The Hoodz Princess DEEMI
BIOGRAPHY
The streets of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn are known for their tough and unforgiving nature. Every so often someone conquers these hurdles to share their stories with the world. In 1994, the Notorious B.I.G.'s incredible lyrics painted vivid portraits of life in Bed Stuy's streets to change hip-hop forever. In 2004, a new star has emerged from those same streets but this time it's a female singing heartfelt songs of pain, sorrow and survival over knockin' hip-hop beats to once again change the game. The artist's name is Deemi and soon the world will hear the soundtrack of her life.
Growing up on welfare in a single mother household, Deemi had two children before age 21 and suffered from devastating physical abuse by the children's estranged and now deceased father (he was tragically murdered.) Mix in the poverty, despair and violence that surrounded her community, 24-year-old Deemi had already endured a lifetime's worth of hardships. However, music became her outlet for expression. Deemi grew up in a household listening to a diverse array of artists including The Stylistics, Aretha Franklin, The Carpenters, The Beatles and Billie Holiday. She began singing at age 5, won her first talent show at age 7 and sang in school choruses. Deemi was then accepted by the prestigious Talent Unlimited High School in Manhattan and joined their chorus performing at various political events, benefits and other functions--even performing for then U.S. President Bill Clinton.
In 1998, a chance meeting with music producer Chris Styles led to Deemi's first demo recordings and she signed with his company, Dangerous, LLC. During this early phase of her career she also started to work with Styles' producer friend from down the block Bruce Waynne. Waynne would later become partners with another producer, Dirty Swift and together they formed Midi Mafia, producing 50 Cent's smash hit "21 Questions". This led to an increase in production opportunities for Midi Mafia, but they had not forgotten about Deemi. They continued to write and record demos with her and Styles but realized they needed to do something drastic to make her music stand out. Styles and Wayne realized that Deemi's life story was so interesting and compelling it made sense to write about her experiences to give her songs the edge they were seeking. The new songs embraced the hardships Deemi endured, talking about them in a graphic but provocative manner. She also began to do her own freestyles, singing her raw lyrics over hot hip-hop instrumentals of the moment. While Styles distributed the freestyles to mixtape DJ's, creating a buzz about "the hood'z princess" in the streets, Midi Mafia got the deal with Atlantic/Family ties Entertainment. Thus began the construction of songs for Deemi's debut album, aptly titled "Soundtrack Of My Life".
DEEMI:
http://www.myspace.com/deemi
FAMILY-TIES ENTERTAINMENT/MIDI-MAFIA: http://www.familytiesent.com/
http://www.midimafiaonline.com/
DANGEROUS LLC:
http://www.dangerousllc.com/
