D’Von - The Diverse Dallas Star On The Come Up
Our favorite tracks:
No Love (feat. Xndria)
Hold Me Down (feat. Melodi)
Mind Blanked (feat. Bmac & Roman Da’fro)
Reasons to listen:
Great natural voice and delivery
Incredible flow and rhyming ability
Variety of styles keep it fresh
Phenomenal writing on the best tracks
Check out D’Von here
When looking at the array of influences that inspired D’Von to start making music, it’s easy to see where his extraordinary talent for variety comes from. Not only does his music have the lyricism of Kendrick Lamar, the personality of Lil Wayne, and and artistic insight of Ye, he adds his own unique stylings and twists to create a truly original sound. Throughout his debut album ‘Evolution’, he smoothly shifts from RnB to intense rap to chill and melodic lyrical tracks - impossible to pin down and always experimenting, D’Von is a new type of musician who bends genres and styles to his will. Just like the title of the album suggests, he is constantly evolving and updating his sound. He first began his musical journey at 10 years old, when he learned to play the piano, and since has worked with his cousins and friends (like one of my favorite people in the music industry, Roman Da’fro) to develop his abilities and set himself apart. He worked the soundboard at his church during sermons, learning how to mix vocals and instruments, and collaborates and learns from as many people as possible. A big way to describe his personality and approach to music is authenticity - throughout our conversations and interview, I got to see the man behind the music, and I can see the legitimacy and honesty that translates into his music. While talking about his personal goals for his career and his life, he told me he wants to make his family proud and “keep positive things on my mind and in my circle to keep myself grounded. Life happens, it’s unpredictable bro, but time never waits for no one.” When I asked what he wants to tell his fans, he responded with “CAN YA PLEASE NOT TREAT ME LIKE IM FREAKING FAMOUS. BEING IN MY FACE ALL STAR STRUCK ((OMG ITS DVON))!!! HA HA; but let me be real, just pray for me, support me from afar and/or by my side I’m all for whatever.” This combination of self-aware understanding and lighthearted humor again shows the diversity and completeness that make up D’Von as an artist - music is so much more than just the actual song, is about personality and emotion, and D’Von perfectly represents that. What’s great about him is not only does he have the personality and charisma, he also has the talent and technical ability. His best work is found on tracks like ‘No Love’, where he raps in a high tempo and high caliber style, intense without being aggressive. These showcase his incredible lyricism and his great natural delivery, and he rides perfectly on the trap influenced beat. The phenomenal intro and outro work so well as a catchy and memorable section that they actually could’ve worked as a hook. Another great track of a similar style is ‘Control’ which features what sounds to be a synth flute melody and a hard drumkit that blends perfectly with his hard hitting rapping style. These tracks are D’Von at his peak - powerful, lyrical, and hard hitting. However, he is also able to switch up the style drastically as we mentioned before, and songs like ‘Better’ are chill (and still lyrical) vibe tracks perfect for a night drive or relaxing playlist. On ‘Goes Down’, D’Von moves closer to RnB territory for a smooth and slow rap/singing combo. This kind of variety is best described in his own words: “Random, diverse, and extraordinary”.
Below is his full description of how he came up into the music industry and evolved his style - scroll down for that, and click play on the Spotify web player to check out his top track, ‘No Love’ while you’re at it! He’s also on Instagram at @dvonthagr8.ata, and he can be found on all platforms here.
- The Bootleg Team
Have you innovated? How?
