Sean Forbes (born February 5, 1982) is a

deaf Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an Audiology, audiological condition. In this context it ...

American hip-hop artist."Sean Forbes Not Hard To Hear"
"Ability magazine", February/March 2011. Retrieved May 3, 2013. His long-time producer and collaborator is Jake Bass, and together they have penned over 100 songs, many of which they perform live. Sean is a co-founder of

D-PAN The Deaf Professional Artists Network (D-PAN), is a 501(c)(3) national nonprofit organization based in Detroit, Michigan, founded by Sean Forbes and Joel Martin D-PAN creates music videos featuring deaf and hard-of-hearing performers. D-PAN is dedi ...

, The Deaf Professional Arts Network, a nonprofit organization that has been making music accessible to the Deaf and hard of hearing community by creating

American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual lang ...

interpretation music videos of popular songs.

has created videos for

John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Born and raised in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Mayer attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but left and moved to Atlanta in 1997 with ...

Christina Aguilera Christina María Aguilera (; ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and television personality. Known for her four-octave vocal range and ability to sustain high notes, she has been referred to as the " Voice of ...

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem (; often stylized as EMINƎM), is an American rapper and record producer. He is credited with popularizing hip hop in middle America and is critically acclai ...

White Stripes The White Stripes were an American rock duo from Detroit formed in 1997. The group consisted of Jack White (songwriter, vocals, guitar, piano, and mandolin) and Meg White (drums and vocals). After releasing several singles and three albums wi ...

Owl City Owl City is an American electronic music project created in 2007 in Owatonna, Minnesota. It is one of several projects by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Adam Young, who created the project while experimenting with music in his pa ...

Carly Rae Jepsen Carly Rae Jepsen (born November 21, 1985) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. After studying musical theatre for most of her school life and while in university, Jepsen garnered mainstream attention after placing third on the fifth season of ...

The Clark Sisters The Clark Sisters are an American gospel vocal group consisting of five sisters: Jacky Clark Chisholm (born 1948), Denise "Niecy" Clark-Bradford (born 1953), Elbernita "Twinkie" Clark (born 1954), Dorinda Clark-Cole (born 1957), and Karen Clark ...

Imagine Dragons Imagine Dragons is an American pop rock band from Las Vegas, Nevada, consisting of lead singer Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne Sermon, bassist Ben McKee and drummer Daniel Platzman. The band first gained exposure with the release of their sing ...

, and more. In 2012, Sean released a full-length CD/DVD album titled ''Perfect Imperfection'' and toured the world to promote the record. On February 4, 2022, it was announced that Forbes will be performing in the

Super Bowl LVI halftime show The Super Bowl LVI halftime show, officially known as the Pepsi Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show, took place on February 13, 2022, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, as part of Super Bowl LVI. It was televised nationally in the U.S. by NBC, an ...

ASL American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual language that is express ...

Life and career

Early life

When Sean was only a year old, he lost 90% of his hearing. Sean became deaf most likely from

spinal meningitis Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, headache, and neck stiffness. Other symptoms include confusion or a ...

when he was just a few months old. The cause was never officially diagnosed but Sean has said that the doctors had suspected spinal meningitis. Born into a musical family, Sean's father Scott Forbes was one-half of the Detroit country-rock group The Forbes Brothers. Sean's mother is a pianist."Sean Forbes Paves The Way For Deaf Musicians"
"NPR", August 8, 2010. Retrieved May 3, 2013. His uncle, Dennis Forbes, the other half of The Forbes Brothers, was a well-respected engineer who worked closely with

Bob Seger Robert Clark Seger ( ; born May 6, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. As a locally successful Detroit-area artist, he performed and recorded as Bob Seger and the Last Heard and The Bob Seger System throughout the 1960s, break ...

