Rapping out a Lowell beat

LOWELL — Making it as a hip hop rapper based in Lowell isn’t the easiest thing in the world to do these days, but Egypt Durham is doing just that, finding more and more success in clubs and online and she’s written a book to tell you how to believe in yourself and make things happen.

“I myself was considered an at-risk youth,” said the musical performer, who goes by the stage name of Egypt Raps, and uses just her first name, Egypt, on her new book. She’s been performing rap and hip hop for a decade off and on in Lowell and elsewhere but recently has seen a surge in popularity online and has expanded her footprint, doing volunteer acts and speaking at local high schools and coming out with her inspirational book, “From Nothing to Everything.”

Recently she’s gotten a grant from Mosiac Lowell, a nonprofit organization in Lowell, that is helping support artists, to make “a cultural economy plan for the whole city.” And she used that to help publish the book.

Book and at-risk youth event

The book release event will take place on Saturday, Aug. 29, from 3 to 6 p.m. at UTEC, the United Teen Equality Center, 17 Warren St., Third Floor, Lowell, and everyone is invited for the book party and join what will also serve as a community event to inspire, impact and influence at-risk youth to find a better tomorrow. Everyone is invited, and people are encouraged to bring their kids.

“The book isn’t your average read. … no one wants to sit there and read a book anymore. … It’s more like a self-help book, where you’re utilizing your own experiences, ‘this is what happened to me, learn from me so you don’t have to make the same mistakes.’ It’s a quick read. This book is for anyone looking or seeking to rise above their circumstances, whether it’s a teen or young adult, man or woman, though I did use my own experiences. … It’s the type of book where you can read it and put your own puzzle pieces together, and say, this looks like what I’m doing.”

The book, “From Nothing to Everything,” which was published last week, goes over five key principles in life: Master the Craft, Make a Plan, Believe, Funding, and Don’t Forget Where You Came From.

Egypt explains the “Funding” aspect, saying, “The music industry is expensive. ‘Funding,’ that chapter is being resourceful. Using what you have and utilizing other resources. I never had a lot of money to create … whether it be from grants or sponsors, or simply … using what I had to make something out of nothing.”

Volunteering stirs a chord

Egypt said she went to Lowell Middlesex Academy Charter School, which is known as a high school for kids who are in need of a second chance.

“This past year, I got an opportunity to revisit (the school), volunteer, using both literature and music to inspire and impact the youth there,” Egypt said. And she’s also volunteered recently at Southbridge High School.

“I was given the opportunity to volunteer with Paul Willis from Boston and the Rawkstars Inc.,” a creative youth development nonprofit providing free instruments and music education to kids.

“I remember being their age and needing an inspiration like this, in Rawkstars.”

Going back to Lowell Middlesex Academy Charter School meant a lot to the rapper, and she thanks them “for the inspiration to write this book,” Egypt said.

“I saw myself in so many of them, and I remember being 16 and my teachers telling us, ‘Oh you guys are going to go to college,’ and I didn’t believe it, I didn’t believe it because of what I was living. ‘Yeah me, go to college?’ And when I was volunteering, I noticed a lot of that in the students. It was almost like they were scared, it’s almost like they were afraid of believing that ‘better’ was possible. … Just having that mindset, ‘You’re just saying that.’ I always thought success wasn’t meant for me just because of the cards I was dealt in life and it’s just not true.”

Since volunteering, she reached out and got one of the students, “who is an extremely talented young producer,” to work with her. “She produced my newest single, ‘Spent,’ she did that at 17 years old with limited resources.

“Showing them that I was you and you are me I walked the same halls as those at-risk youths, and I probably faced a lot of the same situations that they faced. The anxieties of not having enough, lights being shut off, watching your parents struggle as a child, it almost makes you feel like you have to get a job to help your mom make ends meet and I don’t think any child should have to feel that pressure at such a young age but even if they do, they can rise above that, to not be afraid to dream big. Look at me.”

A positive message

“Pretty much my message in my music, I’m not only telling my story and expressing myself but also making sure I’m an example, a positive message through hip hop for youths, young adults, and my main goal is have them relate to a positive message to help change negative perspectives.

“I faced a lot of adversity and setbacks, just by being a low-income young adult,” but eventually, she said, changing her perception made all the difference.

“I realized no one was coming to save me. If I wanted it better, I had to change. I had to be disciplined, I had to show up even if I didn’t feel like it, and stay consistent and committed. … In music, in life, it kind of all correlates. What you hear in my music is what I lived in real life,” she says.

Egypt still maintains a part-time job, while also doing gigs in Atlantic City and Atlanta, opening for bigger-name acts such as Albee Al, and locally for Termanology (local music artist Danny Carillo), and doing a recent show at the Sahel Restaurant & Lounge in Lowell, but at first it was a struggle to make ends meet and she was not at all sure where it was all leading her.

