in Film Studies, Video production and Drama, Damien decided to take the dissertation and work on it more because he felt a lot more needed to be addressed in terms of the culture of Hip Hop and why and how it was formed. Over the years Damien gained more research and the book began to transform and take shape on a larger scale. Damien then decided to gain backing and feedback from individuals who wanted to be included in the book or to contribute.
Damien’s dream was now turning into a reality, as the opportunities to make this book a reality began to spiral. Damien stared to interview people he had already wrote about in terms of his dissertation and he knew the idea for a book was going to go somewhere. The interviews Damien has conducted were with artists such as De La Soul, Ghostface Killah from the Wu Tang Clan, Public Enemy’s Chuck D and Professor Griff, Slum Village, Joe Budden, Ugly Duckling, DJ Dez-Andreas, the UK’s Zulu Nation, Blade, and many more encouraging faces within their own profession. These are some of the artists that played their part in encouraging the book’s release.
This has been a three-year journey for the young writer; and it is his first book that is now turned into a book collection consisting of two volumes. At first, Damien did not realize the potential this book had, but by receiving positive end encouraging feedback from people all over the world, he has now realized that to see his own book on the mainstream stores’ shelves is not now a dream – but a reality.
What the book is about and involves?
The book deals with the rise of Hip Hop as a culture and what things have come with it. The emergence of Hip Hop is a main focus for this book, and American history has played a big part in the development of this artform. Whether it is involving politics, race and gender, education, media, etc. It is music, an artform and culture that has affected the whole globe and Damien wanted to research and analyze why he and many others have followed this movement that is still quite young in its progression (being over 30years old.)
Damien wanted to show in this book, that Hip is not just music, but a movement, one big communication platform on a global scale. Before he ever touched on the subject of this artform, Damien had to bring the whole book to light by researching Black history and American and global politics that paved the way for this cultural explosion to emerge. After his quest to educate the reader on his findings, he then enlightens the readers on the emergence of Hip Hop as a growing culture. Although people become confused with Hip Hop’s distinctions and elements of what make up the culture, Damien also explains the highs and lows of a movement that has gone through many stages of progression and transgression. He talks about many things such as the rise of Black pioneers, Black entrepreneurship in the modern age of the music industry, films, the role of activists and conspiracies. With the help and opinion of others such as musicians, authors/writers, critics, feminists, politicians, and filmmakers etc, who have done their own research to conclude their own findings, Damien’s research is brought to an influential conclusion. Damien’s quest is to entice the reader regardless of race, colour or creed to take the information and research he has provided in his book and make up their minds about his findings. He wants the reader to explore how they feel about these statements and findings. You can call this book “ Hip Hop’s - The Book of Information’, yet what Damien is aiming to express is that this story needs to be told; it is a book of truth, a book which demystifies, that challenges and asserts new findings through his research. He also wants this to be a book, which will educate, empower, and inspire others whilst also influencing the growth of this culture.