. Sean grew up playing music with his siblings. When Sean was five years old, his parents bought him a drum setNPR Staf
"Sean Forbes Paves The Way For Deaf Musicians"
"NPR", August 8, 2010. Retrieved March 22, 2011. after seeing him follow along to all of the songs that his parents played on the radio, especially "Devil with a Blue Dress" by

Mitch Ryder Mitch Ryder (born William Sherille Levise, Jr.; February 26, 1945) is an American musician who has recorded more than 25 albums over more than four decades. Career Ryder formed his first band, Tempest, when he was at Warren High School, and th ...

and

the Detroit Wheels The Detroit Wheels were an American rock band, formed in Detroit in 1964. They served as Mitch Ryder's backup band from 1964 to 1967. The band had a number of top twenty hits in the mid-1960s before lead singer Ryder was enticed away by Bob C ...

Johnny "Bee" Badanjek Johnny "Bee" Badanjek is an American musician, singer, songwriter and painter. Music career At 16, Badanjek (pronounced:buh-DAN-jek) was the drummer for the Detroit rock and roll band Billy Lee and The Rivieras who later changed their name to ...

, the drummer for Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, was a good friend of Sean's dad and would come over to the house and teach Sean how to drum. This started a lifelong mission for Sean to find a way into the music business. When he was ten, Sean started writing songs and playing guitar. In high school, Sean played in a band with childhood friends. He had dreams to be a drummer but knew first hand as a deaf person this would be extremely difficult. He attended the

Rochester Institute of Technology Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is a private university, private research university in the town of Henrietta, New York, Henrietta in the Rochester, New York, metropolitan area. The university offers undergraduate and graduate degree ...

, where the

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

Technical Technical may refer to: * Technical (vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle * Technical analysis, a discipline for forecasting the future direction of prices through the study of past market data * Technical drawing, showing how something is co ...

Institute for the Deaf is located. While attending RIT Sean noticed that there were many deaf and hard of hearing people that loved music, but didn't have the same access to music Sean had while growing up. Fond with lyrics, Sean would often interpret into American Sign Language many of his favorite songs. After his 3rd year at RIT, he decided to take a leave of absence from school and move back home to Detroit to figure out what was next for him. While attending The

Detroit Music Awards The Detroit Music Awards Foundation is a Michigan 501(c)(3) organization, whose mission is to recognize Detroit area musicians working on a national, regional, and local level. The Foundation supports and nurtures the musical community in Detro ...

, Sean met recording studio owner and

publisher Joel Martin. As the story goes, Martin gave Forbes a piece of paper that said "Free Eminem Tickets E-mail Me" which fueled Forbes to e-mail Martin asking if he could work at the studio. Realizing that it would be tough to make it in the music business Sean returned to RIT to continue his education eventually completing a bachelor's degree in 2008.

The Deaf Professional Arts Network

In 2006 while still a student at RIT, Sean went on spring break with friends to

Gallaudet University Gallaudet University ( ) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. It was founded in 1864 as a grammar school for both deaf and blind children. It was the first sc ...

a college for the deaf. It was during this trip that he started signing every song he knew into sign language. This spurred the idea of creating

music videos for the deaf. Reaching out to a friend, Adrean Mangiardi, who was studying film at RIT, Sean asked him if he could make a music video of him signing Eminem's song "

Lose Yourself "Lose Yourself" is a song by American rapper Eminem from the soundtrack to the 2002 motion picture '' 8 Mile''. The song was composed and produced by Eminem, longtime collaborator Jeff Bass, one half of the production duo Bass Brothers and Lui ...

". Upon making the video Forbes called Joel Martin, owner of 54 sound, whom he had been emailing for over a year now if he could stop by the studio to show him something he had been working on. Forbes went to the studio and to his surprise

was sitting in the room.Jessica Nune
"Deaf Rapper Sean Forbes signs record deal with label that helped launch Eminem"
"M-Live", May 13, 2010. Retrieved March 22, 2011. Forbes proceeded to show Martin and Eminem his American Sign Language rendition of Eminem's academy award-winning song "Lose Yourself" to which they were both impressed with. They immediately asked Forbes what he wanted to do with this, and hired him to work at the studio that summer to "come up with a job for himself" Forbes realized that there was an abundance of talent in the

Deaf community Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an audiological condition. In this context it is written ...

who had the ability to sign songs into American Sign Language and more than anything wanted to recognize these talents. Martin and Forbes co-founded the Deaf Professional Arts Network to make music and music culture accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing community by featuring deaf performers expressing the songs' lyrics in American Sign Language. The first ASL music video that they created was for a song called Where'd You Go a group founded by

