There is a moment in DARLING where the pitch sits somewhere that makes you do a double take. It is sitting exactly where Michael Jackson used to sit. That lightness, that control, that decision to stay just above where you expect the vocal to land. A lineage, not an imitation. It is so good, we rolled it back again, and again…

Go back to ONCE IN A LIFETIME, and the same voice is doing something completely different. Lower register, grounded, the kind of vocal anchor that Rationale (who we love) does so well. Drifting up when the moment needs it and coming back down without making a production of either. It’s really outstanding work.

DARLING dropped June 5th. But here is what you need to know.

Boston-born, Los Angeles by 15. At 17, Deion was on a national tour with Lil Wayne and Austin Mahone, spreading his music across the entire country. At 21, he won the Curtis Mayfield Scholarship Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. The award recognizes a promising singer/songwriter whose work reflects the inspiration, spirit, and soul of Curtis Mayfield himself. That is not a small thing to receive at 21.

He appeared on the Season 3 soundtrack for The Godfather of Harlem. ONCE IN A LIFETIME has built up over 500,000+ listeners on Spotify. Nods of approval from Lil Wayne, Miguel, and J. Cole along the way. 67,187 monthly listeners on Spotify right now. We think it is a matter of time before that kicks into millions.

And then, there is DARLING.

The press release points to GIVÉON, Gabriel Jacoby, and Noah Guy as reference points. Warm, soulful, pop-funk with a vocal that moves between registers like it is thinking out loud. What we would add: there is a raw elegance to the production that comes from someone who wrote, recorded, and shaped the whole thing in the same room. It does not feel assembled.

Deion self-produces, and maybe that’s what makes the track what t it is. From writing to recording to mixing, the arrangement in DARLING gives the vocal exactly the space it needs and no more. Nothing is fighting. Nothing is overworked. And you know we love that. Something so deliberate, work made to be listened to and loved.

And if you want the full picture of what he can do, go find SWEAT!. Faster, punchier, a Bruno Mars energy with a rockier edge. Same artist, completely different gear.

And then there is WASTELAND and ON CAMERA, both on the Collages 2 EP from 2025. Slower, more atmospheric, the kind of tracks that sit with you after they finish. The Joji comparison in the production came ringing through for us. That same quality of feeling like something private is being shared. Production that breathes, it has space rather than pushing. Deion knows how to use the space in a track, finds perfect pockets, and throws in plenty of drags, drops, and glitch-repeats. Beautiful.

ON CAMERA deserves its own mention, because we love it. At three minutes, the track drops out completely. Goes quiet. And then at 3:11, you hear "wake up," and an entirely different song begins. Darker, grittier, stop-start, the lyrics repeat like a thought loop. It is the sonic equivalent of the end of a long night. Those film cuts where the character keeps going in and out of consciousness, flashes of what happened and what didn't. The shift is so deliberate and so good that the first time you hear it, you will go back immediately just to confirm it was the same track.

Every song gives something different. Which means Deion is more than your average artist.