Denyque: Stronger, Fiercer, Grown

Bursting onto the scene in early 2009 with her debut Can’t Breathe, Denyque captured the interest of Jamaica, becoming one of Dancehall’s most treasured divas, following hits like I Miss You, Make Me Believe, and Summer Love.  After taking a break for some much-needed soul searching and self-development, the singer and songwriter returned with a new single Well Sought in 2020. Now a mother of two and a ‘ proud wifey ‘, Denyque resumes her career with a more mature and fearless approach, with the backing of new management Good Good Productions.

DancehallMag caught up with the sultry songstress for a sit-down conversation.

What kind of music did you grow up listening to?

Well growing up, my mom and dad used to play music in the house all the time. We did have one of them sets. Everybody must have had one of those Sony sets, with the big ting in the middle, the four big speakers and the cords running around the house. Everybody must have had one of those with the six CD disk changer that would spin. So we had one of those and my dad was more into soul and funk, my mom was into reggae. But my sister, who I’m convinced used to get her heartbroken from like 12, used to listen to alot of R&B. I’m not talking about R&B right now–well actually Summer Walker does a lot of those references. My sister used to listen to a lot of those types of music, I’m talking people like Faith Evans, Chante Moore, all of those people back in the day. So that real genuine 90s R&B, and that’s why I love 90s R&B so much, I was drawn to it. I loved pop music–the first album I ever bought was Brittany Spears Baby One More Time. The second album I bought was Pink Can’t Take Me Home. Those were the first two albums I bought ever in life. Most people think of Pink as an alternative artist but she actually started out doing Hip Hop/ Pop. So like I said I grew up on a variety of genres.

How have you seen that change over time but still have influence from the early days? For instance, I can tell by some of those genres you’ve listed that there is influence.

I mean my biggest music influence for wanting to do music was Aaliyah. Nobody could tell me I wasn’t Aaliyah incarnate. 

That makes sense because you cover general topics but you also speak a lot on relationships which is the heart of R&B. How do you maintain that? Through general interest, your environment? Some people are lovers. Do you feel like that matches your persona?

I mean I feel like there’s a lot of layers to who I am. I’m not just one person or one thing. So my music is heavily influenced by that. It’s heavily influenced by not just my life, but the things that I can see, the things that are around me. So it doesn’t necessarily always track back to me. But I use those as stepping stones, it’s just like when you’re building a house and you need to gather material to lay a foundation. Where my music is concerned I’m a 90s R&B baby so I always have some sort of R&B inflection in my songs. So if you listen there’s always some kind of R&B connotation.  

The choice you made to take a break from music was very interesting. What we find often is that our artists don’t usually have active careers that last or maintain into their old age, but I think your choice to step away has set you up for sustainability in the long run. What was the mindset behind that?

To be honest with you, I appreciate that that’s what you took from it. But it wasn’t on purpose. Like me taking a break was specifically because my career was going in a different direction that I wasn’t sure about anymore and I was in transition. At even such a young age I realized, I wasn’t comfortable with where I was and something needed to give. When I took that break, I literally didn’t know what I was going to do for the first time in my life. I didn’t know what the next step was. But I was kinda at peace with that understanding that ok; I’m growing, I’m transitioning into someone else and I need to take this step back. Because it’s coming off as not who I am. So you know it was getting to a place where people weren’t believing in me anymore, and that’s the whole basis of who I am as an artist. I want people to be able to relate to me in my music. It was just going in this direction that I wasn’t sure about, a lot was happening. I was changing management–so I said instead of changing I’m going to just hit the brakes. I knew I’d eventually come back to it, didn’t know how it was gonna go. But I needed to take that step back, because I realized that I needed to pour into me. I needed to really look into myself and be like ok what’s next, who are you developing into? Who is this next person? What is this next chapter of your life? I needed to do that, out of the public eye.

It is difficult to self-analyze and do that kind of inventory in the entertainment space which can be so toxic and chaotic. Stepping away was important, but during that time you had your first child. What was that like?

Yeah I mean that wasn’t why I took the break, but then having my son was amazing. And I know all mothers say this and everybody thinks it’s a cliche but it’s true; it’s one of the most inexplicable but otherworldly feelings. You spend nine to ten months creating this human being. This living breathing human being who fed off you, who you were responsible for and then they’re born. Then you realize you’re responsible for them for the rest of their lives, it takes my breath away. Everytime I think about both of my pregnancies, it’s just incredible. So that was life changing for me.       

Re-emerging as a more mature artist with a more prominent lifestyle aesthetic, has brought more opportunity with brands of that nature like Lifespan.  Did these happen organically? 

Shout out to Lifespan water. A lot of them happened organically, because of who I am, and how I portray myself. I’m just me, and I think that authenticity resonates with a lot of brands. I’ve worked with a host of brands in the last couple of years; from Volkswagen, Honda, Jet Blue, Pepsi, you name it, I’ve done it. A lot of those things come because of who I am and those companies see the value. Having a team was very important to me and I knew I found that with Good Good Productions and Bling Blang, so that kinda takes a lot of weight off me. When I know that I have my managers in my corner.   

You came back into the space with some really nice singles and stunning visuals. Talk a bit about those and any possible new music.

Well I’ve been signed to Good Good Productions for pretty much a year now. I wanted to come back new and fresh, with a new vibe. New to me, old to you. I know I’ve always had it in me but I’m just bringing that to you now. From changing up my looks, to showcasing my style more.

New music; so we did Pretty which was produced by Emudio but powered by Good Good. Pretty was a vibe for me–so the song is called Pretty and it’s talking about looking good but it’s also a confidence song.

Well Sought was my first song coming back with Good Good, that was another confidence song. Then there was Posturepedic that I did for Jones avenue and then of course Same Guy with Shaneil Muir and Good Good that did way better than I expected it to, but you know people love the controversy. A di fuss mi ever see so much people excited fi have the same man.

I have so many things in the woodwork. 2022 is the year of Denyque’s album. So I’m excited about that and no I cannot give you too much information but just know it’s coming and it’s going to be epic and I really can’t wait for people to see me in that musical element. Because I’ve grown so much musically and I just really can’t wait to showcase that. Everything that happened before, they are just teasers for what’s really coming.