Bonus MP3: Caleb Mak -- "Hands Up"

Sartaj Chowdhury | January 4, 2011 | 2:08pm

Although Dallas hip-hop may currently be best known for the D-Town Boogie, there are quite a few artists in the area that are changing that perception.

Well, here's another: Plano West native Caleb Mak, whose mixtape is starting to make rounds around the city and even some parts of the country. His first single, "The Joker", already has over 1.3 million views on YouTube, which, Mak says, has prompted some label interest from the likes of Sony and Universal. It's also allowed to him to play shows from Dallas all the way to Washington DC.

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So whats next for Caleb?

"I got a double mixtape I'm gonna try to release before South by Southwest," says the young rapper. "Half of it will be an experimental album, and the other half will be more urban pop."

The pop element's an important one -- it's fairly integral to his sound, a la B.o.B. and others who are continuing to blur the lines between hip-hop and pop.

"I'll probably be singing more on this mixtape," Mak says. "Kind of like Drake or Kanye's 808s and Heartbreak."

In the meantime, Mak's been kind enough to pass along to DC9 readers a song called "Hand's Up" from his LOVE mixtape. The beat, built across various platforms of Logic Studio, Reason, and Pro Tools, is reminiscent of a Daft Punk beat, updated with the pop sensibilities of Kanye West. Grab the track after the jump.

Bonus mp3:

Caleb Mak -- "Hands Up"

Fun stuff, for sure. Definitely poppy.

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Bonus MP3: Caleb Mak -- "Hands Up"

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