DEZ

“Songwriting talent, a producer's ear, business savvy, drive and a willingness are the recipe for supreme success.” Says Yung D aka Desmond Banks of LiL’ Raskalz Entertainment. Financially speaking, he is not in the upper echelon of musicians and producers: At 32, he doesn’t have a fleet of luxury cars; a Miami mansion; insane jewelry; a yacht and every pop, R&B and hip-hop artist falling all over him or herself trying to work with him, or will he?
Despite all the flash, his origins were more humble. He got his first taste of success as songwriter for the boy band Flex in the early '90s. Working with hit songwriters Walt Aldridge and Ava Aldridge gave him the tools he needed to find his voice and to begin testing the waters of production and later began doing session vocals for more established artists “Greg Almond, All 4 One etc.” But as time went on, he felt the urge to do more. “I just felt like I could be doing more with my career than being a member of a band. I really had a passion for being a producer. So I had to take a step backward to take a step forward.”
When D is working with young artists, such as Crystal Cameron and Tisha Stratford he creates a bed of music and works with vocalists and songwriters to create something that even 30-year-olds secretly sing in their cars. Those guilty-pleasure tracks are a perfect combination of simple, infectious hooks with a clean, pitch-perfect production.