DeStorm Power ( ) is an American
Internet personality
An Internet celebrity (also known as a social media influencer, social media personality, internet personality, or simply influencer) is a celebrity who has acquired or developed their fame and notability through the Internet. The rise of social m ...
who began his career on the social media platform
YouTube
YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...
.
Life and career
The fourth of eight siblings, Power was born in Arlington County, Virginia and raised in Baltimore, Maryland by his mother, who left his father early in his life. Frequently moving schools, he dropped out of school in the ninth grade, and was regularly sent to
juvenile detention
In criminal justice systems, a youth detention center, known as a juvenile detention center (JDC),Stahl, Dean, Karen Kerchelich, and Ralph De Sola. ''Abbreviations Dictionary''. CRC Press, 20011202. Retrieved 23 August 2010. , . juvenile det ...
for various petty crimes before he began dancing and rapping. Motivated by the birth of his son Tayvion, as well as the local success of his song "We", which featured one of his brothers, Power moved from Baltimore to New York to California to pursue a career in music in 2001, where he spent time homeless before being handed a business card by a talent scout. After
intern
An internship is a period of work experience offered by an organization for a limited period of time. Once confined to medical graduates, internship is used practice for a wide range of placements in businesses, non-profit organizations and gover ...
ing and
ghostwriting
A ghostwriter is hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are officially credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...
at
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most i ...
,
Universal
Universal is the adjective for universe.
Universal may also refer to:
Companies
* NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company
** Universal Animation Studios, an American Animation studio, and a subsidiary of NBCUniversal
** Universal TV, a ...
, and various other
record label
A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...
s,
Power set out to establish himself as a performer, using YouTube as a platform to share his
singing
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
,
songwriting
A songwriter is a musician who professionally composes musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music gen ...
, and
production
Production may refer to:
Economics and business
* Production (economics)
* Production, the act of manufacturing goods
* Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services)
* Production as a stati ...
skills with the online community. Power's videos are typically comedic, and also often incorporate
rapping
Rapping (also rhyming, spitting, emceeing or MCing) is a musical form of vocal delivery that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and street vernacular". It is performed or chanted, usually over a backing beat or musical accompaniment. The ...
and
beatboxing
Beatboxing (also beat boxing) is a form of vocal percussion primarily involving the art of mimicking drum machines (typically a TR-808), using one's mouth, lips, tongue, and voice. .
He was an accomplished
triple jump
The triple jump, sometimes referred to as the hop, step and jump or the hop, skip and jump, is a track and field event, similar to the long jump. As a group, the two events are referred to as the "horizontal jumps". The competitor runs down th ...
er and Master
personal trainer
A personal trainer is an individual who creates and delivers safe and effective exercise programs for apparently healthy individuals and groups, or those with medical clearance to exercise. They motivate clients by collaborating to set goals, p ...
, and was notably invited to the
Olympic Trials.
Power appeared as
Mr. T
Mr. T (born Laurence Tureaud, May 21, 1952), is an American actor. He is known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series ''The A-Team'' and as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film ''Rocky III''. He is also known for his dis ...
in the first season of ''
Epic Rap Battles of History
''Epic Rap Battles of History'' (ERB) is a YouTube web series and music project created by Peter "Nice Peter" Shukoff and Lloyd "EpicLLOYD" Ahlquist. The series pits historical and pop culture figures against one another in a rap battle format. ...
'' from which he achieved a gold record. In 2008 he lost his mother Mashala to stomach cancer. He moved to Los Angeles, California in 2011 where he joined his manager Sara Pena and started Big Frame, a
Multi Channel Network
A multi-channel network (MCN) is an organization that works with video platforms to offer assistance to a channel owner in areas such as "product, programming, funding, cross-promotion, partner management, digital rights management, monetizati ...
and founded Forefront.TV which focuses on urban lifestyle and music. Power moved on to
Paradigm Talent Agency
Paradigm Talent Agency is an American full-service entertainment agency with offices in Los Angeles, New York, London, Chicago, Toronto, Monterey, Nashville, Berkeley and Austin. Paradigm Talent Agency has more than 200 agents representing client ...
for his acting career then
William Morris Endeavor
Endeavor Group Holdings, Inc. (formerly known as William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, WME or WME-IMG) is an American holding company for talent and media agencies with its primary offices in Beverly Hills, California, United States. The compa ...
before deciding to go independent. In August 2015, Power hosted the reboot of MTV's
Punk'd
''Punk'd'' is an American hidden camera–practical joke reality television series that first aired on MTV in 2003. It was created by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg, with Kutcher serving as producer and host. It bears a resemblance to both the ...
with co-host King Bach, which aired on BET. He is a founder and President of The
Zeus Network
Zeus is a subscription-based video streaming service launched on July 13, 2018. It was founded by social media personalities DeStorm Power, Amanda Cerny, King Bach, and television producer Lemuel Plummer, who serves as president and CEO. The serv ...
which launched July 13, 2018 He is a 2011
American Music Awards
The American Music Awards (AMAs) is an annual American music awards show, generally held in the fall, created by Dick Clark in 1973 for ABC when the network's contract to air the Grammy Awards expired, and currently produced by Dick Clark Produc ...
honoree and was nominated for five
Streamy Awards
The YouTube Streamy Awards, also known as the Streamy Awards or Streamys, are presented annually by Dick Clark Productions and Tubefilter to recognize excellence in online video, including directing, acting, producing, and writing. The formal ...
