Meet Deecon | Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Deecon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi DEECON, other than deciding to work for yourself, what was the single most important decision you made that contributed to your success?
The decision to remain in school and maintain being a continual learner has played a major role in my success. From the time with I first started producing and engineering during my undergraduate years in East Lansing, MI at Michigan State I knew it would be pivotal to my growth to remain educated.

In 2006, when I moved to the Bay Area to go into real estate, I joined a one year certificate Electronic Music Producer & Engineering program at Pyramind, Inc located in San Francisco. I followed this same mantra as well back in 2008 when I decided to open up my own recording studio in Chicago, IL. Since I would be running a music studio, I returned to school for my first Masters Degree in Organizational Management at National-Louis University located in Lisle, IL.

After a couple of failed business ventures, around 2010, I moved back to California, but to Los Angeles this time. To further ensure the success of my next business initiative, around 2012 I enrolled with Full Sail University online program for my second Masters Degree in Entrepreneurship & Innovation. In 2014, after adding rapping to my arsenal of skills, I avoid being over confident due to my 10 plus years as a producer and engineer, I returned to school again. Only this time I would go for my first arts degree, a third Masters in Creative Writing: Poetry online at Southern New Hampshire University. Lastly, I am awaiting to hear back from Harvard after my second time applying to go into their doctoral program for Music Science.

Wish me luck!

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I look at my art a little non traditional than most artist. While it seems like the majority of artist chase fame & clout and only focus on a few songs, I look at my artistry as literary documentation. Looking at the science of life itself, not many things outlasts a turtle or a tree, besides a song. Therefore, I tend to focus my artistry on high quantity publishing that targets future music lovers & enthusiasts.

What sets me apart from other artists happens to be what I am also most proud of. As a music publisher, I have published over 500 songs, over 300 remixes & completed over 50 videos for my content. I am currently working diligently to add to all three categories all 2025.

Resilience has to be the number one reason how I am still going to this day! The ability to audible in the music business tends to be what determines one’s ability to not get stuck in a one track mindset. Between the people who are going to call you crazy & the people who are going to think that you’re wasting your time, as an individual you’re going to need something deep inside of yourself that contributes greatly to your ability to still push forward.

Nothing worth having should be easy, if it’s easy, don’t take it. Throughout my 20+ year career in music, I’ve overcome my challenges by simply keeping my head down and working. As a practice tip, I used to go work in crowded places and penalize myself by adding :15 minute increments to my work time if I looked up to pay attention to what someone else was doing or if a sound was made. After a while, I began to notice that I could go into a Starbucks & knock out mixing & mastering my projects without ever lifting my head up or getting lost lifting my head up paying attention to anything else but my computer screen.

To answer in short, no it wasn’t easy & currently it’s not easy, but I decided long ago that this is what I’m built for. So I take the challenges as they come and adapt my plan accordingly from there.

One of the main lessons that I’ve learned over the years would have to be, don’t waste time or slow your individual journey down trying to take everyone with you. We all have different visions and different missions that the higher power has set us on and it’s best to not interfere with that process. It helps to not take things so personal when people you thought would be there for you suddenly aren’t. This mind frame also aids in knowing and understanding the role you play in other people’s lives as well which contributes greatly in being what you yourself will need most in your journey; support & a friend that understands you’re trying to figure things out.

This can be made easier knowing & remembering the three kinds of friends; comrades, constituents & confidants. Simply, comrades will be by your side when you have the same enemy, constituents will be by your side when you have the same goals & a confidant will remain by your side by any means necessary!

I only wish to leave the world with a whole lot of literature/songs to know and understand me by. In this new world that is often filled with opinions & shocking news to distract, I would love to be recognized as one of the people that creatively documented that me and my peoples existed regardless of what history will tell the future of our times.

At the core of who I am, I am an artist, and it is my job to transcribe my individual, family, community & cultural experiences.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
My best friend & my son share the same birthday so this one is sort of an easy one.

I’d bring him out to Los Angeles & hit every beach along the coast starting with Malibu & ending in Bolsa Chica. From the upbringing we had growing up on the west side of Chicago, it would be nice to give him that tour as a reminder of how far we’ve come. While I spent over 10 years in different schools & cities, he spent of 10 years of his life in jail, but we’ve remained friends since kindergarten! So it’s actually a real dream of mine to treat him to an all paid trip to the west coast just as a measurement of both of our success.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I dedicate my shout out to my Uncle Wayne. Although he isn’t here anymore, he is the male figure in my life that told me to never stop rapping from the time that I began. My Uncle Wayne had a stutter when he talked, but that never stopped him from putting rhymes together while completing random activities. When I was younger, I used to have a stutter as well, so I never quite had the confidence to speak in front of crowds, let alone rap over beats. This lead to me focusing on producing and engineering for the first 14 years of my music career. Nevertheless, school helped me overcome my stutter and fear of public speaking & producing and engineering helped me understand how to put songs together. Therefore, once I started rapping full time in 2014, my Uncle Wayne used to motivate me by telling me to never stop. After his passing in 2017, anytime I think of stopping or get to thinking of my career negatively, I think of my Uncle Wayne and the hit of my inspiration that I receive gets me through.

The other person that deserves the credit for my success in music industry would have to be my son. While I may have produced the first half of the music within my 500+ song catalog, my son has been producing the music for everything else. My son is also born a day before my Uncle Wayne, so this also contributes to how much my son motivates me to keep going.

Website: https://www.holycitydeecon.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/holycitydeecon/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deeconsmith/

Twitter: https://x.com/holycitydeecon

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/holycitydeecon

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@holycitydeecon

Other: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/deecon/1698973477

Image Credits
CFDC