During finals last year, Darrin Givens was stressed just like any other student. The end of the semester was in sight, and all he had to do was get past four tests.
As he sat in his Ruby Hall dorm room, Givens decided to get his mind off the encroaching exams. So he got up with some friends, and after a few ceremonious puffs of some paper and a green leafy substance, Givens and his boys headed to the Sanderson Center to shoot some hoops.
After a couple pickup games, Givens’ chest began to burn. It was all right though; the burn was light and seemed manageable. He would just keep playing. No big deal.
Then the burn got worse. It was making it difficult for the 21 year old to breathe. Maybe there was something wrong.
Givens’ friends decided to take him to the OCH emergency room. After a short wait, the staff saw Givens and a few quick tests were run. Acid reflux was the culprit, OCH told him. He was assured it was nothing serious.
Two days later, the burn in his chest continued to linger and turned more into a constant pressure. So Givens headed to the Longest Student Health Center where the staff decided to take an X-ray just to make sure the pain was not something more serious.
When the images came back, Givens and his doctor were blown away. It was more serious, much more serious. Givens had sustained a collapsed lung, and he had been walking around with it for three days.
Givens was immediately admitted to OCH where he was kept under observation for two weeks.
All of this is, of course, a terrible situation for anyone, but, for Givens, it was a tragedy. In those two weeks, Givens missed two opportunities for work. That work? Hip-hop shows.
Darrin Givens is a junior information technology services major by day and a beat-making, track-laying, verse-writing producer and a rapper by night. He is a damn good one at that. That’s not an opinion, either. Givens, better known as Flywalker, has producer credits on some of your favorite rappers’ work: Don Cannon, Curren$y, Tha Joker, The 6th Letter and Kashflow are names that just scratch the surface.
After months of trying to make our schedules work, I finally caught up with him on Wednesday night at his place. I didn’t get out of there until 2 a.m., but the sit down was priceless. Walk with us.
Hailing from Jackson, by way of Memphis, Tenn., Givens knows the everyday struggles of inner city kids but reflects none of the jadedness. He grew up in a small house with his entire immediate family, but staying out of trouble was still an everyday challenge.
“The area of my upbringing was very high in crime, and I used music to kind of keep myself from following the footsteps of many of my friends,” he said.
That knack for music has been running through his veins since he was conceived.
 ”I grew up in a family of musicians; my grandfather played bass, as well as my uncle. The minister of music at my church growing up taught me piano a little bit, and I had a hunger to learn more about music from then on,” Givens said.
The first instrument he tried to learn was the drums, and, despite his soon-to-be-discovered talent for producing smooth rhythmic beats, he was pretty bad.
“I sucked, … so I quit,” he mused.
 Today, though, his arsenal of instruments includes the piano, the baritone and the tuba. Yes, the tuba. Not your average rapper by a long shot.
Nine years later, with the help of some key producer credits and a savage work ethic, the man is still doing his thing. It did not take him long into those nine years, however, to realize music is what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
“When other artists and people who heard my music became instant fans and told me to keep on doing it, I knew I wanted to make a living off of it. Then I sold my first beat. It was honestly more money than I had ever made by getting any paycheck I ever earned,” he said.
Givens does all of his work at his house, in his room. It would really be an understatement to praise the quality of his music in comparison to his meager working conditions.
His hard drive is filled to the brim with samples, completed tracks and those tracks yet to be finished. Fruity Loops and Reason, both digital audio workstations, share room on his crowded home screen, and a microphone complete with stand and filter sit in the corner of his room, along with an M Audio Axiom 25 MIDI keyboard. This is everything he needs.
As I sat behind him and watched him alternate seamlessly between the two complex programs, the keyboard and the mic, I could not help but realize how much more difficult this was than I imagined. I am a hip-hop buff to the fullest extent, and I have always shot down people who have said it’s not real music, or that it takes little effort. But to witness this process first-hand quadrupled my respect for the art form and Givens.
As much work as he puts into the computer, you would think the machine should pay him back somehow. In a way, though, it has. Well, at least the Internet has.
The World Wide Web has played a huge role in propelling Givens from your local rapper to a nationally-recognized producer.
“It has helped alot, with me being featured on some big media outlets for my production.” Seriously, people, listen up: “sites like XXL, 2dopeboyz, ONSmash, NahRight and even The Source have given my production some pretty good promotion,” he said.
Givens owes much of his recent success to a simple tweet: “Before Twitter was big, the celebs tweeted fans, believe or not. I tweeted Curren$y and asked what happened to Trademark (Da Skydiver), and he directed me to his Twitter,” he said. “From there, I told Trade I had good production; he gave me his email and checked out the (beats) I sent.”
This online meeting probably had more of an impact on the Flywalker we know today than any other meeting in his past. Both Curren$y and Trademark Da Skydiver are huge names in the underground hip-hop world, with Trademark somewhat acting as Curren$y’s protégé.
Working with Trademark has done wonders for Givens’ blossoming career: “He placed me on his most groundbreaking project ‘Issue 2′ with a production credit, and, in return, he did a verse for me on my first mixtape, ‘F.A.M.E.,’ that ended up getting around 53,000 downloads.” Yes, 53,000 downloads. Not bad for a kid doing most of his work, at the time, out of his dorm room.
His latest release, “Grand Theft Audio,” a collaborative project with his band dubbed Da Astronautz, dropped recently and is available for download at MediaFire.com. So, go get it. Now. If you are an aspiring rapper, or know someone who is visit flywalkerbeatz.com to purchase some of Givens’ smooth arrangements for your next mix-tape. Or you could just assume that no random student from MSU could possibly be making a name for himself as an artist. Either way, Flywalker is only moving forward.
Even though Givens recovered from his first collapsed lung, he still lives with the fear it could happen again. It already has once. In September, Givens was again admitted to OCH with symptoms of yet another collapsed lung. This time, his stay was significantly shorter, but it still sticks around in the back of his mind. Despite all of that, Givens stays positive. His charisma is infectious.
As far as he is concerned, he is on his way to stardom. Only time will tell, but if hard work and dedication are indicators, don’t be surprised to see him on TV one day. He surely won’t be.