There are many times that I (have to) multitask and I usually end up wishing I could split myself into more than one individual, but there’s one artist who has made this his trademark: meet Desmond Dennis….and his 4 alter egos.
After spending most his life studying boy bands and r&b music, he finally ended up being a member of one between 2010 and 2014 (ish). As a member of SJ3, a very young Desmond learned about the business. The youngsters released a couple of songs (which you can still find online) before splitting up, leaving Desmond to find his way for himself.
Desmond started doing what most singers do. He started a YouTube channels and dropped videos of him doing covers. That was already going well, reaching thousands of views with each video, but when harmonizing became the thing to do, he took a cappella videos to a different level from the rest.
The split screens videos were not for him. After all, he grew up wanting to be part of a boy band, so he recreated one by making videos with 5 other Desmonds. In the same shot. He calls his fantasy band “Clone 5”.
Besides it showing his deep love for boy bands, I think this also shows another talent. These videos require some concept creating, acting, patience, and a sense of humor, because sometimes one Desmonds will even show a different personality than another Desmond.
He also took his covers to the next level. The simple cover song was ditched, more of less, and got to be replaced by mash ups and the mash ups even became ‘evolutions of..’. All completed with short sketches and dance routines. So, now, Desmonds reaches multiple 10k views on these videos, per video, and he is upcoming on YouTube.
His latest upload is a mash up of Nicki Minaj songs, which he turned into an a cappella ballad, but if you are a child of the 90s, I can heavily recommend the ‘Evolution of 90s Male Bands’. All the classic r&b tracks pass you by, including some that I forgot about.
Desmond is very productive and is trying to utilize his YouTube success to introduce his own, original music. Alongside of him dropping these popular Clone 5 videos, he’s also been releasing his own music videos monthly, one per month for the past three months. These videos are all part of an EP called “Emotions”. I, personally, think “It’s Not Worth It” is the most notable of the three released so far.
Everything seems to be happening pretty fast for Desmond. His YouTube success is only recent, but it could definitely lead to something bigger (I wouldn’t be surprised if he could pull of playing in a sitcom, for instance), but he is suffering from the same thing I see in so many other YouTube artists. His covers are attracting way more attention than his own material and I think Clone 5, with all its copies of Desmond and covering songs, is probably the most original concept I see so far. Maybe “they” could release an original track?
