Damion “DRoc” Butler has been around hip-hop’s elite figures for the entirety of his 20-year career. He had a brotherly bond with the Notorious B.I.G., helped to cultivate Lil’ Kim as an integral part of Junior M.A.F.I.A., still works with Diddy, and JAY-Z, Nas, Fabolous and others call him friend while always showing love and respect.
DRoc has been growing his Invisible Bully clothing line for several years, and now he’s stepping out with his own music label, Invisible Bully Music. And while DRoc has encountered plenty of upcoming and aspiring MCs that he could have done business with, he waited for that extra special diamond in the rough to sign and stamp as the next microphone master to be at the forefront of a generation. Through a mutual friend, DRoc discovered Chris Matic, a Kingston, Jamaica-born lyricist who grew up in both New Jersey and Brooklyn, N.Y.
The very first release from IBM is Matic’s “Calories,” a stirring series of lyrical roundhouse kicks in which, over the beat from Cam’Ron and Prodigy’s “Losing Weight,” he effortlessly gives everyone an earful of the pain and the prophecies of impending glory.
“The title, funny enough, was really a freestyle [off] that entire record,” Matic explained to REVOLT TV while in New York. “I was really paying respects to Prodigy—rest in peace to Prodigy, first and foremost; condolences to his family. I was coming off the energy of that record that he had with Cam’Ron, ‘Losing Weight.’ Instead of calling it a ‘Losing Weight Freestyle,’ creatively, I was like, let’s call it ‘Calories,’ like we’re burning weight. We’re moving weight, losing weight.”
“I love how that song feels,” he added about the original. “With that feeling, that just inspired me to blend my vibes with that record in respect to what they did and still keep the signature sound. I never sampled it, I never wanted anything, I didn’t want to remake it; I just wanted to contribute my essence to what they did. It came out great.”
The song’s music video was shot in Brooklyn and gives the viewer a literal in-your-face look at Matic in his neighborhood.
“It’s like direct contact,” he said. “It’s like me engaging with you, like this is Chris Matic, this is who I am. Everything I’m saying is very real. There’s no flaws in it. There’s no lies. There’s no fabrication. It’s realistic, and this is what’s going on.”