Mike Shinoda Michael Kenji Shinoda (; ja, 篠田賢治, Shinoda Kenji; born February 11, 1977) is an American musician, singer, rapper, songwriter and record producer. He co-founded the rock band Linkin Park in 1996 and was the band's collaborative vocali ...

famous for his role in

Linkin Park Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. The band's current lineup comprises vocalist/rhythm guitarist/keyboardist Mike Shinoda, lead guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Dave Farrell, DJ/turntablist Joe Hahn and drummer ...

. Upon completing the video, D-PAN shared the video with Shinoda who dismissed it and didn't want to endorse the video. This upset Forbes thinking that musicians didn't want to make their music accessible to the 30 million plus members of the deaf and hard of hearing community.

then set out to find an artist who had a song and message that would resonate with the deaf community. This led them to

Waiting on the World to Change "Waiting on the World to Change" is a song by American singer-songwriter John Mayer. It was released as the lead single from his third studio album, '' Continuum'' (2006), on August 1, 2006. The song enjoyed commercial success as a single and won ...

. The D-PAN music video features many members of the deaf and hard of hearing community, many who had never experienced music. This music video became an anthem for the deaf community. To date, D-PAN has created music videos for

's "

Beautiful Beautiful, an adjective used to describe things as possessing beauty, may refer to: Film and theater * ''Beautiful'' (2000 film), an American film directed by Sally Field * ''Beautiful'' (2008 film), a South Korean film directed by Juhn Jai-h ...

", Eminem's "Lose Yourself" (featuring Forbes),

's "

Fireflies The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...

", and with the support of

Jack White John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975), commonly known as Jack White, is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the duo the White Stripes. White has enjoyed consistent critical and popular success and is widely c ...

from

The White Stripes The White Stripes were an American rock duo from Detroit formed in 1997. The group consisted of Jack White (songwriter, vocals, guitar, piano, and mandolin) and Meg White (drums and vocals). After releasing several singles and three albums with ...

, they created a music video for

' "

We're Going to Be Friends "We're Going to Be Friends" is a song by American alternative rock band White Stripes from their album ''White Blood Cells.'' It was released in late 2002 and tells the story of meeting a new friend at the beginning of a school year. Through its ly ...

", which has received millions of views on YouTube. In 2008 D-PAN released "It's Everybody's Music" a DVD compilation that has sold over 10,000 copies.

"I'm Deaf" and "Let's Mambo" (2010–2011)

While establishing D-PAN Forbes was writing lyrics and had dreams of performing original material. Due to a lack of a partner to work with and great music to write to, Forbes was making his own beats but didn't feel that the material was strong enough to do something with. One day while working at 54 Sound, Forbes found a CD that said "Beats" on it and without telling anyone stole the CD and took it home. He immediately was drawn into what he heard on the CD, music that spoke to him and propelled him to write lyrics. Wanting to know who wrote this music, Forbes confessed that he stole a CD. Forbes discovered that it was a 15-year-old named Jake Bass, whose father was one-half of the

Bass Brothers Bass Brothers is the professional name for the team of Mark and Jeff Bass, the Detroit producers responsible for helping Eminem with his early career and collaborating on much of his subsequent music. Before that, they worked with George Clint ...

. A meeting was set up and Forbes played him demos of what he wrote and Bass was interested. Forbes then gave him a tape that he had been writing to that just had Forbes rapping on it and asked Bass if he could write music on top of it. A few days later, Bass delivered what would turn out to be the first song that they wrote together called "I'm Deaf" a play on words and what Forbes felt was an introduction song to who he was and what he stood for, poking fun at himself throughout the song. During this time Forbes was traveling the country going to deaf-related events sharing the

videos with audiences and making a name for himself. During this time he took the opportunity to perform material that he and Bass were working on. Adrean Mangiardi, who had helped Forbes create a video to show Eminem which helped form D-PAN, had kept in touch over the years. Forbes asked Mangiardi to come to Detroit and create a music video. Working together for the first time since college, they instantly bonded again and Mangiardi proceeded to film Forbes performing "I'm Deaf". While editing the video together, the batteries on Mangiardi's

cochlear implant A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted neuroprosthesis that provides a person who has moderate-to-profound sensorineural hearing loss with sound perception. With the help of therapy, cochlear implants may allow for improved speech und ...

