Darko, in studio. Photo courtesy of Kwame Darko.
College athletics is a year-round process. It takes up a lot of time.
Over his five-year career with the Terps’ men’s soccer team, Kwame Darko didn’t have many opportunities to explore his lyrical abilities.
So Darko, who started 12 games in 2009 and served as a valuable fill-in for left back Rodney Wallace in 2008, found time for his music whenever he could – at parties, in the spring offseason or on the team bus during road trips.
According to Darko, coach Sasho Cirovski would make him get up and start rapping for the team. Sasho’s a fan.
Now, with his career over, Darko is trying to find a job. He’s hoping to catch on with a team in the USL or overseas, but in the meantime, he’s found some time to get in a recording studio and put together a mixtape.
“Tangerine Tinted Sunglasses,” Darko’s 18-track mixtape will be released Saturday and available online, at Myspace and Facebook and other file-sharing sites. There will also be a release party Saturday, at the Ozio Restaurant & Lounge in Washington.
More from Darko after the jump:
“Basically, when I got to college I didn’t really have enough time to do enough music, I stopped recording,” said Darko, who started writing songs when he was about 12-years-old. He and a couple of friends put together a group in high school, but as his soccer career started to get more serious, there simply wasn’t enough time to do both.
The Terps warmed-up to one of Darko’s songs, “Chillin’ in it,” a track that got selected for a Def Jam compilation a few years back. Darko described his style as a cross between Common, Jay-Z and Asher Roth, because of his college background.
It took him about two weeks of studio time to put together the mixtape. He’s hoping it does well, then the Bethesda native will start getting serious about soccer again.
“I’ve been at this music thing for quite some time. But soccer has always been in the way,” Darko said. “I’m real excited.”
Aaron Kraut is The Diamondback’s sports editor. He can be reached at akrautdbk@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter here.