He sits in a bright pink studio that transitions to purple as the house beat plays and he starts rapping along to the recorded verse. There’s a pause and Deon looks to his sound engineer, giving him a nod of approval before the beat drops and the hook comes back in.
HeyDeon’s latest single, “Alive,” released on Oct. 10. It is produced by Long Beach State alumnus Charles Lyons.
“I made the instrumental [to “Alive”] about a year and a half ago but I couldn’t find anyone who thought they could get on it,” Lyons said. “I sent it to Deon and he wrote [the song] within a day. The next day, he was in the studio recording it on Instagram Live.”
The snippet clearly invokes joy, though Deon plans his promos out carefully. He released another video snippet of a different song “Sage,” on Sept. 8, from a track will be premiering in November.
Deon Williams, Jr., 23, is a Long Beach native. He went to Long Beach Polytechnic High School and Long Beach City College before transferring to Long Beach State, where he is in his last year as a history major.
Deon started dabbling in music in high school. With a microphone affixed to the top of the bunk bed, he recorded his first mixtape in a week. After receiving less than positive results, he planned nevertheless to begin taking music more seriously.
A full-time student, he devotes what’s left of his time between school and work towards making music. His last project, “Sucker For Love” was published in June. Since then, he’s been booking venues all over the city.
While he seems to be getting busier by the day, he says that he stays balanced.
“If you love something, you’ll always find time for it,” Deon said.
One notable performance that comes to mind: opening up for Snoop Dogg at Once Upon a Time In The LBC this past summer. Deon said Snoop has always supported him and leaves uplifting comments on his posts saying “keep going.” The fellow Long Beach native wanted Deon to perform both days.
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“Opportunities like that…you don’t get [those] again,” Deon said.
The first day, the DJ ended up playing the instrumental earlier than Deon anticipated, forcing him to run onto the stage early.
“I lost my wind running and trying to gather myself,” Deon said.
Despite the minor setback, and while most of the crowd was unfamiliar with his music, Deon saw people dancing and putting their hands up when asked—a true feat for the artist playing in his hometown. He sported a shirt that read “East Side Long Beach.”
“It instilled another drive in me,” Deon said.
Another highlight for Deon was playing the halftime show at Jordan Bell’s Race to Erase MS Celebrity Basketball Game in August. Williams mentioned that he knew the NBA Champion and former Golden State Warrior from their days at Poly High. Bell reached out to him to perform at the Walter Pyramid. The audience was a little bit older than that of the festival’s but the results were the same.
“I bring the same energy whether it’s 10 people or 100,” Deon said.
That statement alludes to a larger theme with the rapper. Releasing new content each month, whether a song, video or performance, is not only about consistency but about progression.
HeyDeon is set to perform at The Nugget Pub & Grill Oct. 22 at 5 p.m. His last solo show of the year will be at La Santa in Santa Ana Nov. 30