Photography by Amani Sodiq
“I’m 41 years old. I don’t have any money saved in my bank account. I don’t have anything to show for anything except some knees that have bruises from performing,” says Dezi 5. “I gotta do something,”
His sentiment is genuine, but with a degree of sarcasm too.
Born Dezman Lehman, the entertainer is one of the busiest people in Dallas.
He’s released more songs than most artists in the city, spent more time performing live than most artists in the country and contributed more to his local artistic ecosystem than most people in the world.
Dezi has to book constant gigs for himself to make rent. He schedules his time on stage around his two late nights a week spent DJing and weekend afternoons giving tours of Deep Ellum. In January, he hosted the Dallas Entertainment Awards Gala that honored over 100 different creators in the city. Months earlier, Dezi created the awards show himself, which he plans to transition into the Dallas Entertainment Alliance, complete with workshops, conventions and a quarterly publication to highlight artists in the city.
His development from a club singer into an entertainment mini-mogul is no surprise. Dezi is Dallas through-and-through. He grew up in Oak Cliff with his grandmother, spending his time in the Full Gospel Holy Temple Church in Oak Cliff and Vern’s Place Cafe, a soul food restaurant and nightclub owned by his grandmother that gave him his first singing experience.
“It was really fancy,” he recalls. “Lots of glamour. Big glasses, big Afros, lots of ferns. I did the Dallas Entertainment Awards just to have a night where we can all get glamor and dressed up.”
On Jan. 31, a fully glammed-out Dezi 5 strutted out onto the Latin Cultural Center’s stage before a packed house of artists and media for the inaugural Dallas Entertainment Awards. He sang his newest single, “Pick Up Your Phone,” an anthemic R&B ballad behind a band and brass section.
It was his newest single at the time, followed by “Key At The Door” in March. Both songs are a smooth, poppy R&B sound, one that Dezi used to run from.
“Do you sing R&B or do you rap?” He remembers being asked as a Black musician. “That’s just how the world is. I tried to stray away from that in the beginning of my music career. I went rock ‘n’ roll.”
His first band was called Gypsy Hideout, a furious four-piece that ushered Dezi into a lifetime of going against the grain. In 2015, his rebellion reached its peak. He released “Crucifixion On The Dance Floor,” a thumping club music EP paired with live performances lampooning biblical imagery. Dezi says the provocation was his way of breaking free of the scrutiny he faced in the church growing up.
“Being queer, when you grow up you feel like you always have to sugarcoat and cover stuff up. You have to act a certain way, you have to stay within this box.”
In some ways lucky, in others unfortunate, Dezi says he never struggled with his sexuality.
“I have never been in any closet,” he says with a laugh. “Music is actually what separated me from being depicted as gay. It helped me but being treated that way made me feel like I wasn’t good enough. I was afraid to show how good I was.”
As soon as those walls came down, Dezi realized the power that came with his opportunity.
“Being a stage performer was my outlet to get out of that anger and frustration,” he says, “I could be a tyrant on stage. I could say, ‘Hey, stand up. Listen to me.’ It helped me develop a sense of armor.”
He’s been strutting around every stage that’ll hold him for years now, still wearing that armor even if he doesn’t need it.
Dezi 5 has plenty to show for what he’s done, but his work is scattered. There’s no through line to be found or magazine article to be written that represents his full story. He needs his masterpiece.
“I’ve been recording since 2014 and I still don’t have a full record,” he says.
Coincidentally, his first studio album, which leans into an R&B style, titled Master Plan is scheduled to release this September, on Friday the 13th. Perhaps, it will be the masterpiece that ties his decades of work together.
“I feel like if you’re passionate about something you just put all your honor to the passion, the money is gonna come.”