battery died leaving him unable to understand what Forbes was doing in the video. Upon realizing this, Mangiardi decided to implement words in a phonetic style into the video thus making the video even more accessible for those who may not know sign language. Forbes' partner in D-PAN, Joel Martin, had no idea that Forbes was writing his own material. Mangiardi and Forbes showed Martin the video for "I'm Deaf" and instantly signed him to Web Entertainment and released a two-song EP called "I'm Deaf / Let's Mambo" in physical format and on

ITunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

. When the video was released it was an instant viral hit with the

. Forbes was one of the first deaf artists to vocally rap and sign his own songs at the same time. While on a PR tour for the music video Forbes was on

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

Weekend Edition ''Weekend Edition'' is a set of American radio news magazine programs produced and distributed by National Public Radio (NPR). It is the weekend counterpart to the NPR radio program ''Morning Edition''. It consists of ''Weekend Edition Saturday'' ...

'' with

Liane Hansen Liane Hansen (; born September 29, 1951,) is an American journalist and radio personality. She was the host of the National Public Radio (NPR) newsmagazine ''Weekend Edition Sunday'' from 1989 until her retirement in May 2011. Her experience in ...

when he spoke about wanting to do another music video for a song he had called "Let's Mambo" which was the B-side to the single "I'm Deaf" that talks about his girlfriend wanting him to dance, and how he can't. Forbes mentioned that he wanted to do the music video with a certain deaf actress who was featured on ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Dancing with the Stars'' is the name of various international television series based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing'', which is distributed by BBC Studios, the commercial arm of the BBC. Currently the forma ...

''. Not mentioning her name, many people knew immediately whom Forbes was talking about, academy award-winning actress

Marlee Matlin Marlee Beth Matlin (born August 24, 1965) is an American actress, author, and activist. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, in addition to nominations for a ...

. It just so happened that Matlin's long-time interpreter and business partner Jack Jason was listening to the Weekend Edition and told Matlin about what Forbes had said. Matlin instantly reached out to Forbes on Twitter asking if he was interested in doing a music video with her for his song. Upon working on this music video, Forbes and Matlin instantly hit it off and their chemistry was evident in the music video which featured dancing from many popular dancers in the Detroit music scene and was choreographed by Matlin's ''Dancing with the Stars'' partner Fabian Sanchez.

''Perfect Imperfection'' (2012)

On September 4, 2012, Forbes released his full-length debut album ''Perfect Imperfection'' on Web Entertainment. The CD and DVD album that was a first of its kind. "I always wanted to make my music accessible to everyone," Forbes said "and with this album, that was my goal". Featuring 13 songs that album was produced by Sean's longtime partner Jake Bass, with Forbes writing all of the lyrics for the album. The DVD features music videos for all the songs making the album accessible to both hearing and deaf audiences. Forbes went on tour in support of the record and toured the world to promote the record, and played in front of over 50,000 people across North America. In addition to touring the United States and Canada, his travels also included trips to Israel, Norway, England, Australia, New Zealand, France. played in front of over 50,000 people across North America. The performances feature Sean's longtime producer Jake Bass and his longtime friend Mark Levin. Adrean Mangiardi, Forbes' visual partner created videos for the performance so that audiences could watch Forbes and also see the lyrics behind him creating a multi-media performance that could be enjoyed by all. ''Perfect Imperfection'' was well received by the Detroit music community and enabled Forbes to draw large audiences across the country. His music videos were also featured 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 ...

and he has garnered articles in ''Vibe'', ''XXL'', ''Spin'', and more. Forbes released a music video for "Watch These Hands" on July 30, 2013. The song was inspired by Forbes' background and the journey that he took to get to where he is today. It was well received. Forbes was also featured on a TV show called "Motor City Rising" on Ovation TV following him around for weeks and documenting his journey. Forbes went on a 2-week tour of Israel playing performances in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem to rave reviews with his band. Forbes penned the ending credits song for the film "No Ordinary Hero: The SuperDeafy Story" with a song also titled "No Ordinary Hero".

