Andre Deyo

Andre' "mrDEYO" Deyo
Background information
Birth name	Andre' Nathaniel Deyo
Also known as	mrDEYO
Born	(1978-04-19) April 19, 1978
Origin	Paterson, New Jersey, United States
Genres	R&B, pop, dance, hip hop
Occupation(s)	Singer, songwriter, author
Years active	2001–present
Labels	TS.A, Sony, SongU.com
Associated acts	Jennifer Lopez, Becky G, Dr. Luke, Ginuwine, Monica, O'Ryan, Koffee Brown, Jared Cotter, Frankee, Tyrese
Website	andredeyo.com

Andre' Nathaniel Deyo (born April 19, 1978), better known by his stage name mrDEYO (or the misspellings Mister Deyo or Mr. Deyo), is an American R&B singer and hit songwriter best known for his songwriting abilities and arrangements on "Jenny From The Block" for Jennifer Lopez and subsequently writing the book "Jenny & Becky From The Block"and . He has been signed to a publishing deal with Sony/ATV Music Publishing since 2002. His 2013 placements: "Becky From The Block" by Becky G., "Benjamin" by Lore'l from vh1's Love and Hip Hop New York Season 3, as well as "Go Stupid" and "Courage" by Erika Kayne. 2014 placements: "Have Him" by Erika Kayne.

App Maker

Bizmus, an app for newbies and professionals to learn about the music industry, was released to the iTunes App Store April 3, 2015 as a free app, until pending further notice. The app was developed with Garfield Bjorn, Eric Gu as well as The Code Lady. Official website: Bizmus.co ^[1]

Author

2013

"Jenny & Becky From The Block" is an autobiographical story about the biggest release of Andre Deyo's 15-year career, done originally by Natasha Ramos, then by Jennifer Lopez, and covered by Becky G. The songwriter takes his experiences to the pages of a book (instead of a lyric sheet), as he reveals the ways in which he created "Jenny From The Block" and details his interaction and involvement with its new version by Becky G. The writer tells how there was a Dr. Luke connection between the original song and its "cover" version which prominently featured Jennifer Lopez in the video. The target audience is primarily made up of songwriters, musicians, Jennifer Lopez fans (JLovers), and Becky G fans (Beasters). The book was released independently through Deyo's social media outlets: Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud and on his official website: andreDEYO.com.^[2]

The book is available for free in the following formats: Amazon for Kindle (retrieve on Amazon), Apple's iTunes iBooks for iPhone (retrieve for iPhone) Apple's iTunes iBooks for iPad (retrieve for iPad) and finally in a neutral PDF format readable by all ebook players (retrieve PDF).

In the book's closing pages, Deyo gives info on a new book "Coming Soon" titled "From Songwriter, To Songwriter".

Music career

2001

He released his first song placement with Arista recording artists Koffee Brown titled "I Got Love" (Scars) from their Mars/Venus album and was featured on the hook and rap (produced by Chris Liggio).^[3]

2002-03

It was his follow-up placement in autumn of 2002 "Jenny from the Block" for Jennifer Lopez, which spawned the Billboard Hot 100 number-three single (4 weeks stuck behind "Lose Yourself" by Eminem and "Work It" by Missy Elliott). The song inspired the new nickname for J. Lo and reached number one in Argentina and Canada, and entered the top ten on the majority of all other charts it appeared on. It was produced by Troy Oliver and featured Jadakiss and Styles (of The Lox). Many people believe it inspired Faith Hill's 2005 hit "Mississippi Girl". The This Is Me... Then album also produced another mrDEYO written single, a co-write with Cory Rooney "I'm Glad". It was #4 on the Hot Dance Charts (4 weeks) and won a Billboard Award for Best Selling Latin Song of the Year. The video was nominated for four MTV Video Music Awards in 2003: Best Female Video, Best Dance Video, Best Choreography, and Best Art Direction.

Deyo's pen and vocal skills went into Ginuwine's fourth album entitled The Senior with the songs "Chedda Brings" a co-write with longtime collaborator Antonio McClendon and "Big Plans" which featured Method Man. Deyo's vocal backgrounds can be heard on each of these records and is credited on the album. mrDEYO also lent his hand and vocal production to Monica's #1 album After the Storm, which was the long awaited rerelease of All Eyez on Me. The song "Go To Bed Mad" was a duet featuring label mate Tyrese.^[4]

2004

Deyo had another single with O'Ryan (Omarion's look alike little brother) called "Take It Slow" . The song was a co-write with Tommy Niblack (who vocal produced with Deyo on "Go To Bed Mad"), Makeba Riddick (of Beyoncé fame), and Adonis Shropshire (Bad Boy hit writer). A month later he landed a placement with Frankee, famous for her answer back song to Eamon's "Fuck It (I Don't Want You Back)" called F.U.R.B. (Fuck You Right Back). Linking together with producer Chris Liggio again he penned "I Told U So" for her release The Good, the Bad, the Ugly.

