Hometown hip hop group captures national spotlight

3DC becomes YouTube holiday sensation

By Mitchell Palmer McDonald

Contributing Writer

This holiday season, members of the hip-hop group 3DC — Dameon “Dame Jones” Jones (14), Devon “D.J.” Johnson (13), D’antanie “D.T.” Johnson (11), and Chris “Chrisss” Baraja (11) — wanted to create a song that would express gratitude to their family and friends during the holiday season.

Mission accomplished.

With their kid-friendly remix of the Christmas classic “12 Days of Christmas,” Jones, Baraja and the Johnson brothers have created

quite the buzz in the Twin Cities and the Internet.

“We wanted to create a song that our family and friends could relate to,” said Jones, an eighth-grader at Nellie Stone Johnson School in Minneapolis, who added that it took three-to-four hours to record the song.

The song’s message of gratitude to family and friends is clearly presented in the music video.

With each group member individually reciting their Christmas wish list, which included better health for their families, a bike, new shoes, a PS4 game console, and even becoming president, the video has become a YouTube sensation with over 10,000 views while the track has received continuous airplay on KMOJ.

The song is also available on iTunes, and there is also a website (3DCkids.com).

“During school they [other students] always want us to perform the song,” Jones said of the song’s popularity.

“They always want us to turn up,” added an excited Baraja, a sixth grader who attends East Middle School in Plymouth and who has been rapping since age six. “It’s cool that they like the song.”

For Jones, this is his second brush with success. Last year, Jones recorded “Hot Cheetos & Takis.” The song was a YouTube hit with close to eight million views. This time around, the Johnson brothers and Baraja were added to the mix and the group 3DC was born. Nothing but success has followed.

Fresh off the buzz of “12 Days of Christmas,” the group is working on their next song. “It’s called ‘Kiss my Js’ and talks about how much we love our Jordans [sneakers],” Jones said calmly.

What started out as an outside-of-school project for young people has blossomed into an Internet sensation with unlimited possibilities. This newfound success has the 3DC dreaming big.

“I like to play video games when I am not rapping,” Baraja said. “When I’m not rapping, I am writing new raps. I just like to rap.”

For Jones, he just wants the group to continue down its current path. “We just hope to keep creating music with a positive message,” he said.

Mitchell Palmer McDonald welcomes reader responses to mmcdonald@spokesman-recorder. com.