When it comes to roasting rivals, DB.Boutabag wears his reputation as a badge of honor.
Just look at his jewelry. When we meet for our interview at a Berkeley rooftop bar on a recent afternoon, the Sacramento rapper rolls up wearing a half dozen chains with heavy, gem-encrusted pendants. One features a 3D, cartoon version of himself perched on a toilet, an homage to one of his best-known bars: “I’m not rappin’ / I just shit talk.”
Fans have yelled that line back to DB at sold-out clubs from his hometown of Sacramento to Reno to Phoenix. Now the 25-year-old lyricist wants to prove that he can do more than casually eviscerate opponents over thunderclaps of bass.
The cover of DB’s latest album, The Real Boutabag II, independently released in July, features him holding his infant son. Between offhanded flexes about sexual conquests and fast cars, he lets listeners into the vulnerabilities that come with young fatherhood — both the pride and the pressure.
On “Slight Vent PT3,” a standout track with a melancholy saxophone sample, DB raps about grappling with the career and personal sacrifices he must accept in order to be a good dad. “That shit hurt / When you gotta kill your ego,” he admits on the beat.
“I had to … put a lot of things to the side so I could make sure I’m in [my son’s] life and I could pour into him, you feel me,” he reflects when we talk, “and [so] I can receive the blessing that God gave me.”
An active Twitch streamer, DB’s social media savvy has propelled his career from the beginning. He started getting traction during pandemic shutdowns, when he’d regularly join Instagram Live freestyle sessions from Thizzler, the Northern California rap platform. That eventually led to a distribution deal with Thizzler and regional hits like “Fettuccine.” At Thizzler, DB connected with his now-manager Russell North, who also works with rising Oakland rapper Capolow.
When North heard DB’s searing 2021 diss track “1st Off,” he knew DB had something special. “Your head’s bobbing, you wanna fucking go 100 miles per hour on the freeway,” North says. “It was just this crazy energy. … I’m like, ‘Bro, every DJ I know needs this record.’”
In the years since, DB has stayed consistent with releases, worked with the Sacramento Kings and collaborated with some of his heroes, including underground rap giants 03 Greedo and the late Drakeo the Ruler. Drakeo, whose one-of-a-kind flow evoked haunted whispers from the underworld, invited DB to his city to film a music video for their song together, “Top Rapper.”
“We rented a blue Lamborghini, fuckin’ had hella whips,” DB remembers. “It was a crazy ass experience. That was the best night of my life.”
Yet amid the Instagram-worthy moments, DB has always made space in his music to be real. He started sharing more of his obstacles and anxieties in 2020 with the release of “Slight Vent,” where he airs out money stress and trust issues. He almost didn’t put it out. He thought people would call him soft. But the risk paid off. “I got a whole new fan base off of that,” he says. “Like, a chakra opened.”
A former high school hooper with dreams of playing in college, DB.Boutabag has the work ethic to turn his viral moments into something lasting. He learned discipline both through athletics and his mom, who raised him as a single parent in South Sacramento, and who instilled a belief in self that motivates him to this day.
“She used to tell me, like, people stereotype us because of our hair, our color, our dreads … and how we present ourselves from our culture,” he says. “And she always just told me, like, you could still be a winner, a businessman with a briefcase, whatever you want to be. You could be the motherfucking president wearing your gold grill.”
DB wants to be that positive role model for his own son. I ask him if there’s anything he wants to give his child that he himself didn’t have growing up.
DB wastes no time answering. “Everything, bruh. He not gon’ realize it ’cause he gon’ have it.”
DB.Boutabag co-headlines the Phoenix Theater in Petaluma with DaBoii on Saturday, Oct. 18.
