Daniel "Dirtbag Dan" Martinez

               Across the sea of the world-wide web, one man has taken the journey into carving his own destiny. Daniel “Dirtbag Dan” Martinez has become the people’s champ for San Jose in the underground a’capella battle scene. Dirtbag Dan has witnessed firsthand, just exactly how far the strength one man’s voice can carry him. Youtube sensation with views totaling over 1,000,000+ Dirtbag Dan has been charted across the globe to battle across the globe, standing toe-to-toe with the world’s greatest a’capella battlers this century has to offer.

Hosted by http://grindtimenow.com/ at the Blank Club in downtown San Jose, I was able to witness firsthand the excitement of seeing 2 men battling it out on stage along with some local Mc’s pumping out some fresh sounds. The vibe of the crowd was intense; hearing the crowd encourage their own was something everyone should experience. The Blank Club was holding a special battle for the release of Dirtbag Dan’s “Selfhelp “single. Which can be purchased http://www.cloutonline.com/2011/07/dirtbag-dan-self-help-tapes-download/

Sitting across the table with the man himself, I get into asking just who this man is.

Ramon:                “How did you start off?”

Dirtbag Dan:       “I started rapping when I was 15 or 16 years old, I was skate boarding at the time and being a skateboarder you kind of have multiple influences with regards to music because what was ever in the music videos, it was kind of what we listened too. So, there were a lot of hip-hop influences like “Hieroglyphics” and “Souls of Mischief’s.” I have been listening to rap for kind of forever and it was always something that I liked. So, my buddy Skyler G http://skylargbeats.bandcamp.com/ who is my producer now, him and I would just trade bars back and forth.”

Ramon:                                “How did Skateboarding give you your creative style?”

Dirtbag Dan:       “I’ll tell you one thing right off the bat that skateboarding gave me. San Jose, CA is a great place to be from if you’re a skateboarder. The skateboarders from here kind of showed love from where you were from and I just carried that into my music.”

Ramon:                                “How did you come onto the Youtube scene and how being from the tech scene made you into the #1 contender with the longest undefeated record in the battling scene?”

Dirtbag Dan:       “I actually went to school at Cogswell Poly Tech getting my degree in digital motion picture and being from here that was natural just to go into the tech scene. I figured editing my own tech videos would have given me a leg up in the competition. When I finished school back in 2008, the battling scene was reappearing and I just happened to get into it at the right time and it blew up.”

Ramon:                                “There were a couple of core people in some of your earliest battle videos that at the time had this really rough, rugged feel to it. How was it at that time?”

Dirtbag Dan:       “It was definitely rawer at those beginning stages. And I think that’s why people latched onto it. Really it was amazing that we didn’t lose steam while getting bigger. We did “Paid Dues” over in San Bernardino this year and we did a couple of battles inside an octagon for 1,500 hundred people and it went well. “