, winning three. He was
Emmy
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
Nominated for Outstanding Actor in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series in 2018 for his original creation Caught The Series.
YouTube career
Caught Series
On 9 April 2017, DeStorm started a minute long series on Instagram called Caught. The series later would be aired on YouTube and Facebook. This involves DeStorm facing problems with his girlfriend, his side-chick, his friends, enemies and others. Every Sunday, this series ends with a cliffhanger. The Caught series has garnered over 300 Million combined views making it the most watched short form series on the internet. Caught the Series was nominated for an Emmy Award and 4 Streamy Awards, winning two. Season 2 launched on July 13, 2018, on The
Zeus Network
Zeus is a subscription-based video streaming service launched on July 13, 2018. It was founded by social media personalities DeStorm Power, Amanda Cerny, King Bach, and television producer Lemuel Plummer, who serves as president and CEO. The serv ...
, an SVOD streaming platform founded by DeStorm Power, King Bach, Amanda Cerny and Lemuel Plummer. The series includes celebrities such as Snoop Dogg, King Bach, Lamorne Morris, Alphonso McAuley, Lele Pons, Reedo Brown, Bradley Martin, Leli Hernandez, Janina, Taylor Stevens, Klarity and many more.
DeStorm Power
Power's YouTube channel, registered under the username DeStorm, has more than 3.06 million subscribers as of November 2022, and it is used primarily for his musical endeavors. The videos on the channel have been viewed over 568 million times. "Wuz Up World? (What's up World?)"—DeStorm's catch phrase—can be heard at the start or end of every video. DeStorm often composes and performs covers or Beatbox covers of well known songs or creates content for major brands such as
Pepsi
Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by PepsiCo. Originally created and developed in 1893 by Caleb Bradham and introduced as Brad's Drink, it was renamed as Pepsi-Cola in 1898, and then shortened to Pepsi in 1961.
History
Pepsi was ...
,
GE,
Yahoo
Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds ma ...
and
Nintendo
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles.
Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produce ...
. DeStorm also creates original content based upon subscribers' challenges and suggestions such as rapping in alphabetical order or name dropping various movie titles in a rap. Power occasionally collaborates with other popular YouTube personalities and recording artists such as
Mystery Guitar Man,
Freddie Wong
Freddie Wong (born September 13, 1985) is an American Internet celebrity, filmmaker, VFX artist, podcaster, and competitive gamer. Wong has participated in at least three YouTube channels; with ''RocketJump'', his production company's main chan ...
,
Ray William Johnson
Ray William Johnson is an American internet celebrity best known for his eponymous YouTube channel and his web series on that channel, ''Equals Three''. In 2013, the channel surpassed 10 million subscribers and had over 2 billion views, making ...
,
Nice Peter
Peter Alexis Shukoff (born August 15, 1979), best known as his stage name Nice Peter or Bluesocks, is an American musician and Internet personality. A self-described "Comic/Guitar Hero", he is best known for the comedy on his YouTube channel, Ni ...
, and
Kina Grannis
Kina Kasuya Grannis (born August 4, 1985) is an American guitarist, singer and Internet personalities, YouTuber. Grannis was the winner of the 2008 Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest, earning a recording contract with Interscope Records and ha ...
. One of Power's most popular series on the channel is ''Rap Up'', which Power began in 2009.
Power also competed in a commercial contest hosted by
Heinz Ketchup
Heinz Tomato Ketchup is a brand of ketchup manufactured by the H. J. Heinz Company, a division of the Kraft Heinz Company.
History
It was first marketed as " catsup" in 1876 In 1907, manufacturing reached 12 million bottles and it was expo ...
and was a finalist.
Despite the success of his YouTube channel, Power announced in 2013 that his next major song release will be televised on
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
. In April 2013, Power authored an op-ed on ''New Media Rockstars'', detailing his concerns with the broken view counter on his ''DeStorm'' channel. He also won two comedy awards. Destorm was also featured as a headliner on the Digitour in the summer of 2010, in which he and other YouTubers traveled around the country performing their songs from YouTube.
In 2014, DeStorm Power was listed on
New Media Rockstars
''NewMediaRockstars'' (''NMR'') is an online magazine which was launched in December 2011 and primarily covers YouTube performers, entrepreneurs, and artists with videos and interviews. In 2013, ''NewMediaRockstars'' closed because of lack of fund ...
Top 100 Channels, ranked at #85.
Notable videos and collaborations
Be Careful
A mixtape by DeStorm, ''Be Careful'', was released May 1, 2012. Blais, Lone Monk, Christopher Charles, Alex J and Owen Hill Jr. were among the album's producers.
Initially, the album was released in digital and physical CD form; additionally, limited-edition USB keys with the album preloaded onto them were sold soon after release, which were previously only available at a private launch party for the album.
King Kong
A mixtape by DeStorm, ''King Kong'', was released February 3, 2013.
Awards and nominations
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Power, DeStorm
1982 births
African-American male rappers
Living people
Rappers from Baltimore
Rappers from New York (state)
Southern hip hop musicians
Underground rappers
Vine (service) celebrities
American YouTubers
21st-century American rappers
21st-century American male musicians
21st-century African-American musicians
20th-century African-American people