Local Rapper David ‘Vigatron’ Norris is a Force to Be Reckoned With
In Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, Harvey Dent says, “I guess you either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain. Look, whoever the Batman is, he doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life doing this. How could he?”
Much of the same can be said about David “Vigatron” Norris. He’s a force to be reckoned with on the local hip-hop scene, but he’s also making waves as an actor with several credits under his utility belt as well.
“I’m a rapper and writer first and an actor second, although the roles have somewhat switched as of late,” Norris says. “I focus more on acting now; I’ve been rapping since high school but only seriously since about 2002 or 2003.”
Vigatron made his bones as a rapper, but he’s always pictured himself as a rocker. It’s a concept he says may one day come to fruition.
“I’m more of a Prince guy,” Vigatron says of his influences. “I came up wanting to be Michael Jackson until 1984 when Purple Rain came out; then I wanted to be Prince. I had to make a decision once I decided I wasn’t going to play a bunch of instruments. So I started experimenting with writing raps for a bit and discovered I was good at it, so I kept along that path. In my heart of hearts though, I really wanted to be a rock star.”
As the younger Vigatron grew more confident in his abilities, he would quickly become one of the standouts amongst his friends in a scene that was rapidly becoming oversaturated by his contemporaries.
“I think it was the summer of 1989, and Too Short started blowing up,” Vigatron reflects. “That’s when a lot of the guys I grew up with got the bug to start rapping. In my arrogance, I thought to myself that if I’m smarter than them, I can write better raps. I tried it, and it was one of those things I was instantly decent enough at it to keep doing it until I got considerably good amongst my peers. I’d say from ’91 through ’93, I was in that upper echelon of high school guys that people talked about. It was a good way to express myself. I used to write a lot out of anger back then, but now, it’s more like I write things if I have something to say or if I can present it in a funny way.”