2005-06

Deyo began his label, TS.A Records. He also worked with Jared Cotter (JL Cotter) on his project "The Album B4 The Album" contributing four songs: "Mo' Thangs", "Make U Cry" feat. Stimuli (co-written with Cotter and Greg Bruno), "Just Tell Him", and "Business & Pleasure". The project was released on April 21, 2005 in an effort to gain an unknown Cotter more exposure from record labels he sought to be signed by. Deyo would commonly tap Jared to demo his songs @ Sony/ATV Music Studios in New York City and continued to work with him to reach his goal of becoming an artist. In 2007 Jared found success as a top 12 contestant on American Idol (Season 6), then to hosting Fuse Network's "The Sauce", and "The Challenge" on MSG. In 2009 Cotter co-wrote the Billboard Hot 100 #1 hit and ASCAP Award winner "Down" by Cash Money artist Jay Sean as well as the majority of the album.

2007-08

He took a turn as the artist on his CD single "She Hot" on his independent TS.A Records via iTunes, which included snippets to his upcoming album Human Beings Club which has yet to be released although it was expected in the summer of 2007.^[5]

In December 2007 he began work with Dan Talevski (of YouTube popularity), penning his industry insiders favorite "Quick & Slow" produced by The HeavyWeights and he also lent a hand in putting a bridge on Dan's YouTube Classic "Rocket & Go" which the HeavyWeights reproduced for the clubs.^[6] He has unreleased material on Natasha Ramos, whose long-awaited debut comes from Pharrell Williams' Star Trak Entertainment label.

December 2007: Deyo began working with the girl group "Queenz" of Queens, New York through longtime friend and collaborator Kenny Ortiz (known best for his role in signing and developing the famous New York, NY group SWV). Deyo's work has included recording, vocal producing, writing, demoing, and providing ideas on their sound, look, and marketing; basically materializing the vision of making the 20 year old girls superstars. They were readying material to begin shopping for a major label recording deal. Their first song recorded with Deyo, entitled "Set Me Free”, was written by mrDEYO and Jason Gilmore. It was produced by The HeavyWeights.

August 14, 2008: Theneptunes. com (the Neptunes's #1 fansite) reports Natasha Ramos as working on her new solo album. No release date given but confirmed tracklisting has "Strawberries" and "Music Box" on it, written and vocal produced by Deyo.^[7]

Sep 8, 2008: mrDEYO reveals through his Myspace page that he is working on his first full album "Digital Love" slated for an October 14 release to coincide with the grand opening of his TS.A Studios and Consulting Company in Wolcott, CT. Possible album features are rumored to be singers Natasha Ramos, Antonio McLendon, and Dan Talevski and rappers Jus Mula, and HeadRush of Connecticut. His Billboard advertisement in 2007 was for an album titled "Human Beings Club" which was never released. Production is from longtime collaborator Troy Oliver ("Jenny From The Block" and "Differences" fame), Dante Ross VP of Steve Rifkind Company (legendary A&R who signed Queen Latifah and Busta Rhymes), mrDEYO and up and comers from overseas, WeProduceThem and C-Tease (Dan Talevski's Hunger Pains Remix). No word yet on a single.

October 31, 2008: mrDEYO releases "Digital Love" for FREE via the web and his Myspace page . The album containing 13 songs plus a bonus cut, along with a PDF of the lyric book, and the artwork is included with each download. All vocals on the album are by mrDEYO, and most songs include use of the "Auto-Tune" effect T-Pain is widely known for making popular in today's music, which mrDEYO has been known to use since 2001.

November 1, 2008: The song "After Midnight" (listed as artist Andre Deyo) is the first song on a downloadable compilation featured on website RNB4U.in, which describes itself as "the finest in R&B".^[8] It was listed and featured on many other R&B sites and compilations, which are known for getting, promoting, and providing the best exclusives in urban music.

2009

Jennifer Lopez's Greatest Hits album will feature the two singles "I'm Glad" and "Jenny From The Block" mrDEYO wrote for her, and it has been reported that it may be released in February 2009.^[9] At one points reports were saying (with no official confirmation) that Lopez is releasing new material on the album "STILL FROM THE BLOCK" (which celebrates her 10 years of hits in the industry) including first single "Still From The Block" produced by Swizz Beats which will hit radio January 9, 2009. The video will premier at the end of January. Lopez has yet to release her greatest hits and has since left Epic Records who was set to drop the album. She is now signed with Def Jam and there has been no further talks on the greatest hits project.^[10][11]

Since 2009 Deyo has been with SongU. com ,^[12] coaching and giving his professional opinion on SongU members songs as well as sharing songwriter experiences with them.

