DeAndri Raffaele Sheppard professionally known as Dean Shepp, is an American rapper, hip hop recording and performing artist, songwriter, music publisher, audio engineer, record producer and executive producer from Detroit, MI. Dean’s earliest experience with music came in elementary school where he studied the saxophone and piano. He went on to sing in a neighborhood church choir and started recording covers of his favorite songs over his sister’s cassette tapes with a karaoke machine. Later, after being introduced to the Dr. Dre song “Ring Ding Dong” by his cousin, he fell in love and with the hip-hop/rap genre of music. Dean has accumulated formal training during formative years having attended EMS Recording Engineering under the instruction of Craig T. Erquhart sr as well as Golightly Career and Technical Center where he studied mass media radio and television. The artist also learned both drum and piano skills.
Dean Shepp went on to release his first singles in 2011, under the pseudonym D.R.E., and in 2014, as a published songwriter he launched the DdotRdotEdot (ASCAP) publishing company through which he has continued releasing music.
Recently, Dean stepped up to the plate with his single release, “Finer Things”, to keep his career momentum pushing forward. The flow, the sheer glorious musicality of it all, the beat that puts a wiggle in your feet, and the hook that starts in the ear and spreads to your throat until you’re shouting along with him: “I just want the finer things!”
On “Finer Things”, through skill and ingenuity, Dean Shepp makes his voice sound like the drums, pianos, bass and brass — the whole damn band. It’s exhilarating, as he shifts his flow up and down. At his best, he blends lyricism, humor, an eye for detail and wisdom well beyond most other hip-hop packages out there that.
Thanks mainly to Dean’s easy digestible hook and ridiculously addictive delivery. The track is surrounded by Dean’s height of imagination and storytelling, wrapping itself in the tailoring of a well-conceived project that shows maturity and an artist owning his own narrative while revealing his emotional side.
Dean Shepp is able to hit many wow levels, while maintaining a sustained, yet restrained rapping balance. Dean is never in your face or attempting to scream at the top of his lungs to grab your attention. He leaves the ear-grabbing elements to his flashy rhyme scheme and the elegantly soulful beat, while poignantly delivering verse after verse of pure ambition.
“Finer Things” has everything you could ask for in a hip hop release: strong messages, excellent lyricism, great production, authenticity, vulnerability and a focused concept. But to have that all squeezed into under 3 minutes, is simply beyond brilliant!
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