Derez De’Shon may be one of the artists most closely connected to modern pain music, but he says he had no idea what his sound would become when he was making the records that helped define his career. During an interview with The Baller Alert Show, the Atlanta rapper reflected on his Pain era and revealed that confidence was not exactly running high when he was creating the emotionally heavy music fans eventually embraced.
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Asked whether he believed he was creating the pain genre when recording the music, De’Shon immediately shut down the idea that there was some master plan.“No, I actually thought I actually had a lot of doubts,” he admitted, “I didn’t know what it was gonna do.”
That uncertainty hits differently looking back at what followed.
De’Shon built his reputation by putting struggle at the center of his music instead of dressing it up. His records covered poverty, grief, relationships, survival, and the pressure of trying to make something happen when life was doing the opposite. That approach became central to the Pain project and helped establish the melodic, emotionally exposed style listeners associate with him.
During The Baller Alert Show conversation, the interviewer pointed to the number of artists who appeared afterward with similarly vulnerable approaches, describing De’Shon’s music as being filled with feelings of being upset, stressed, and asking God for help.
When asked whether he understood the significance of what he was recording at the time, De’Shon kept his answer simple.
“No, I didn’t know.”
He then explained what he would tell his younger self if he could revisit that period.
“I would definitely say ‘Hey bro, trust me.’”
The uncertainty makes his career trajectory even more notable.
Before Derez De’Shon became known for turning hardship into melodic records, he performed under names including D-Bo and D Dash and was part of Dirt Gang, which had ties to Waka Flocka Flame’s Brick Squad Monopoly. He also worked closely with the late Slim Dunkin. Following Dunkin’s death in 2011, De’Shon stepped away from recording for a period before eventually returning to music.
His career gained another boost through Birdman’s Rich Gang circle. De’Shon appeared on Rich Gang’s 2016 track “Pull Up,” helping introduce him to a wider audience before his own music began taking off.
Then came “Pain.” The project, hosted by DJ Drama, established the formula that would become De’Shon’s calling card. Songs including “Ambition” gained attention, but “Hardaway” became the record that changed his career.
Released in 2017 and produced by London on da Track, “Hardaway” turned struggle into an anthem. Instead of separating success from what it took to reach it, De’Shon packed both sides into the same record. The song eventually reached No. 61 on the Billboard Hot 100, giving him his first major national chart breakthrough.
His momentum continued with “Pain 2” in December 2018. The project featured Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Mozzy, Moneybagg Yo, Russ, Dreezy, Trouble, and YFN Lucci, among others, and reached the Billboard 200.
De’Shon later continued the series with “Pain 3” in 2020, keeping the vulnerability that had become synonymous with his music intact.
Whether one artist can claim an entire genre is always up for debate. De’Shon himself is not making that declaration. What he does make clear is that when he was creating the music fans now point back to, he was not thinking about starting a movement.
He was trying to make it through his own pain.
