She’s the young female rapper everyone is talking about and no I’m not talking about Nicki Minaj, if you don’t know about Dominique Young Unique yet you’re late but because we at RWD are so nice not only did we give you a heads up in the last issue in our One To Watch section we’ve now got an interview with Unique. Nardene Scott catches up with the feisty Florida based MC to talk about her feeling Tinie Tempah, rapping since the age of twelve and her Plan B of becoming a model.

Hey, how are you doing?

I am doing fu*%ing great over here, chilling you know, working hard, being Dominique young unique.

Thanks for the interview, what should I call you Dominique, Unique, What do you like to be called?

Yeah haha! You can call me Dominique; you can call me young unique, you can call me Dominique young unique.

Wow, you’re only 18 and you pretty much have worldwide press hunting you down! How does that feel?

If feels great because I know the attention is on me and I know there are fans out there that love me and love my music, talk about me, it just feels great.

How did you get into rapping initially?

Okay, first of all I got into rap when it was me and my cousin we used to play around at first, I was around 11 years old. I really got serious and found my talent around 12; I used to rap for my friends. They used to cheer me and be like “girl you got talent” they like gave me so much positive stuff so I just went for it. Then I met David at the step and he’s a really big part of my success and I really thank him.

Which artists either male or female influence you?

Erm… 2pac he influenced me a lot because, to me personally, what he speaks about, poetry, it’s true to me and I feel where he’s coming from and I can relate to him. Also, my girl Trina because, you know, she’s an independent woman, that’s what I consider myself, and she’s got a great personality, I just love her.

Which other genres of music are you into? I know from your mixtape you’re not afraid of rapping over electro and experimental tracks.

Indy-rock, erm jazz to relax to, dance, you know Friday, Saturday my dancing parties! It depends on what kind of mood I’m in. Every different day I have a different mood so I make a song that day about it: my mood swings Haha.

I am sure you have been compared to Nicki Minaj because you’re both pretty hot right now but are there any other up and coming stars like yourself that you are going to or would like to work with?

Artist in the game I would like to work with… Trina I would LOVE to work with Trina. Keri Hilson…hold on Justin Bieber, Sean Kingston. I would love to do a fun song with P Diddy, Rick Ross and I would love to do a song with Alicia Keys!

You’ve released your mixtape Domination what’s next for Dominique, what can we expect for the rest of 2010?

Okay well hopefully ya’ll have my mixtape Domination. Ya’ll should probably expect more singles to be hitting ya’ll. I’ve been in the studio working on my album; it’ll be up pretty soon. Just doing my thing, playing shows, making my fans proud just doing me, Dominique Young Unique till next year!

Obviously being a UK based magazine we have to ask you if you know about any of our underground scenes like Dubstep and Grime and who your favourite UK artist is.

We’ll I have heard of one rapper Tinie Tempah, I like him, he’s the only rapper in the UK they’re really gonna know about he’s good…

You’re from Florida what is the music scene like there is it mostly hip hop or do you have Spanish influences, etc.?

There’s a lot of hip hop here but there’s no marketing here. All the rappers in Florida talk about guns, fighting, crime or whatever they’ve got to realise in the game the fans don’t want to hear only that. But basically there’s a lot of hip hop going on round here.

Your lyrics are pretty explicit and feisty! How do you come up with ideas behind your songs?

We’ll you know I just sit down, and think of things I’ve been through or things I’ve seen. If it’s a fun day and I feel like having fun you know I just sit down and write crazy stuff, come up with it, put it together and hey there goes a song!

What’s your favourite cut or means the most to you off the Domination mixtape?

Music Time. I’m talking about music and T-Town (Tampa) it’s my city, it’s where I’m from. There’s no rapper that came out of Tampa. A lot came out of Miami, why? Because they’ll be on different things, but Tampa they seem to be stuck on one thing: violence and fighting. I made music time to let them know you know to have fun. I wrote that song when I was 14. I recorded it when I was 15 then it just blew up and everyone was like “that’s true”. It really is true I’m telling Tampa “I ain’t talking about no guns I ain’t talking about no fights I’m talking about music on the mic” it doesn’t just go for Tampa, it goes for everyone. They try to do that to get their way and be gangster – just do your thing.

Obviously you’re a talented rapper but if you wasn’t to go down the music route what was your Plan B career?

Haha! my plan b career would be a model, just a famous model and just model everything and after modelling I was going to own my own modelling company, and then after that I was just like Oprah going to build my own hospital.. erm big dreams, you know!

Follow Dominique Young Unique on Twitter @missyoungunique and download her free mixtape here www.myspace.com/dominiqueyoungunique

You can also catch the rapper down at Old Blue Last on 16^th August.

Old Blue Last
38 Great Eastern St
London

EC2A 3ES

Tags: Alicia Keys, Domination, Dominique Young Unique, Florida, Hip Hop, Interviews, Justin Bieber, Keri Hilson, P Diddy, Rick Ross, Sean Kingston, Tinie Tempah, Trina