26/08/2025
Song 1 of 25, "I Need You" (composed July 2015, recorded August 22, 2015)
This was the first single of Dean A-Plus based on a true story.
Trivia time: I was going through my first broken heart at a young age, and didn't feel comfortable sharing that experience with others because I didn't want to be judged. After getting inspiration from heartbreak songs on my playlist, I decided that writing my own song may be the best thing I could do (else it could've been something worse, like taking drugs 💀)
Pen to paper, the perfect riddim, and the first composition was born. I went to the nearest recording studio, in Junction, but I wasn't pleased with the recording. But there was no turning back. Paid for my studio time and made it work.
I was reluctant to let anyone else hear it. But decided to let my cousin, , and our friend Akeem, be the first to hear the it (plus they had a CD player that I didn't possess in order to convert it to MP3 🤷🏻♂️). They were filled with various reactions, but in the end, they encouraged me to share it.
After getting the MP3 version from my cousin using Virtual DJ on his PC, I uploaded the track to Facebook, and got further reactions from my FB friends. When resuming high school in September, there were even more reactions. Many gravitated to the line, "Me nuh know, me nuh know". Some were vocal about the recording being off key, but constructive criticism was soften with them saying it was a good first attempt. They saw the potential and consistently asked me when my next track will drop.
At the time, I didn't have an official stage name set, so I decided to keep it simple by calling myself, "Dean A." However, one of my school friends, , told me to use a name that resonates with my style of music. He suggested I use "Plus" since he knew that my objective at the time was to do positive music. I went home and thought about it, then finally, I decided to merge both names into "Dean A-Plus", with A+ representing good quality music as a lesson learnt from my first track and from feedback.
And with that, the rest is history. January 2016 would be my second track, "Perfect". More info on that next week 🌚☕