Features : Denzel Davis uses “Fumble Me” to launch his career into the world at large

With “Fumble Me,” hip hop artist Denzel Davis is taking the next step in his search for a global audience for his own personal brand of hip hop.

When he says that he wants to become a household name, you can believe that someone who has beaten cancer four times means what he says. He is accustomed to beating odds.

“I want to expand from where I’m from all the way to the world,” he said.

Phoenix is “Where he is.” He has lived there since 2008, which is also when he started making music. He got serious about hip hop in 2016, when his performances and a mixtape called “February” made him a Phoenix sensation.

“That’s when I started really taking my craft seriously and started investing in myself and understanding the business side of it,” he said.

He is from San Bernardino, California, originally. That’s why he calls himself a Cali artist.

He has opened for Rick Ross, Vonfiles, Lil Wayne and Afroman, and most recently for Saviii III. He has performed in California, Vegas, Colorado, New Mexico and Atlanta.

“I have kind of just been bouncing around,” he said. This year, he has a couple of shows scheduled and hopes to do a mini tour in the fall.

“Fumble Me,” his latest single, is a song about an ex who wants to get back together with a man she did wrong.

“It’s kind of self-explanatory,” he said. “It’s a song about someone who pretty much feels he is in the top echelon, as far as relationships go, and there’s this one ex who is trying to come back after she has done him wrong.”

“It was just letting my ex know you really messed, up you really fumbled the bag on this one.”

Denzel did not grow up listening to hip hop. His mother did not allow that.

“I listened to a lot of jazz, a lot of oldies, like The Temptations, The O’Jays, soulful music, a lot of blues,” he said. “I didn't really start listening to hip hop until my teenage years, when my uncle started rapping.”

He says his musical influences come from “all over the place”: Tupac, Ice Cube, DJ Quik, E-40, Suga Free, Nas, Rakim, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Eazy-E, and more.

His varied musical background is one reason he can say thathe stands out as a musical artist because “I’m different.”

“I don’t sound like anybody. I have my own sound, and a lot of people can relate to my music. A lot of people can be inspired by my music, my background history and my story, and what I've been through and where I come from.”

Where he has been is another motive for a musical career. It promises opportunity.

“Opportunities to go places that I've never been, opportunities that you never really get a chance to get when you’re coming out of the ghetto and coming out of poverty.”

San Bernardino, he said, is one of the poorest counties in Southern California. His struggles include his four previous bouts with cancer and the fifth is ongoing.

“So any opportunities that I can get where music can take me, where I can better myself and provide a better life for me and my kids, that'd be perfect.”

Music also provides him with an outlet from struggle.

“Music is like therapy to me. I use music to help me cope, to help me get my day going, to help me find some inspiration. I love music.”

For now, the task is to push “Fumble Me” as far as it will go. He has several more singles lined up for release, and he just launched a website with exclusive content and merch. Soon, when he has a respectable fanbase of 10,000 to 15,000 people, “Then I’ll release an album.”

Stay connected to Denzel Davis on his website and on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.

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