DDG Talks New Album, Listening to JAY-Z's Advice and Being 'Very Proud' of Girlfriend Halle Bailey (2024)

If you aren't a fan of DDG's music, he's got a message for you — one that's now the title of his new album: It's Not Me, It's You.

"You can say that from a relationships perspective or anything in life, really," DDG, who turns 25 on Oct. 10, tells PEOPLE. "I feel like people play the blame game these days. It's just pointing the finger, and also, in the same breath, if you don't enjoy my music at this point in my career, it's not me, it's you. I feel like I done proved myself over and over again."

After feeling like he already proved himself as an artist with the standard edition, the Michigan-born musician dropped the deluxe of his sophom*ore album on Friday. It's been in the works for nearly three years following his 2019 debut Valedictorian and breakout single "Moonwalking in Calabasas." The deluxe, complete with assistance from Offset, Coi Leray and Lakeyah, features four new tracks on the now-16-song LP.

Perhaps just as well as he's documented his journey into music on YouTube over the last eight years, It's Not Me, It's You does the same for DDG's humble beginnings in Pontiac, Michigan. To him, the album hints at longevity from a still-rising star in hip-hop who's on a mission to prove that YouTube success doesn't minimize his place in the game.

"I'm in a space now where I want people to get rid of the stigma that I'm a YouTuber," says DDG, whose real name is Darryl Granberry. "I'm really just tryna shake that image and that stigma. Even though I am a YouTuber, I feel like it automatically comes with people not wanting to press play on the music or believing in the music. Or being harder on it. People are harder on me than other artists."

Having uploaded videos since 2014, once DDG started pulling in thousands of dollars a month as a vlogger, he dropped out of Central Michigan University. Since then, expanding into music has been a relatively seamless journey from an outsider's perspective, given that he signed to Epic Records in 2018, just a couple years after picking up steam musically.

But with YouTube not as much of a focus for DDG as his music these days, despite regular video uploads (some including his girlfriend and The Little Mermaid star Halle Bailey), reaching a point where listeners look beyond his online stardom can't necessarily happen overnight. It's required the rapper to do what he says he's been doing for years now: "Put out good music," he says.

"All the music that I put out sticks over time," DDG says. "I feel like I'm more of a longevity artist than anything. A lot of people go back and they go listen to the old stuff that I've been putting out once they recently become fans, and they say, 'Oh, he'd been making good songs.' So you know, I just keep pushing, just continue to put out good music and feed the people that's already listening."

A standout on the new album, recent single "9 Lives" featuring NLE Choppa and Polo G, is just that. The track follows DDG as he reflects on the sacrifices he's made and continues to make for his family and loved ones. At the end of the chorus, he sings, "You ever had to boil some water just to wash your back," alluding to the same set-up he was raised on as a child.

Its music video does the same, detailing events in his early life from familial arguments to using boxing as a means to stay focused. DDG and Polo G spotted a shooting star in the sky while filming the video, too, which could be seen as representative of his own trajectory.

"Growing up in Michigan was very, very tough for me and my family," DDG explains. "Just being able to rap about something like that in the space that I'm in now, it's a blessing to look back on it while I'm making those lyrics or [making] that music video for '9 Lives.' It was just something that was super-duper nostalgic for me."

While working on his album, DDG's girlfriend Bailey, one half of sister duo Chloe X Halle, has been earning buzz for her lead role in Disney's upcoming The Little Mermaid live-action film. Through DDG's vlogs, fans have also gotten an inside look into how life has changed for him and Halle this past year, leading up to the film's May 26, 2023 release. In a Sept. 18 vlog, the pair were watching TV in their Vegas hotel, as an NBC News segment covering Halle's casting as Ariel — and Black kids excitedly reacting to the trailer — was shown on TV.

"I'm very proud of her. And I'm just happy to see it," DDG says. "I feel like sometimes I'm even more excited than anybody else. Just seeing it and seeing everything that she dreamed of coming to life, it's really dope."

Halle also held a special role in DDG's album cycle, appearing in the music video for "If I Want You." Appropriately, the clip stars Bailey as she swims with her significant other, but not much of that was acting, DDG tells PEOPLE: "We hang out all day every day. So this was just regular."

While featuring his peers on It's Not Me, It's You and his girlfriend in a music video were just part of piecing the project together, it was a gem of advice from one of the greatest rappers ever that helped push him further. "JAY-Z told me be original & don't follow trends. Give people what they came for," DDG wrote in a Twitter Q&A with fans last week.

"You know, it was kind of unreal, to be honest," he tells PEOPLE of Hov's advice. "I just asked him, because that's all I'd really want from people like that. And I just be wanting advice and gems from people that sit in the position that I would love to be in, at some point in life. So, it was unreal. You know, JAY-Z telling you something, you gotta listen. It stuck with me when he told me that. I've been applying that, for sure."

As for personal advice for those looking to have similar cross-platform success, or any type of success in music, DDG came through with some of his own. "Just keep going. Be consistent. Work on the days you don't want to work, those are the most important days," he says. "And just outwork everyone else. Eventually, if it's not happening now, it will."

The deluxe edition of It's Not Me, It's You is out now via Epic Records.