Musically!?! I have to say; YES I have, from growing up playing with my baby brother’s musical toys out of boredom cause my Mama would tell me to get off the video games to learning to play the keys 10 years, from writing candy-bar rhymes at 12 to recording with cheap equipment at my cousins on weekends & summer. I started off sounding like Lil Wayne (great value at that), my kin had tease and mimic me on that, Wayne has always been my favorite rapper during that time, ever since I was able to comprehend Tha Carter II. To stop that habit, I had to take matters into my own hands and ears to listen to different artists who were on the scene during the late 2000s. Early 2010s the game freaking changed and expanded. It basically was New Beginnings of an Era within Hip Hop culture. That made me realize, “Oh-Okay, I need to develop into my own craft with originality.” Years down the line, I’ve performed songs; recording on my cousin’s projects and they’ve taught me a lot about structure when it came to creating a song from scratch (S/O to them J. Fudge and B Toney). When I understood that process, I knew it was time to record my first solo project (“L.I.F.E Ep on SoundCloud” https://soundcloud.com/dvon_tenncl9/sets/l-i-f-e-ep). Listen to this and you’ll see what I’m talking about. To make a long story long, my primary goal was to give this album the best concept possible. You know, having the listeners play this from the first song to the last song cause I understood sequencing. J Fudge executive produced L.I.F.E. Ep and was pretty much my Mr. Miyagi when it came to vocal fluctuation, delivery, switching it up. I 7struggled with that for the most part, having to record most of these songs multiple times to get it right. When I thought we were finished with the project, Fudge honestly told me, “This project sounds horrible bruh!” It frustrated me when he told me that. But he sat down with me to share how vocal delivery matters in mic recording. “It makes the job easier for the engineer.” He says, so fully understanding that, so I re-recorded the majority of the songs gave it all. It turned out the way it did, people recognize the concept and like the sequence. But took an L because the delivery wasn’t good in my opinion vocally but I TOOK THIS AS A LESSON. Almost two years after the release (2018), I started the first song right before I graduated out of CVC which was At Its Finest (feat. B Toney) (which is a song about getting finessed by an individual who you thought would be supportive of you), I was amazed by the fact that I created a catchy melody for this track. I was ready to make more songs; Later, I have some songs recorded/still in the works. To random share this with you, this project was going to be an E.P, called Always Been That Way, Evolution was never even thought of until late 2019 early 2020. So during the time working on this potential E.P., randomly it dawned on me. I was thinking to myself I should make it a full length project. I spoke about this to J Fudge and he knows that I value albums more cause I share my stories in song…. Going back to listening to L.I.F.E ep, I wanted to maintain that whole sequencing throughout working this project. Learning from my mistakes with the vocal delivery I knew I couldn’t let that slide, being inspired by Kanye (MBDTF), Travis Scott (BITTSM) and Kendrick’s (DAMN) I wanted to make this album dark and the tracks cohesive. Also being inspired by recording artist/producers like Tyler, The Creator, again Travis Scott, Pharrell and many more; I decided, “Hey why not I mix the sounds of this project.” because at the time in church I would work the sound board to learn not only how to mix for stage sermons and music selections but to avoid getting distracted cause my attention span was so short back also I couldn’t sit down for almost an hour just to listen to a sermon. I had to be productive to listen. So learning from that I applied it to produce my album trying out sounds reproducing vocals rearranging the beats. The concept of this project was to reflect on the downfalls of relationships, temptation and mental battles in my life cause I was going through a mental depression not a lot of people knew…. (I’ll leave it at that but I’m way better now), but I had to fight it just to get myself out of it. That’s why I have songs like Mind Blanked (feat. B Mac & Roman Da’fro), Better, How Me Down (feat. Melodi), Control, and the track with the highest percentage (according to DistroKid) No Love (feat. Xndria) with a video dropping very soon directed By Mikeel Swan. Thanks to them for the collaborations it really helped give this project some authenticity. After I released the project I’ve seen a lot of things change from there in a great way, hanging with Roman, Parker, Keel, Gissell and Josiah I’ve learn so much about the field of entertainment in the DFW area from promotions/marketing, making connections (Networking cause that matters), taking free time out of my day to perform my created material, collaborations, the process of hosting events so much more. That’s how I strongly believe I’ve musically innovated, but I will expand my brand with the help of my team of Leaders(PAY YOUR TAXES) that’s for you P.J.
- D’Von