Spotlight on D-Legend (@dlegend305)
MIAMI, FL. – Everything changed for Daniel Previlon the day his brother was shot to death in front of him.
Growing up in Miami’s Little Haiti neighborhood, Daniel found life pretty rough. His older brother, Carl – his ultimate role model – moved to South Carolina when Daniel was a teenager in an attempt to leave the tough neighborhood. Daniel wanted nothing more than to follow in his big brother’s footsteps, and yet Carl was into drugs and other illegal endeavors in South Carolina. To follow in his brother’s footsteps meant to go down those same dark and dangerous paths – something Carl didn’t want for his younger brother. In an effort to help scare his brother straight, Carl invited Daniel to South Carolina to live with him.
“He beat my ass because he told me he didn’t want me to be like him – on the streets and involved with drugs,” Daniel said. “When I came out to South Carolina with him, he would always tell me, ‘Why don’t you rap or something instead of being on the streets like a punk.’ That always stuck in my head, but I didn’t pursue it professionally until after he passed away in 1993.”
“We had gone out to get some clothes for me – he gave me like $2,000 for new clothes and stuff for school,” Daniel said. “Later that night we went out to the club to celebrate, and in the club some guys grabbed him all of a sudden and an altercation broke out. Next thing you know there was shooting and he’s lying there right in front of me. He passed away right there in front of me.”
“After he was gone I kept remembering what he told me about rapping, and so I started writing and just got better and better at it. Eventually I decided to make music professionally. I came up with the name D-Legend. I feel like not too many people make it out of the street. Where I came from, a lot of friends passed away or got put in prison. I was fortunate enough to put the drugs down and go to college and do it right. It’s kind of legendary for where I came from. I feel like I’m a legend from the hood, because I was fortunate enough to get out and do something positive.” The experience of his brother’s death and the life philosophy that was born from it are poured out in D-Legend’s new single, “We Only Live Once.” The song talks about enjoying life to the fullest – living every day as if it’s your last because you never know when it’s your time to go.
“Don’t allow anything to discourage you or push you away from your dreams,” he said. “Whatever you believe in your heart, keep going no matter what – especially when there’s haters. That’s why I wrote the song ‘Hate AnyWay’ as a bonus track for the single ‘We Only Live Once.’ No matter how good you are or what you do in life, people are going to hate on you. But whatever you have in your heart, you have to keep going to make yourself happy. People are going to try to bring you down or discourage you, but you have to focus and keep going forward and do what makes you, you. That’s what that song is about.”
The new single and bonus track will be released July 1, and will preclude the album “Melodies of a Survivor II,” which is scheduled for release later this year. Fans can check out D-Legend’s music on Soundcloud, or follow him on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.