Meet Emmanuel Deanda

 

We were lucky to catch up with Emmanuel Deanda recently and have shared our conversation below.

Emmanuel , we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

I believe I got my resiliency from my parents. My mother and father were both hard workers and that is something that was instilled in myself and my brothers at home.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am a singer, songwriter and producer from the great city of Pittsburgh. I am an original founder (1999) of the local R&B group Crave. I honed my musical skills in the city of Pittsburgh along with my former classmates and 2023 Wall Of Fame inductees from George Westinghouse High School in Homewood. Crave went on to receive plenty of radio spins and many local accolades including, the key to the city as well as a proclamation given on July 21st, 2007. Every year in Pittsburgh on July 21st it is Crave Day in the city. Soon after, my group was signed by the multi platinum selling artists Pretty Ricky and their label Bluestar Records/Atlantic Records. I subsequently left the group for a solo career that ultimately landed me the job of New lead singer for the already established Pretty Ricky. Making 7 appearances on BET’s 106 N Park, The Monique Show, MTV, as well as collaborations with major artists like Snoop Dogg, H-Town & Jodeci, Bone Thugs N Harmony, Trick Daddy, KeKe Wyatt, and many others. After leaving PR, Emmanuel traveled back home to his roots and began his solo career, releasing music even up to recent times, dropping the single “12 Dozen Roses” on Valentine’s Day 2024. Also an educator in the teaching world, Emmanuel has been inspiring the youth through the Propel School system since 2019. Emmanuel launched his new business in 2022, 808 Musicc Productions LLC. Ready for new adventures.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

Looking back in my history, the 3 most impactful things in my journey were 1: My love for music and researching the music. Finding out who wrote what or who played what instrument. 2: The skills I developed through singing and songwriting, understanding how to structure songs and musical arrangements. 3: The knowledge I gained from my experiences in the major music industry. Seeing and learning from my time as an artists on that side of the music industry was very educational.

Advice I would give to people staring their journeys? I would tell them to never give up. Very cliche, but very relevant and absolutely necessary in your path towards discovery. It is not easy, and nobody ever said it would or should be. Anything worth having of value, is worth working hard for.

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?

Makes Me Wanna Holler by Nathan McCall. It was very impactful for me as a young black youth In the world during the 90’s. Very important because in the 90’s, young black males didn’t have very many positive outlets to look towards, life expectancy was low, it was a rough period of time. Reading his story about perseverance, dealing with racial inequality, trying to get an education, get a job in his field, all of those experiences were important for me to read. A lot of wisdom was gained from that book for a young black man like myself at the time.

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