Malik  Stewart aka “Malik DOPE”  is a Washington, D.C. Native from the Uptown area. He started playing drums around the age of 5 years old, with inspiration sparked from african drum and dance and later began to take it much more seriously at the age of 12, starting on a 6 piece drum set playing DC “GoGo” music, Hip Hop, R&B etc. As Malik continued percussion with ‘’GoGo’’ music, playing in neighborhood bands and generating notoriety for his style of playing, he went to Northwestern High School,  and in his 10th grade year took an interest in the school’s marching band. Joining the marching band changed Malik’s life,  exposing him to a whole new world of percussion. By pursuing marching band in high school he fiercely progressed. While still being in a GoGo band and school band, Malik also had jobs here & there, forcing him to juggle all of these different worlds at once. As he strived to part-take in all this, it resulted in a lack of good school grades, making the process of graduating take longer but at 19 years old he graduated high school. After completing high school, Malik enrolled in Prince George's Community College and while in school he was blessed with the opportunity to be a part of Howard University's marching band once again exposing him to a more advanced layer of percussion. Gaining exposure all across the states, Malik advanced in Howard University’s marching band, struck the internet with his skills as well, landing him shares and repost from all over the DMV & beyond.

 

  As Malik’s rise continued online and in the DMV, in the year 2013 he began to form his own brand “D.O.P.E, Definition of Percussion Entertainment " (now LLC) ,created to provide entertainment, education, inspiration, motivation, innovation, artistic awareness & production through the live nature of percussion, ultimately displaying the brand as a positive influence on living life. At this time Malik shifted away from the Howard University band, taking the experience he gained and leaving the job he had at the time to fully pursue his D.O.P.E. journey. In the amount of 4 years from 2013 to now, he has participated in numerous events & live street performances all around the DMV and other major cities, states & countries such as New York, California, Atlanta, New Orleans, Virginia Beach, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Boston, Jamaica, South Africa, China and more.

 

As a result of Malik’s constant grind has generated him a huge internet presence, going viral several times, gaining him a great following on his social medias landing at currently 106k+ instagram followers and several thousand followers on his other social media platforms (still growing) & valued as one of the top influential innovative artist in this present time. Malik has also performed at multiple Concert Halls/ festivals/ events such as the Howard Theatre, Echo Stage (in DC), Warner Theatre (in DC), Tabernacle (in ATL), Saint Ann’s Bay (in Jamaica) “Charged Up” Festival, DC Funk Parade, Broccoli City Festival, Afro Punk, SXSW, A3C, Made in America, Brooklyn Hip Hop festival, international festival “Rebel Salute in Jamaica, One Love Massive studio & more.

 

Malik has gained media attention being featured in the Washington Post, Time Magazine, Complex Magazine, Fader, Hypebeast, Revolt TV, Circa News, Fox 5 News, WUSA Channel 9 News, ABC Channel 7 News, TV Jamaica/Smile Jam TV and more. Malik has performed and been scoped by popular, award-winning artists such as Usher Raymond, Erykah Badu, Swizz Beats, Wale, Mike Will Made It, Rae Sremmurd, BackYard Band, D.R.A.M, Pusha T, Swizz Beats, Ayo & Teo, Queen Ifrica, Tony Rebel and now he’s currently on one of the biggest staged performance shows ever, AMERICAS GOT TALENT !

 

As Malik continues to build this D.O.P.E legacy, spreading the creative awareness, creating products representing an innovative vibe through percussion world wide, he does it in a unique way infusing education, entertainment & healing through mind body/ body/ soul, inspiring therapeutic actions with arts of all sorts in unison with rhythm, vibration & syncopation to help maintain a balance to our society and universe with art everywhere.