For Dende, Hard Work Begets Hard Work
Photography by Julien Carr
THE FIRST TIME I SAW DENDE PERFORM LIVE, I was in his home state of Texas. Last October, the rapper and R&B singer had mentioned on Instagram that he’d be doing a set at a local spot called Juiceland, right after Austin City Limits. I had never been to Juiceland before and certainly didn’t know of the place’s significance to Texans. But I at least expected some semblance of a traditional venue.
When I arrived at Juiceland, I was confused. I could hear what sounded like live music but didn’t know where it was coming from. The spot appeared just to be a standard juice bar, with an adjacent outdoor staircase leading up to a small house behind it. No stage, no bright lights, no DJ booth inside….
Then I craned my neck, and there was Dende, adorned by two booming speakers as he crooned into a microphone. On the roof. At his feet sat a barely legible poster board with his social media handles.
He stood in prime position to reach the thousands of ACL festival-goers as they walked east on Barton Springs Drive to exit the festival. After not making the official lineup, Dende could have spent the weekend at his home in Katy, TX, about 30 miles west of Houston. Instead, he drove three hours to create a performance opportunity for himself. I later found out that this came about because he used to work at Juiceland for the man who currently owns the Barton Springs store. The owner became a big fan of Dende’s music and agreed to let him perform on the roof that night, and spend the night in the house.
Six months later, Dende returned to Austin as a South By Southwest Official Artist. He stacked six shows into four days—packing out a 150-capacity venue with the Crxssroads Music, or CXR, record label—and secured a sponsorship with Topo Chico; they have since bought him a microphone and a guitar for his trusty producer Billy Blunt.
“It was everything I thought it was going to be,” he said over Zoom back in May. “Sadly I lost my voice, and I had to cancel my last show. But hey, we got in there.”
HITTING THE ROAD AND LEVELING UP
The drive from Katy to Austin on that October day was nothing compared to how much Dende has traveled lately, as his career enters a new stage. This year alone, music has taken him to big music markets like Los Angeles, Nashville and Chicago. While live shows tend to be the catalyst for these trips, he’s always looking to make the most of the time on the road, networking and going to studio sessions in each city.
“I'm making sure that I'm working everywhere I'm going, like I bring my microphone and laptop, and I record everywhere,” he said.
Since the roof show, I’ve been lucky enough to see Dende perform in several different atmospheres; an intimate Chicago show in a hair salon with Sofar Sounds where guests sat on the floor, an impassioned performance at Austin’s swanky Parker Jazz Club, and guest spots with Deante’ Hitchcock to perform their recent collaboration “Neck Up” during SXSW. You can feel the intensity and passion that he brings to each show, to the point where veins bulge from his neck as he crushes high notes.
“Neck Up,” which also features Bairi, has brought Dende record levels of attention: both on streaming services and from some particularly audacious fans. I asked him about the craziest DM he’s gotten since the release.
“Someone told me: ‘Neck Up made me wish you had an OnlyFans.’”
Reaching milestones like six-figure monthly listeners on Spotify, or even sexts from strangers, could have caused Dende to slow down and bask in his success, especially considering all of the work it took to get there. Instead, he’s sought to capitalize, releasing singles “Round Trip to Atlanta” in May, “Block Me” in June and a recent two-pack called 2 Sided where he interpolatea Estelle’s “American Boy” and Corinne Bailey Rae’s “Put Your Records On.”
Back in May, Dende went to Atlanta and played his largest festival yet: R&B Only Fest, with Erykah Badu headlining. When we spoke before the performance, his “chip on your shoulder” mentality was evident.
“I feel validated, but I feel like I need to show up better than Erykah,” he said. “I want to just show the fuck up, and for them to undeniably be like, ‘oh word, he was supposed to be on this. I feel like a lot of people get into a certain spot, and are [okay with being there]. I'm not saying I’ll always want more, I'm just saying I never want anyone to feel like they made a mistake by having me do something.”
