Credit: Courtesy of Duece
Rap artist D.U.E.C.E traded in his football cleats for a microphone and community connections.
Timothy Dysart, a South Side of Columbus native, released his single, “2outh City,” in March. He said he uses music to support and uplift the community that raised him.
“Columbus makes me more than anything, you feel me?” Dysart said. “Like, God first, but then Columbus definitely makes me who I am as an artist.”
The artist’s stage name, D.U.E.C.E, stands for “dream under every circumstance existing,” Dysart said. He said a variation of his stage name, Deuce, was originally a nickname used on his Facebook when he was 13 years old, given to him by his mom.
“I needed one of those cool middle names, you feel me?” Dysart said. “Everybody wanted some wack like Wolf Man or Ice Man, I’m like, ‘That’s wack.’ So she gave me the nickname Deuce because me and my father had the same name, but I’m the second.”
Dysart said he attended Morehead State University in Morehead, Kentucky, for football, but during his last year of school in 2015, he made the decision to quit football and pursue music.
Shortly before Dysart quit football, he met his producer Jesse Easton and his brother Colton Easton in a liquor store near the Morehead State campus. Dysart started making trips to Jesse Easton’s studio several times a week, Colton Easton said.
Colton Easton said Dysart’s unique and friendly personality comes out in his music and artistry, but it also helped them become close friends.
“He’s a character on his own, and he’s funny as hell,” Colton Easton said. “He’s a great person. He’s got a good heart.”
After working with Jesse and Colton Easton, Dysart started to realize his true potential in music, but he was still worried about what his family might think of him quitting football to pursue his interests.
“There was a little time period where I’m like, ‘Yo, I think I’m disowned, I don’t think my dad is gonna rock with me no more,’ and he ended up becoming one of my biggest supporters,” Dysart said. “I remember going and doing an event and the DJ had sped my music up and so I’m looking in the crowd, and I see he has this disapproving face, and I’m like, ‘Yo, am I that bad?’ And so it wasn’t until I got home and my mom was like, ‘No, your dad could tell that the DJ was playing music at a different tempo, and he was messing up your track, and he was mad about that.’”
After a summer of doing open-microphone shows, Dysart said he quit football for good and focused on music. He moved back to Columbus in 2017 and was able to meet up and perform with local artists, some of whom he said he had known personally since childhood.
In 2020, Dysart said his career was halted due to the pandemic and the loss of his grandfather to illness and his childhood friend to gun violence on the same day. He also lost his job and was struggling financially.
Dysart said he felt unmotivated through 2020 until his brother moved back to Columbus and started making music. After spending more time in Columbus reconnecting with his neighborhood, he felt inclined to return to music and use his own experiences and struggles to be a voice of support to his community.
“I just want to be able to share that with other people, like, don’t get so locked into what’s around you. Get locked into the vision of where you want to be,” Dysart said.
Dysart said “2outh City” was inspired by his home in the South Side of Columbus and the experiences he’s had there.
“‘2outh City’ is just as much me being a part of South Side as the South Side being a part of me. So that’s why it’s ‘2outh City,’ because the two is for D.U.E.C.E, and like I said, South City, man, it’s my home,” Dysart said.
The South Side of Columbus has been a development area for gentrification over the past few years, Dysart said. Although he is grateful for the new library, recreational center and other amenities that have come with the changes, Dysart said he feels the overall process may be doing more harm to his community than good.
“It’s like, as you’re having an infusion of new people moving in, they didn’t grow up with these people. So they’re scared of these people. They’re scared of the people that already live there,” Dysart said.
Dysart said he doesn’t care about gaining attention, but his main goal is to impact others through his music.
“If you go listen to my album and you say that it’s impacted you and it’s changed you and six months from now you’re doing something different or you are inspired to do something maybe you didn’t want to do or that you’ve wanted to do –– that’s the whole goal,” Dysart said.