2015 – 2018

Wanting to re-focus D-PAN, in 2015 Forbes co-founded DPAN.TV The Sign Language Channel to make news and media accessible for the Deaf and hard of hearing community by producing content with sign language, voiceovers, and captions. In 2016 DPAN.TV made history by producing an accessible broadcast of the presidential debates with sign language interpreters on the screen, viewed by over half a million across the country. The goal for DPAN.TV is to be a central location for high-quality sign language video content. In April 2017, Forbes released a new song and music video titled "Two Blown Speakers" with long-time producer ake Bass This marks the first time Forbes had released any new music since 2012's ''Perfect Imperfection''. On December 16, 2018, Forbes organized and co-produced The Deaf And Loud Symphonic Experience in Detroit featuring

Evelyn Glennie Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie, (born 19 July 1965) is a Scottish people, Scottish percussionist. She was selected as one of the two laureates for the Polar Music Prize of 2015. Early life Glennie was born in Methlick, Aberdeenshire in Sco ...

, Mandy Harvey and The

Detroit Symphony Orchestra The Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is an American orchestra based in Detroit, Michigan. Its primary performance venue is Orchestra Hall at the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood. Jader Bignamini is the current music d ...

to a sold-out crowd at Orchestra Hall. The performance featured original songs by Forbes and Jake Bass, covers of popular Detroit songs including several

Motown Motown Records is an American record label owned by the Universal Music Group. It was founded by Berry Gordy Jr. as Tamla Records on June 7, 1958, and incorporated as Motown Record Corporation on April 14, 1960. Its name, a portmanteau of ''moto ...

hits and featuring Motown musicians

Martha Reeves Martha Rose Reeves (born July 18, 1941) is an American R&B and pop singer. She is the lead singer of the Motown girl group Martha and the Vandellas which scored over a dozen hit singles, including "Come and Get These Memories", " Nowhere to R ...

Dennis Coffey Dennis James Coffey (born November 11, 1940) is an American guitarist. He was a studio musician for many soul and R&B recordings, and is well known for his 1971 Top 10 hit single " Scorpio". Biography Coffey learned to play guitar at the ...

, with arrangements from Motown arranger

Paul Riser Paul Riser (born September 11, 1943) is an American trombonist and Motown musical arranger who was responsible for co-writing and arranging dozens of top ten hit records. His legacy as one of the "Funk Brothers" is similar to that of most of the ...

. The performance received rave reviews by

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

. Forbes has mentioned on social media that there are talks to do more shows around the country.

2020 – Present: ''Little Victories'', Super Bowl

On February 21, 2020, Forbes released a new album called ''Little Victories''."
"Freep", February 27th, 2020. Retrieved March 1, 2020. He threw a party at Third Man Record Cass Corridor to celebrate the release. The album also reached number one on several music charts beating out fellow Detroit rappers Eminem & Royce Da 5'9" On February 4, 2022, it was announced that Forbes and fellow deaf rapper Warren "WAWA" Snipe will be performing sign-language interpretations of the headliners' music in the

. This was the first time that sign-language performances have been incorporated into NFL's halftime program.

Awards

* ''2013 Outstanding Hip-Hop Artist/Group''(Detroit Music Awards) * ''2018 Outstanding Rap Composer''(Detroit Music Awards) * ''2019 Outstanding Rap MC''(Detroit Music Awards).

Music Videos/Discography

* ''I'm Deaf'' (2010) * ''Let's Mambo'' (2011)Crain's Detroit Busines
"20 in their 20s"
"Crain's Detroit Business", April 22, 2010. Retrieved March 24, 2011. * ''Hammer'' (2011) * "Perfect Imperfection" (2012) Web Entertainment/D-PAN Entertainment * Watch These Hands (2013) D-PAN Entertainment * Two Blown Speakers (2017) Two Blown Speakers, LLC. * Little Victories (2020) Two Blown Speakers, LLC