Damien Styles
Damien Styles is a voice for the misunderstood, making music for those who don’t fit in a box or color inside the lines. Similarly, he disregards convention in his hybridization of alternative, hip-hop, post-hardcore, and whatever other genre inspires him at the time.
With open arms, he invites outsiders everywhere to join Dropout Klub. “We’re the kids they can’t control,” he states. “Dropout Klub is about dropping out of whatever is holding you back in life—whether that’s an unsupportive friend group, unhealthy habits, or toxic environments—in order to become who you’re supposed to be. We’re turning negatives into positives. And if we take the proper steps in life, God will make sure those steps lead us to a brighter future.”
Damien has definitely taken control of his destiny. Growing up in Wichita, Kansas, he stared down limited possibilities. “It was either work at Spirit Airlines forever, start a family straight out of high school, or get hooked on drugs,” he sighs. “There was no scene or industry. So, we had to figure shit out on our own.” His dad operated a small independent studio, engineered, and rapped for fun. So, Damien recorded his first raps at five-years-old. By the time his parents divorced at age eight, he had developed an appreciation for elite MCs such as Eminem and Tech N9ne in addition to listening to My Chemical Romance and other post-hardcore favorites.
After dropping out of high school in junior year, he stoked buzz with early uploads such as “Sacrifices” in 2017, cracking 100,000 views for the first time. He followed his brother to Lake Tahoe, worked at Taco Bell, and recorded music while living out of a truck bed. Eventually, he wound up back in Wichita, selling drugs to survive. “My mom freaked,” he recalls. “I made a promise to her, ‘If I don’t make it by the time I’m 27, I’ll switch up and start doing something else.’ That made me go harder and realize I had to really bust my ass. I was twenty years old when we had that conversation, and things started to pick up the same year.”
In 2021, he released the breakout single “American Paranoid Freak.” Gaining traction on TikTok, it generated 8.6 million Spotify streams, while the follow-up “Bad Bitch Energy” surpassed 3.7 million Spotify streams. He joined forces with Sueco for “Condom Song” (which used an actual condom to make a different kind of musical friction) and exploded to the tune of 30 million TikTok views. In its wake, he signed a joint venture deal with 10K Projects and presented his debut mixtape “For All The Times I Fell On My Face”. The project quickly became a safe place where his fans could escape and feel less alone.
After ending his partnership with 10k Projects in true Dropout Klub fashion, Damien is now independently pursuing his path to reach the people he was put here to save. That’s what it’s all about for him in the end, giving a voice to the voiceless and a spotlight to the unseen. It is clear, 35 million streams later, that his efforts are not in vain and his fans hang on to every word.
“When you listen to me, I want you to walk away more confident,” he leaves off. “I want you to know you’re important, you matter, and anything is fucking possible. I’m a megaphone. I’m a vessel put here to guide the lost out of darkness. I will stand up and say everything people think but are too scared to say. Welcome to Dropout Klub”–