Words by: Brandelyn Castine
Light candles, burn incense, throw on a Dwele CD and instantly, life is better. On the cusp of releasing his fourth album, Sketches of a Man, Detroit native, singer/songwriter Dwele has come a long way from his humble beginnings. Now boasting the title of musical veteran, Dwele has been in the game since the late ’90s and has had a tremendous impact on soul music from the moment he stepped on the scene. Humbly printing 100 copies of his self-released album, Rize, Dwele’s unique sound hit the streets of Detroit and quickly spread like wild fire. “I pushed up 100 copies and expected them to last for a long time but wound up selling out in a week. It got a lot of play at Café Mahogany and people showed they were interested. Then the music started to spread over the internet, overseas and back…it was crazy.”
Aside from the initial sales, Dwele had no idea that the album he recorded with some friends in his bedroom would spark the career that would eventually find him with a Grammy nomination almost ten years later. “The news about the nomination came out of the blue. When I first found out, I almost crashed my car. My manager called, and said, ‘D, I hope you got a suit in your closet because you’re going to the Grammys.’ When he said that I had to slam on the brakes and pull over. I still didn’t believe it until I got home and looked at it online.”
Being a Grammy-nominated artist has ensured Dwele’s place amongst the Motown elite while blazing a trail for up-and-coming artists creating their own paths behind him. “Detroit’s musical climate has a lot going on. Big things are happening out there. You have artists like Slum Village, soul music artists like L. Renee, Malik Austin doing their thing. Detroit’s music is vast, representing everything from soul, hip-hop, church music, house, techno, everything.” Eager to give his fans a taste of this, Dwele collaborated with longtime friends Slum Village, G1, and Virginia artist Knocks, to name a few. There is no doubt that Sketches of a Man will give fans a healthy sampling of his personal interpretation of Detroit’s musical scene.
Dwele also used his creative talents to pay tribute to his longtime friend, the late J. Dilla. “My favorite track on the album is not actually a song; it’s an interlude, a dedication to J Dilla. While I was working on it, I used a lot of different beats of his and meshed them together and made one solid song. This track is one of the more creative songs on the album…but, unless you knew him, you probably wouldn’t get it but I tried to make it so even if you didn’t know his music it would still make sense.” It was important for Dwele to pay tribute to the one who had such a profound impact on him as an artist. “I was greatly influenced by J. I remember being in his basement when I first met Slum [Village] and I watched him make a beat in like five minutes. He would type on an MPC like a writer types on a keyboard. It was amazing.”
Excited to branch out and stretch himself as an artist, Dwele names Erykah Badu as an artist he would love to work with. “I would love to do some new age, space age, ’80s shit with Badu. Some type of track that people would hear and say that’s not Dwele on the production…but it is.”
Sketches of a Man is set to release in June and Dwele fans everywhere are waiting to get more insight into the self-proclaimed laidback dude with a rock star side that is aching to get out.