2010

Deyo was listed as one of Waterbury, Connecticut's Notable Waterburians in the 2010 and 2011 Waterbury Guide.^[13] Via his Facebook (Andre Deyo) and Twitter (@mrDEYO) he's notified his friends and fans he's still in development stages with the girl group Queenz, recording @ Quad Studios and Diddy's Daddy's House Recording Studio. Artist Dan Talevski makes his debut in May.

November 3, 2010 "For Colored Girls" is released independently on Melodye Perry. Originally written for the film of the same name by Tyler Perry, it was co-written with Perry, Jason Gilmore. It was also co-written and produced by Tommy Niblack.^[14]

2011

November 21, 2011 One year after releasing "For Colored Girls" as an independent release Melodye Perry releases her EP "Melodye" on Island Def/Jam. "This One's For Colored Girls" appears as track #4.

2012

January 21, 2012 Jared Cotter released “Mo’ Thangs” as a single on iTunes as an independent release (Cafe De Soul). This was done

Jennifer Lopez released her "greatest hits" project titled "Dance Again... The Hits" on July 24, 2012 which featured "Jenny From The Block". The album was a moderate commercial success, peaking within the top ten in fourteen national charts and the top twenty in ten national charts.

Aisha released her first album "I, Shout!!!" on Sony Music/Japan on October 3, 2012. Deyo co-wrote the song "Sing For You" with Aisha on the track produced by Chris Liggio.^[15]

December 21, 2012 Antonio McLendon releases long awaited music on his "The Truth" mix tape hosted by DJ Chubby Chubb. Deyo co-wrote "Scream". The track was produced by LamonSounz.^[16] The two collaborated during the summer months and have unreleased material that is tentatively set to be released in 2013.

2013

March 6, 2013 - vh1's Love and Hip Hop New York cast member, rapper Lore'l, releases "Benjamin", a mrDEYO co-write with Lore'l, Lyn Miller, Erika Kayne, Garfield Bjorn, and Guillermo Edghill, Jr to a track produced by Big Nate and Case Boogie.^[17] He also displays his vocal production and mixing skills on the song.^[18]

April 8, 2013 - Dr. Luke's 16 year old rapper and Cover Girl Becky G (Kemosabe Records/RCA) releases "Becky From The Block" which was written by Becky G, Dr. Luke, Jordan Omley and Cirkut and produced by Dr. Luke and Cirkut for Prescription Songs. The video features "Jenny From The Block" singer Jennifer Lopez giving her approval of her heavily sampled hit from 2002 by the young upstart. A cameo was also made by Lopez's beau Casper Smart.^[19] The YouTube video has amassed some 10.5 million views thus far and can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=204RpkonU-s The song may be featured on Becky's yet untitled album, coming Spring 2014. Becky G - In Studio LiveStream June 7 2013

July 29, 2013 - Unsigned songstress releases "Go Stupid" song and viral video written by Deyo produced by Case Boogie. Deyo wrote 60+ songs in a matter of 2 months for Erika's debut EP "Citizen Kayne" which will be released through her production company Vyrus Entertainment headed by industry veteran Charles Farrar (who discovered Trey Songz). Deyo's name was incorrectly added last as a writer on the song's viral credits, when he in fact wrote the entire song.

October 7, 2013 - Erika Kayne Releases "Courage" song and video. Song written by Deyo, produced by Case Boogie. Again, Deyo's name was incorrectly credited on this cut as well, as he wrote the song alone.

2014

April 18, 2014 - Erika Kayne Releases "Have Him" written by Deyo as part of her "Nostalgia" mixtape containing mostly cover songs.^[20] Produced by Case Boogie and released by Vyrus Entertainment. Deyo was not involved on the vocal production of this record outside of recording his own demo while writing it, which Kayne and her team used as a guide to record it.

Present - According to his Twitter page, Deyo is currently working on highly anticipated releases heavily with engineer/producer Garfield Bjorn (@ibethatjune) on new projects to be released in 2014.

TS.A Studios (Wolcott, CT)

November 24, 2008 - May 4, 2010 TS.A Studios and Consulting was open for business in Wolcott, CT. It was owned and operated by Andre Deyo. Its focus was centered on nurturing Connecticut's talent at affordable rates, and providing industry hits and recordings.

References