Chicago’s King Deazel is no stranger to the struggle. From immersing himself in the drug game to witnessing close members of his kin call prison their homes—it’s safe to say there’s little to the imagination of what he’s seen and experienced.
In 2014’s The Campaign mixtape, he lays all of his rough observations and new realities on the table. There’s mention of selling coke, and seeing close family members locked up for 12 years on “When The Smoke Clears.” Yet he leaves his past behind on “Spazz On Em” and “50’s And 100’s” as he chooses to bask inside the candy-coated luxuries his new (deeper) pockets have awarded him.
Still, on “Leave The Game” alongside Jim Jones and Traxx he’s fixated on the pull the street life has on him: “I need rehab I’m addicted to the drug money,” he raps. While on wax this nihilistic lifestyle might sound alluring but in real life, Deazel seems a lot more subdued when discussing its realities. “I was one of the few that slipped through the cracks,” he says of the crime ridden life music was able to save him from. “All my homies went to jail or got killed.”
Seeing where the consequences that being swallowed up in his surroundings can send him to, he decided to call it quits with the drug game, and created a movement with his music. Just a year before The Campaign, he released Hood Forbes, a 16-track mixtape peppered with a slew of different sounds and textures. “Deazel runs the gamut from lyrically-inclined drill to Autotune-heavy macho-R&B (again, not unlike Louie’s gentler moments) to the requisite bop stuff,” Meaghan Garvey wrote for The Fader.
Now, gearing up to release his forthcoming mixtape he says he’s grown more as an artist in regards to his style of production and lyrics. Additionally, he aims to please the ladies. In his new catalogue, he has “Freak Me” featuring Josh K. Presumably based on a new Twitter photo, his fresh mixtape is titled Knowin It’s No One Greater. The new tape is set to feature a song titled, “LeBron James.”
“Jordan and LeBron are the greatest,” Deazel explained the concept of the song. “I just merged them together to try to gravitate towards younger and older people. You hear LeBron and Jordan together and it’s like you’re balling.”
In the near future, Deazel hopes to work with Kendrick Lamar and JAY-Z. He says he rather stay the independent route for now because of the freedom it provides. The West Side Chicago native admits “he’s good with the books,” and went to an alternative high school to get his diploma. He also feels Chicago’s youth need more of an outlet to deter them from bad influences. One thing is for sure, though: “This is no fabricated story we’re making to sell music,” he affirms. “Everything you get with me is going to be the truth.