Is Gio Dee "Ready Now?"

Boston native, Gio Dee, dropped his long-awaited project, “Ready Now,” earlier this month and it has garnered some great responses. The lead single on the project, “Flee Talk,” is produced by his recent go-to-producer DatBoi. You can find the official video here, directed by Lonestar. This song pays tribute to his late friend, Corey “Stay Flee” Dash, who was a model from the Boston area that inspired the flow. Gio sings, “Talk about my city, know that I’m the heart of it. Know the music scene out here I done started it. You can hate on me all you want, ain’t stopping this. When they hear this new flow they gunna copy this.” Gio has been a prominent figure in the Boston music scene since the release of his first song, “For the L.O.E.,” (video here) in 2013, and he raps about the influence he has had.

The first seven songs are handled by Gio alone, but on the last three he gets some support from Bay Area natives, Iamsu and Marc E. Bassy, and his fellow #ChefBoyz, Polo $ummers and One-H. This project also showcases Gio’s Bay Area influence with production help from his long-time friend, DJ, and mentor DJ Shabazz. For those who don’t know, Shabazz was the DJ for Atlanta rapper Dolla, who was unfortunately shot and killed in 2009. Shabazz produced the intro, “Save Yourself,” and “Automatic” feat Iamsu. Shabazz is a influenital figure in the Bay, and has had a big impact on Gio’s career professionally and sonically.

Since the project dropped, Gio has been on a press run in New York visiting Tidal, Audiomack, SoundCloud, MajorStage, and more. On MajorStage he performed another one of the singles from the project, “Colors", (produced by WorldWideTak) which we find Gio going bar for bar on the verses and as he often does, singing a smooth melodic hook, “Ask me for a favor, then I tell you no, true colors gon’ show yea, true colors gon’ show.” Gio also stopped by a few media offices in NY for interviews with @HipHopMike (video here) and @MusicXclusives (video here). After this project it seems like Gio is in fact ready now, and we are excited for what’s to come in 2020.

Find the MajorStage performance, and stream the project in whole below..

Words by Ryan O’Leary (@rosecityry)