As David Bradford walks down the street between classes, he’s not likely to be strolling along quietly. Chances are that he is instead free-styling rhymes as he goes and catching some curious looks from passersby along the way.
“I look like I’m talking to nobody and I’m very serious, so I can see why people look at me funny,” Bradford remarked, regarding his tendency to spit rhymes on the Quad. “I’m just expressing myself, what is so frickin’ weird about that?” he exclaimed.
David Bradford is better known on campus as up-and-coming rapper, Dave Coresh. The adapted name represents his hometown of Washington D.C., as he explains, “Coresh is just cool and fresh put together.”
When Coresh was 13-years-old, a college degree seemed somewhat out of reach. Life at home was unstable, as his mother struggled with drug addiction and his father was incarcerated for dealing. But Despite his troubled upbringing, Coresh just finished his junior year here at U of I. The English major also recently released his first EP “Reach” and is on his way of becoming one of CU’s most promising rappers.
Coresh got his start in eighth grade, when he and his two brothers moved from D.C. to live with their aunt in Chicago, where he immediately started focusing on school and extracurriculars. “[Before,] I was never in a stable enough home to do recreational sports and stuff like that,” said Coresh, “So I was really going with the flow and enjoying it.”
He joined the football team and started rapping his freshman year. It was something that was popular in his neighborhood in Hyde Park, where if you didn’t dance or play sports, you rapped, he said. So he rapped—walking down the street, at lunchtime, at a party—he would “just bust it out.”
By the start of Coresh’s senior year, he had vowed to pursue music with as much energy as he could while finishing school. He even got his first job at Hollister & Co. to pay for CDs and studio time.
Although he said he never saw himself going to college, Coresh was determined to set an example for his younger brothers. He became the first in his immediate family to attend college. “The statement from me to my family is to show my brothers that you can do what you want to do, after you do what you have to do.” he said.
Coresh believes what sets him apart from other U of I students is his willingness to pursue a music career on top of being a full-time student. During the school year, he attends 15 hours of class, works 20 hours a week, and goes back to Chicago most weekends for recording sessions and shows. A typical weekend includes recording for eight hours, meeting with his clothing line sponsor, checking in with the producer of his website, and performing from 6 to 11 p.m. one night.
Since beginning his rap career, Coresh has performed at over 80 shows, including South by Southwest Music Festival, and has opened for Wiz Khalifa, Wale and Mac Miller.
Most of Coresh’s songs are high energy or extremely emotional. Each has a purpose and conveys a certain feeling. “Out of my Lane,” for example, is about separating himself from the pack of other rappers.“My songs sound different, my layout is different, this is what separates me apart from everyone else,” said Coresh.
“Fire” is about competitiveness and how competition only makes us better and gives us a reason to work harder. His new song, “Dreamin,’” is about Coresh growing up in D.C. “Never stop thinking that you can’t get out of a situation you’re in,” he said.
Coresh’s musical influences include Jay-Z, Kanye West, The Beatles and Red Hot Chili Peppers, as well as any music that he hasn’t heard before. From country to folk to dubstep he likes music, period.
If Coresh is surviving off of doing music in some way, shape or form in ten years, he will be happy. “When I first started rapping, the big thing was ‘hip hop is dead.’ I like to think of myself as the leader of the resurrection of hip hop,” he concluded.
HC Illinois wished Dave the best of luck with this musical aspirations!