photo by Justin Cook
Texas rapper Deezie Brown has been bubbling for a few years now and just delivered a fiery new single called "Malice at the Palace. The title is a tribute to the 2004 fight between Ron Artest's Indiana Pacers and Ben Wallace's Detroit Pistons that resulted in more than 140 game suspensions.
Brown utilizes synths and woozy melodies to tell his story of battling anxiety to overcome his own Malice at the Palace. The legendary fight isn't the only sports reference as Brown namedrops Michael Irvin, Sam Bowie, John Stockton and Bernard Hopkins, which reveals his competitive nature and penchant for wordplay.
References to Lamborghini Aventadors, Maybachs and red carpet events continue Brown's brand of luxury rap while lyrics like, "Close friends in my rearview/Ah how dare you?/Finger point me when you let the fame scare you/I took all the blame, showed the world what the meds do/Pills down the sink grabs The keys to the red coupe" showcase his authenticity. There's even an interpolation of Fugees' "Ready or Not" as the cherry on top.
Brown has previously worked with NBA legend Chris Bosh, who turned to music production after retiring from basketball. Brown said that one of the lessons he learned from Bosh is how to aspire to success without getting caught up in fame.
"From my perspective being local all my life, I really lost interest in the 'celebrity' word," he said. "I lost interest in the word 'famous' and all that stuff from being an artist and going into my 30s and not seeing anything out of it. I was like alright, I don’t wanna be famous. That’s something I don’t want anymore. But when I met Chris, I learned there’s a lot of different things and a lot of different levels of success. It doesn’t have to be a 'famous' thing, but you still can be so high up that you’re still going be perceived as that, just because of the success and the work you’ve put in. So he’s always telling me, 'I know you don’t want these things, but still shoot for the stars and then you’ll figure out everything else when you get there.' And that’s a pretty cool approach to take. It keeps me busy and it allows me to do underground music, it allows me to do mainstream music, it allows me to just expand my horizons. So it’s all about learning, the learning curve."
"Malice at the Palace" is the first single off Brown's official debut album, "5th Wheel Fairytale," due out later this year.
Listen to Deezie Brown's "Malice at the Palace" below and stream it on all platforms here.
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