He added: “I feel like I'm in the part [of my career] where I need to work even harder than I was working before to make sure that I don't waste the momentum that I'm getting.”
“I feel like I’m in the part [of my career] where I need to work even harder than I was working before to make sure that I don’t waste the momentum that I’m getting.”
GRAPPLING WITH A “DYING” GENRE
There is a sense, especially among Generation X and older millennials who came of age in the 1990s, that contemporary R&B “doesn’t hit like it used to.” Some say that the current R&B landscape has no answer for powerhouse groups like Jodeci and SWV, or individuals like Ginuwine, Aaliyah and Tevin Campbell. But an artist like Dende, who can back up his prolific live performances with a thoughtful pen game, could make even the biggest hater question the “R&B is dead” narrative.
While under the general R&B umbrella, Dende’s music was all over the map thematically in 2021. He probed the depths of his psyche on a May EP called A Happy Man, opening up about self-doubt and mental health struggles that can lurk behind the titular “ happy man.” The project cover illustrates this well, where a forced smile is taped onto Dende’s face as he holds a singular balloon and sits on a stool with confetti at his feet. The whole picture exudes “no one came to my birthday party” energy, or even “everyone had fun at my party except me.”
One of the most poignant records from A Happy Man is also its most popular. “DrkSkin,” featuring Lakeita Valon and CXR labelmate Chris Patrick, addresses colorism and seeks to inspire confidence in those with darker skin, especially young people: “Akin to Nefertiti, Afrocentric features perfectly positioned where they ‘posed to be.”
He followed this up with the unapologetically sexual Pregnancy Pack EP, taking baby-making music to new heights. Recorded at Houston’s legendary Barron Studios, Pregnancy Pack saw Dende collaborate with several female artists, including Bairi, Lilly Aviana and Susan Carol, to create what feels like a hornier version of Lucky Daye’s Table for Two.
“Pregnancy Pack was easier to write,” he said. “The introspective songs are easy to write, too. but it takes more out of me to make them.”
NEW FRONTIERS IN MARKETING
Even recording great music and performing it well live does not guarantee success as an artist. In an age where record numbers of people are pursuing music careers, it’s been Dende’s digital footprint that’s distanced him from the crowd.
Dende is unapologetically himself online, especially on Twitter. A given day of tweets from the artist may include intrusive thoughts, takes on sex-related topics that many view as taboo, and praise for fast-food chain Arby’s [editor’s note: These Days Magazine does NOT condone eating at Arby’s]. The platform has helped him develop a fanbase that feels close to him, not only because he’s willing to show so many parts of himself but also because he consistently takes the time to engage with them in comment sections or DMs. When he does post new music, TikTok duets and covers of popular songs to socials, these same people take notice.
To raise awareness for Pregnancy Pack on social media, Dende ventured into the world of person-on-the-street comedy, starting a series called “Sex Questions,” which is pretty self-explanatory; he finds people on the street and asks them about their sex lives. Goofy as this may seem, he’s found that the series has become a way to break down social stigmas around sex.
“I'm an open person, so I feel like the only way to stop people being weird about certain things is just talk about it openly all the time. At first it was just jokes but then I was like, ‘oh, these people are really tripping.’ So I was like, ‘I'm gonna keep asking these questions.’”
Recently, a clip from “Sex Questions” went viral on TikTok, to the tune of over 10 million views. It’s an example of how Dende and CXR are starting to build proof of concept. And they’re not slowing down any time soon. For R&B Only Fest, they organized a social media giveaway that simultaneously promoted Dende’s single “Round Trip to Atlanta.” Fans entered the contest by buying the song on iTunes, and one lucky supporter won an all-expenses-paid trip to the A to watch the festival.
Even though Dende has reached record numbers of people with his music in 2022, he’s not too concerned with losing himself.
“I don't think I'll ever be too big in the head, simply because my grandma still calls me to go wash her car. You can't be too big-headed when you have to drive to the North side and wash a car.”
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