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A fussy toddler, Daniel James Ratstein was only comforted by rap legends like Run-DMC and Ice-T while his father strolled down the streets of Brooklyn. Eighteen years later, the viral maestro is still chasing his big dream of becoming New York’s next hip-hop icon.
The 18-year-old, better known as Lil Dee, has already amassed over one million views on social media while attending the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports and Entertainment at Long Island University in Brooklyn. .
On Jan. 6, he pays tribute to his hometown heroes with a new song, “Set It Off,” checking out names like Notorious BIG and Jay-Z. (“You rapper JV Baller/I’m Shaq, eight feet tall/You get the JC penny/I get the Jay Z dollar/And I don’t stop rockin’ (Until Jay-Z screams,” he spits.) And Lil Dee’s effortless freestyle flow has already turned rap stars like Redman and Talib Kweli on their heads.
“From the day I was born, I was just going through the golden age of hip-hop,” Lil Dee said in an exclusive interview with The Post. , played around with it to see if it could be done.”
An only child, Lutstein is a proud Coney Island native who often walks the neighborhood’s iconic boardwalk for inspiration. He was well known along Mermaid Avenue, and as a boy he used to rap for those willing to listen. He still lives in his childhood apartment with his father, who works for the New York City Department of Education, and his mother, Teresa.
Lil Dee wrote her first rhyme when she was nine years old.
He then wowed his sixth grade classmates during a holiday concert at Park Slope College Eight. The video shows the pint-sized host exuding confidence despite having a cast on his right leg. At age 12, Lil Dee turned his part-time hobby into a dominant habit, posting poetry to YouTube and Instagram.
Today, he boasts nearly 100,000 Instagram followers, including Brooklyn’s Kweli and Buffalo rapper Benny the Butcher, both of whom performed at the Lyricist Lounge show in Manhattan in 2019. We caught a glimpse of Lil Dee in .
Earlier that year, Lil Dee, who was a freshman at Midwood’s Edward R. Murrow High School, joined Vanilla Ice on Radio City Music in February after connecting online with the 1990s hip-hop star a few years earlier. I played in the hall. .
“I got a video from one of his best friends. They were eating Chinese food,” recalls Lil Dee. “And Vanilla Ice was like, ‘Hey Danny, what’s up? I love your music, you’re doing your thing, the sky is the limit, just carry on.’
On the same show, he got to meet the legends Slick Rick and Biz Markie.
Lil Dee said of Marquee, who passed away in 2021, “It was awesome. I love Biz.” It’s something I will hold forever. ”
Lil Dee’s other hip-hop hero, Ice-T, took to Instagram last month to praise him, boosting the young rapper’s eclectic freestyle verses with multiple fire emojis.
“That means I get a lot out of you, Legend,” Lil Dee replied on Nov. 16.
Ice-T’s Lil Dee’s intricate prosody is complemented by the witty double entenders and eclectic performances of retired NFL tight ends Rob Gronkowski and Mike Wazowski (the green Cyclops from “Monsters, Inc.”). Praised for being brimming with pop culture references.
“This is the Mafia, not Capone/Kevin Costner or Pixar/With ink/Then I’m a monster,” Lil Dee quipped in a clip posted on TikTok. times. “I grab the mic / I don’t want Wazowski / I get robbed like Gronkowski / It’s my house / Without me it falls down.”
Lil Dee is currently seeking a “proper record deal” and writing a book as a freshman majoring in music production.
An up-and-coming independent star ready for the inevitable phone call of its industry executives.
“I hope one day to be recognized as a legend in New York, a figure in the hip-hop culture of New York and Brooklyn,” Lil Dee told The Post.
“I’m here for longevity. I don’t want 15 seconds of fame… I just want to be here forever.”
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