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The legend of Taxstone: How he became the voice of NYC hip-hop
As the self-proclaimed bad guy of media, Daryl “Taxstone” Campbell’s rise to prominence within the culture is legendary, and although he’s currently incarcerated in connection to a 2017 shooting, he’s still very much out here.
In a time before podcasts really started poppin’ off, he was starting his own wave and back when Twitter was like the wild west, he was one of the realest voices coming out of NY.
And before he became one of the most respected interviewers in the game with his Tax Season podcast, he was just a regular dude from East New York who loved hip-hop.
The name Tax comes from an ice cream truck driver from his childhood, who gave him that name after consistently taxing the kids at the truck. Stone is an acronym for Striving To Overcome Negative Energy, coming from a previous endeavor of his.
Before being formally known as a personality, Tax had a strong Twitter presence. Taxes’ twitter was a place where he would promote new music, drop some gems, and give his unfiltered opinions. One of Taxstone’s first media appearances came on The Brilliant Idiots podcast.
On this episode Tax made a name for himself by, dropping gems throughout the episode, displaying his real storytelling ability and his extensive knowledge of the culture that is hip-hop. After being on Brilliant Idiots, Taxstone began to make appearances on Charlamagne Tha God’s Uncommon Sense, in which he was a recurring guest.
This all led to Taxstone becoming the host of the very popular Tax Season podcast, a podcast that has amassed more than 100,000 regular listeners over 80 episodes!
Dubbed ‘the internet’s most dangerous podcast’ by the Village Voice, Tax Season brought you an unfiltered view of the Brooklyn streets as only Taxstone knows them.
Loud Speakers Network launched Tax Season in March 2015 with a debut episode in which Tax interviews his friend Diamond D, a model, and former Rikers corrections officer — about jail sex and high school brawls at McDonald’s.
Tax Season Podcast had some of the cultures most legendary moments of recent. One, in particular, being the Beanie Sigel interview.
Beans came on Tax Season after being sucker punched by one of the Dreamchaser’s in Philadelphia, shortly after siding with Meek in him and The Game’s beef. On this episode, Beans set the record straight regarding his relationship with Meek, street ethics, and his role in The Game and Meek feud.
“After the Beans interview, I got many calls saying that interview was so great because I shut the fuck up and let Beans go.”
Another memorable moment from Tax Season was the Joe Budden interview, or lack thereof. Joe’s Tax Season appearance was cut short after Tax kicked him off because he felt he was not there to give him a real interview.
Even before the success of Tax Season and Taxstone the personality, Tax always used his platform to promote new music from up and coming Brooklyn artist. One song in which Taxstone promoted early was Bobby Shmurda’s Hot Nigga.
“I knew Bobby’s Uncle, he was really selling crack since the 5th grade.”
Another artist in which Tax played an integral part in their rise to stardom was Desiigner. Taxstone says he heard Desiigner’s hit Panda, fucked with it, took a liking to him, and then began pushing him hard on all of his social media platforms. From this Pusha T and G.O.O.D Music got wind of him and signed Desiigner.
Taxstone’s presence and prominence within the culture quickly caught the eye of Brooklyn OG Memphis Bleek. From Bleek to the big homie, Jay Z them made the call that he wanted to meet Tax.
In December 2015 Tax met with Jay, Tax says he and Hov met and spoke for about three hours about Brooklyn and hip hop. Through his relationship with Memphis Bleek, Manelo Rose an artist in which Tax managed was signed to Roc Nation through Bleek’s new record label, Warehouse Music.
“Without Taxstone, a lot of things probably wouldn’t have happened for myself… Taxstone kinda put it in hyperdrive for me. I owe a great deal to the man.”
Another rapper who came up under Tax was Casanova. The Brooklyn native caught the eye of mainstream radio with his hit single ‘Don’t Run’. Tax and Casanova’s relationship dates back to when they were both solitary confinement and they’d talk shit to one another.
Upon both their releases & Tax’ rise to stardom, Cas would pose as Tax’ security at different events. Cas credits Tax as one of the reasons as to why he didn’t wanna be in the streets any longer.
“Tax always used to tell me ‘Cas you gotta stop going to these mixy places, stop being around these mixy people… If nobody trying better you, stay away from them.’”
Casanova, now also signed to Warehouse Music, named his debut mixtape ‘Be Safe Tho’ in honor of Tax. In January 2017, following a fatal shooting at Irving Plaza the May prior, Taxstone was arrested in connection to the incident.
In June of 2017, Tax pled guilty to receiving a firearm by interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony and possession of a weapon by a felon, according to Nicholas Biase, a spokesman for the Southern District of New York.
Since being incarcerated Tax has done interviews first with the So Shameless Podcast, and then most recently with Nicki Minaj on her Queen Radio.
From Charlamagne Tha God to Casanova, all of Tax’ affiliates who have been in contact with him since his incarceration says his spirits are high, and he’s still talking shit as usual. As Tax says,
“We Don’t Bend. Don’t Break. Don’t Shiver. Don’t Shake.”