Interview: Content creator Demondice talks J-Rap, voice acting and streaming

Content creator Demondice sat down with Dexerto to discuss her career as a J-Rap artist, her desire to continue growing her platform, and to preview what kind of voice acting she would love to do moving forward in her career.

In 2023, what it means to be a content creator is a varied idea. For many, it means streaming on the likes of Twitch and YouTube. However, some content creators like to explore more avenues and experiment with various types of content.

Enter Demondice, a US creator who refuses to limit herself to just one platform or type of content. In an exclusive interview with Dexerto, Demondice sat down to chat about all things from J-Rap, the streaming space as well as her desire to get more involved with voice acting moving forward.

“I am an animator, musician, songwriter, vocalist, and at times rapper as well. And also at times streamer, I also take on a lot of different voice work and I have several different jobs that I’m involved in as an entertainer. So I’m really quite a crazy person. As to how I would define myself: Just an insane person. A person who really likes to do a lot of things.”

Despite not wanting to limit herself, Demondice has developed quite a passion for Japanese rap, better known as J-Rap. This style of music is something that she loves listening to as well as creating original songs and covers for.

Demondice breaks down the J-Rap scene and being the “token white person”

When discussing how she got into the J-Rap scene, it’s safe to say that breaking into the “community” presented some unique challenges for someone who isn’t actually from Japan.

“A lot of people, they had their own community uploading like underground music, onto the Internet, kind of similar to how a lot of people that, you know, speak English, for example, have SoundCloud or a lot of people outside of Japan in general upload to SoundCloud and have their own communities. In Japan, they had their own Japanese rap as well, and I was a big fan.

“It was really interesting because from an early time, I was kind of seen as the token white person I think. For a while, every time I went to one of the underground shows, people were always like ‘Who’s that?’ Until I started talking to people. The main way that I connected with folks was actually on Twitter, so it’s not like there are already several people that knew who I was. In the beginning, which is probably for the better because I think it would have been very hard to make friends if I hadn’t been talking to them on Twitter.”

How childhood dreams inspired Demondice to become a  content creator 

When reflecting on how Demondice decided to make the leap to content creation, she discussed how her struggles as a child helped define her tastes and how her confidence to explore the artistic side has grown as she stepped into the spotlight as an adult.

“I always wanted to be an actress. But, you know, I experienced a lot of bullying in school, that kind of shot my confidence. So I always had this sort of creative thing in my head, the sort of creative component to be creative and outgoing and entertaining. But it just manifested in a different way. So I actually ended up kind of gravitating towards comics and writing stories and drawing, and that was mostly how I manifested my creativity for a while. 

And so I really kind of taught myself how to draw and animate from a very young age, probably about the age of 11 or so. And then as I grew into an adult, I became more and more confident and then realized that I enjoyed making music.”

Speaking more on J-Rap, Demondice expressed her desire to see the music style break into the Western world in the same way K-Pop has become a cultural phenomenon. The content creator breaking down how K-Pop has been able to successfully make the jump and what she thinks J-Rap needs to do to mirror its success.

How J-Rap can take inspiration from K-Pop

“I would give the same advice that I was given from my Senpai as a rapper in the underground Tokyo Scene: It’s hard to connect with an audience if you can’t speak their language. Something interesting about K-Pop in general is you actually hear a lot of English in K-Pop songs. Which I think also contributed to really helping their rise to sort of mainstream popularity. 

I think asking Japanese people to speak English when they just live in Japan is very stupid and you shouldn’t do it. But when it comes to wanting to try and get the music to spread overseas, it’s just something that you’ve got to do. I don’t wanna say a sacrifice that you have to make, but it’s a skill that you have to put in the time and effort.”

And when it comes to what Demondice is hoping to achieve in the future, she admitted that her two big goals are to get more involved in the streaming scene and to break into the voice acting industry.

Demondice wants to stream more & break into voice acting in the future

“I want to keep doing it and it turns out that there are a lot of people that enjoy watching me for some reason with this camera on my face. That makes me happy. So I guess if they really want that, then I will continue to do it. And honestly, it’s just a great way for me to kick back.”

When I asked which streamers Demondice draws inspiration from, the content creator was quick to discuss the ever-evolving VTuber scene that has risen in popularity at a rapid rate over the past few years. How the likes of Ironmouse and others have paved the way for herself and others to follow suit.

“Well, I love Ironmouse of course. I think she’s just the epitome of a fantastic entertainer. I think that being 2D does not limit her. Well, I think that she has cultivated an amazing audience of people that love both that aspect of her and the person behind Ironmouse. She has an amazing community that loves and supports her and she made that herself.”

Furthermore, when discussing her desire to do more voice acting, Demondice explained that she has “already started making moves toward it. So for example, I actually have a commercial demo reel that I have to do in the next couple of days. I’ve already put out my character reel, which I’ve posted on Twitter so everybody can see, and I’m really proud of it.

And then once I get my commercial reel out there. I’m going to start applying to agencies to see what I can do because until then it’s going to be really hard to get any notable roles. I think until you know I’m within an agency, but to be honest, I’ve done a couple of small video game things and a couple of small guest things as well.”

With the likes of J-Rap, K-Pop, and other different styles of music permeating the Western audience, Demondice represents a new wave of content creators drawing inspiration from these types of content.

In the years to come, these styles of content creators, those who wear more than one hat, are likely to become the norm rather than an outlier.