“For me, there was a moment in my life where I became a mom and it was a make-or-break moment. I was either going to give this up or I was not going to allow my circumstances to limit me like they have been my whole life. I decided that I was going to be courageous enough to believe in myself and keep building. I wasn’t going to throw in the towel that easy and I had even more of a reason to go harder and keep going, because of my daughter, and I know there’s mothers out there that were in my shoes and thought for a moment that, ‘Oh I gotta give this up because I’m a mom now,’ and for me, that just wasn’t an option.

“I was raised by a single mom, and I watched my mom give up her dreams and it didn’t help us. So in order to be an example to my daughter as well as not continue that same cycle … I kept going. … one of my lyrics verbatim is ‘Working 9 to 5, paying bills on time, cleaning, feeding kids, when it’s dinner time, I’ve been at it for some years, rapping through these tears.’ — That right there is perseverance, endurance. I’m doing all of this and I’m still here. The message is no matter what you go through, no matter how much you got on your plate, even if you gotta rap with tears in your eyes, there’s light at the end of the tunnel. To me it doesn’t matter how you start, it’s how you finish.”

Eygpt is also now working on an album, scheduled to be released spring of 2027, to be called “Raw Before Radio.”

“The overall concept of this album is walking in your truth, I feel like in hip hop it’s glamorized, sometimes not always for the right reasons, being truthful, being raw, before radio, true to yourself, true in your music and values and beliefs.

“Me personally, where I am now, I want to do the opposite of what has already been done in hip hop. I don’t want to tear down my community, I want to help build it. And throughout this time of doing the community volunteering, I learned something very powerful. And for so long I thought that communities were like cities or neighborhoods and I realized that communities were people and that if I wanted my community to change, I had to spread positivity instead of destruction.

“Especially where we’re at nowadays, there’s a lot of negative influences in the hip hop industry, there’s very few positive ones … there’s no more Wil Smiths in today’s hip hop, but there are some positive role models in hip hop today, just not many.”

Finding a market in today’s music scene is difficult but Egypt says, “You evolve, just like everything evolves. Hip hop evolves, the economy evolves, evolution happens, and when it takes place it’s actually a great thing to see the evolution of the different stages of hip hop, the market and the industry but most importantly, hip hop isn’t just a market or an industry, it’s a culture, it’s lived and an art.”

Watsyn, of the showcase platform JetPackTV, said of Egypt: “One thing that sticks out about her is she’s very creative. She locks in and doesn’t beat around the bush, she’ll make you work that day. Very creative and very driven. And does everything on her own. She has a good talent for multi-tasking, works a 9-5, she’s a single mother, and actually now she’s becoming an author, she writes her own music, she directs her own videos.

“She’s really smart. When it comes to the community, in Lowell, she’s already got everybody off their feet, but now she’s expanding … I know when somebody’s making an impact in the state. Egypt, people are pulling her left, right, she’s handling it all. Somebody like that, I can tell you she’s heading there, I can’t tell you where, because I’ve never been there. … She has a different sound. She knows how to create songs, she actually knows how to create music, that what separates her from the average rapper. … It’s a little bit of old school and a little bit of the new stuff.”

Clarence “C-Millzy” King of Big Dog Studios said of Egypt: “She definitely has a personality … that deserves to be in the right rooms. And the work ethic. It’s never easy. She’s definitely been putting in a lot of work and it’s starting to pay off, too.”

He said making it in the music business is tough, but Egypt Raps has been putting in the “hard work, dedication and consistency.” He said a lot of being successful at it is just “reaching the right audience. Your style, your type of music, there’s always a lane for you, you just have to reach those people and the sky’s the limit.”

She has traditionally done her raps to computer-generated beats but is now incorporating more saxophone and piano. “My main focus is using different sounds, combining them together and creating something that’s really never been heard before.”

“Primarily my fan base, the majority of my following is in Massachusetts, not just Lowell, but this is where it all started, Lowell. I have a fan base in Atlanta and Atlantic City, but the majority of my support comes from Massachusetts.”

Her income comes from payments from social media, streams, “people download my music, I’ve had moments where I went baby-viral on social media.” Plus, she was the executive producer on a documentary, “The Inside Scoop,” which was a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to do a music video production. “During that video I had spoke briefly about my upbringing, where I was from and I got a good response from it.”

And she said she draws from her community in Lowell for inspiration.

“We all have a part to play in our community and my community I hold very near and dear. It’s home, no matter where, there’s never going to be any place like home. Lowell is home for me, that’s why I love it so much. I can be in Atlanta for a month, two months and come back … and I feel like I’m home, this is home, that’s why Lowell is important to me, this is home.”