Bob Dylan’s Grandson Pablo Makes Musical Debut as Rapper

Music may run in the family, but Bob Dylan’s grandson Pablo seems to have taken it to an unexpected place.

Newcomer to the music scene, Pablo Dylan doesn’t follow in the folky footsteps of his grandpa or the rock of his uncle Jakob, lead singer of the Wallflowers. Instead, Pablo has chosen a somewhat unexpected path: hip-hop.

Bob’s rapping grandson has been popping up all over the media, from the Daily News to E! Online, shopping around his new mixtape 10 Minutes. But while Pablo’s music is a far cry from his grandfather’s legendary folk tunes of the 60s, at least the 15-year-old knows where he came from and definitely respects his roots.

“I mean, really, my grandfather, I consider him the Jay-Z of his time,” Pablo told AllHipHop.com, “and he definitely has a legacy that a lot of people look up to. He feels strongly about my music, and I love him to death.”

While the Jay-Z comparison probably sounds odd to some, Pablo’s heart seems to be in the right place. Plus, at just 15—going on 16—a young hip-hop artist is surely influenced by this decade’s mainstream media more than anything. For example, Pablo cites Eminem’s Eminem Show as the first hip-hop album that he really connected to.

Pablo’s father may have also been somewhat of an influence. Jesse Dylan is famous for directing music videos by artists like Tom Petty and Lenny Kravitz, but he also worked with Will.I.Am on the video for “Yes We Can.” The Black Eyed Peas may not be as hip-hop as Eminem or Jay-Z, but it’s still a fair possibility that Pablo knows of that collaboration very well.

At any rate, whether it’s the family name or the intense online promotion, it seems Pablo is taking off. He claims that 10 Minutes has already hit over 50,000 downloads (52,811 at the time of writing—including one here for AllMediaNY.com), and he’s already busy in the studio perfecting more music. Still, he also warned not to let his grandfather’s legacy be a deciding factor in his budding career.

“Of course we do two different things,” he said, “and I don’t want people to see me for what he has done. But, what I have done, I mean from a musical and personal standpoint, is definitely influenced by him. Everyone around me influences me, and I have learned so much from him just listening to his records, but I hope his music continues to live on through what I continue to do the rest of my life.”

Pablo Dylan’s mixtape, 10 Minutes, is available for download through his official website.

This article was originally published on AllMediaNY.com