Deno Driz

Deno Driz, professionally known as Deno and full named Deno Michael Mebrahitu is a British singer/songwriter and actor from London, England. His parents originate from Eritrea, and he was raised in South London. He came to the forefront of London's afro-wave music scene beginning in 2016 with a number of viral music videos.

In 2016, inspired by the enthusiastic response to a vocal performance at his school's end-of-year assembly, he made his first video. When it was posted to Instagram with caption of #imjustbait he gained thousands of followers. Further videos caught the attention of Stormzy, who retweeted one of them, got in touch, and took Deno into the studio with him to guest on his #1 album Gang Signs & Prayer. In 2016 Deno met rapper AJ Jacobs at a Stratford Westfield YouTuber linkup. The two began a creative partnership, beginning with Deno singing the chorus on AJ's track "Know Me." The video netted over 2.5 million views on YouTube. The same year, the pair, often styled Deno & AJ, also recorded the song "How We Do" with singer Timbo. They began performing more consistently, including opening up for Migos at IndigO2.

Deno & AJ were signed by Sony Columbia UK in 2017. They released the singles "Ride or Die" (2017) followed by "London" featuring EO (2018). The video for "London" was streamed over 35 million times. Deno met the rapper Cadet on the set of the short film Shiro's Story Part 3 (2018). His ensuing collaboration with Cadet, the track "Advice," went viral, with over 29 million YouTube views, and reached #14 on the Official Charts with over 500,000 sales, earning a Brit Certified Gold Award. More singles followed, featuring collaborations with Jae5, Geko, Team Salut, Da BeatFreakz, Swarmz, and Sophia Grace. In 2019 he released "First Days," a tribute to Cadet, who had died in a road collision in February of that year. In September 2019 Deno released the single "Change" featuring DigDat, with a video directed by Darnell Depradine. That same month, he teamed with BoohooMan for a 30-piece fashion collection, launched in September 2019. As an actor, in addition to Shiro's Story Part 3, Deno appeared in the 2018 season of Idris Elba's TV series In the Long Run. In late 2019, Deno released another EP. “Eye 2 Eye.” Which currently peaks at #46 on the UK Top 100 charts. On Thursday 5th March 2020 he featured on a single entitled Self-Obsessed by Da BeatFreakz, alongside Krept and Konan, and D-Block Europe which ultimately charted at #26 on The Official Chart Top 40 on Friday March 13th 2020. The following week on March 20th 2020 Self-Obsessed fell down seven places to #33. He later featured on the KSI single Gang Gang alongside Jay1. On Friday 23rd July 2021 Gang Gang entered the Official Chart Top 40 at #40.

Track Discography

 * Know Me (AJ Jacobs and Deno)
 * How We Do (AJ Jacobs & Deno featuring Timbo)
 * London (AJ Jacobs & Deno)
 * London (AJ Jacobs & Deno featuring EO)
 * Advice (Cadet featuring Deno)
 * First Days (Deno)
 * Change (Deno featuring DigDat)
 * Self-Obsessed (Da BeatFreakz featuring Krept and Konan, D-Block Europe, and Deno)
 * Gang Gang (KSI+Jay1+Deno)