Deadlee

Joseph Thomas Lee, better known by his stage name Deadlee, is an American rapper and songwriter based in Los Angeles, California. The musician, who is of Mexican American and African American descent,^[2] launched his career back in 2000. In 2002, he released the critically acclaimed debut album 7 Deadlee Sins.^[3] He released the follow-up album, Assault With a Deadlee Weapon, in late 2006. Deadlee is known for his lyrics, which tackle subjects such as race, class, sexuality and police brutality In July 15 of 2013 he change his name to Joseph Thomas LeMar when he got married with his partner. The name is the result of the combination of his last name and Martinez the last name of his partner "Le-Mar"^[3]

Career

2000-2004

Deadlee officially launched his career in 2000. In 2002, he released his debut album 7 Deadlee Sins.^[3] A blend of hip hop and thrash rock, his lyrics tackled subjects like race, class, sexuality and police brutality.^[3] The album became one of the first albums produced during the underground musical movement, homo hop, which started in the early 2000s. He went on to perform at a variety of music festivals including the "Peace Out Festival" in Oakland, California, "Peace Out East" in New York City, and "HomoAGoGo" in Olympia, Washington.^[3] The mainstream gay community did not initially accept his confrontational style during his first few years in the music industry. The "Long Beach Gay and Lesbian Pride Festival" grew larger and even restricted him from performing at the festival. As his name became more synonymous with the growing homo hop scene, the LGBT community eventually grew to accept him and also his music. Deadlee later performed at the "Los Angeles Latin Gay Pride Festival", the annual Christopher Street "West Los Angeles Pride" festival in West Hollywood, and the "San Francisco LGBT Pride" Main Stage two years afterwards.

Present

After being involved in several motion picture soundtracks and documentaries, Deadlee released his much anticipated sophomore album, Assault with a Deadlee Weapon. Fueled with retaliatory attacks on rap and hip-hop's alleged homophobes such as Eminem, DMX and 50 Cent, the lyrics deal with LGBT issues and hardships that are recurring today. Assault With a Deadlee Weapon features more heavy production and a lot of support from fellow rappers and artists such as Johnny Dangerous, Tori Fixx, Salvi-Mex, Dutchboy, Barnes, Drastiko, Clint Catalyst and others. The music video for his song "Good Soldier II" has been played numerous times on the MTV-owned network LOGO.^[4]

In June 2009, Deadlee made four appearances in the prestigious Fresh Meat Festival, a tres moderne variety show spotlighting the cream of LGBT performers. He began with an angry spoken word piece written during a college tour, and moved into two classic Deadlee 2213 songs, the dance anthem, "Nasty" and the riveting and erotic "Carnival in My Mind." Deadlee was acclaimed as both riveting and ferocious, surprising and astonishing the audience and proving himself a superb performer, able to bring the goods in any venue, gay or other.

Deadlee has made serious inroads into the movie industry as an actor, appearing in several films including the popular hood comedies, "Hoochie Mamma Drama" and "Getting High In The Barrio". He also made an appearance as a homeless junkie in the Bruce LaBruce zombie thriller, L.A. Zombie and as Pharmacy Punk in RAMPART . He starred in LA's Longest Running Play "Eavesdropper". A new album is set to be released in late 2011.

Public reception

He received considerable press with articles or reviews in the now defunct QV Magazine, LA Weekly, The Advocate, Frontiers Magazine and URB magazine.^[3] In 2007, Deadlee was the subject of mainstream entertainment news, with publications like Rolling Stone^[5] and CNN, after he announced a Spring Tour called "HomoRevolution Tour 2007" and attacked Eminem, DMX, and 50 Cent as "homophobic." The tour was covered in the British Guardian newspaper^[6] and Deadlee appeared on The Tyra Banks Show along with Tori Fixx and Foxxjazell.^[7]

Despite his notoriety as a controversial gay rapper, Deadlee has also contributed music to On the Downlow, directed by Tadeo Garcia, and Vengeance, directed by Daniel Zirilli. Both movies feature songs contained on Assault with a Deadlee Weapon.^[3] In addition, Deadlee demonstrated his acting skills in Zirilli's gangbanger drama. He is also a card-carrying member of the Screen Actors Guild. In 2006, he also made film festival appearances in support of the homohop documentary, Pick Up the Mic, which he is featured in.^[3] He also appears on the LOGO network's documentary series, Hip Hop Homos.^[3]

Discography

References

External links

• Deadlee official website