Not only did Mr. Deep Positivity’s career officially begin when he went to volunteer to become a Big Brother for Big Brothers of RI but the late former Executive Director, Val Sinesi, became like a Big Brother and manager to MDP.  Val listened to every positive song MDP had recorded and suggested corrections to some of the wording even providing new rhyme lines. He also inspired MDP to write over 200 positive songs not only giving the song titles but the reason why each song was important to create. MDP wrote and recorded every song Val asked him to write! Val also gave MDP the name Mr. Positivity. Before becoming Mr. Deep Positivity he was just known as Deep. During one of the many Big Brother walkathons MDP performed at Val said you should be called Mr. Positivity because your songs are so positive and uplifting. Deep agreed and from that day forward he officially became Mr. Deep Positivity!

 

Big Brother of RI and Val helped launch Mr. Deep Positivity’s rap career in the schools. MDP became the Ambassador of Big Brother of RI in 2002. He went on tour with them for 8 years reaching thousands of students! MDP donated 33% of the proceeds of his 1st CD titled, Deep Lessons for Life to Big Brothers of RI to support their tremendous agency which used to solely provide mentors to fatherless boys. Over $5000 was given to Big Brothers of RI through this fundraiser. 

 

Thanks to Val and the support of Big Brothers of RI the Deep Lessons for Life CD was sponsored several times and given out free to over 5000 students in Rhode Island. Amazingly a millionaires children got a hold of the CD and loved the music and positive messages. They asked their father if they could personally sponsor the CD to be given out free to 1000 inner city children in Providence. The father said yes and 1000 youth received the sponsored CD during MDP’s Summer Concert Tour. Those three children were honored by former RI Governor Donald Carcieri with Citations at the Big Brothers Humanitarian Awards Dinner. 

 

One day Big Brothers of RI were contacted by Lisa Conlan, executive director of the Parent Support Network of RI who asked to purchase 250 Deep Lessons for Life CDs and 250 Children’s Lessons for Life CDs. Those CDs were given to every school in Rhode Island because they are excellent teaching tools. 

 

Mr. Deep Positivity was matched up with his little brother Paris for 6 years and remain friends to this day. Paris was so close to men that he was one of the men of honor in MDP’s wedding and he passed out in excited during the wedding ceremony!

 

MDP met former Miss Rhode Island, Deborah Saint-Vil in one of his Rap classes at the Rhode Island Training School in 2010. MDP’s class was in the process of recording a song and asked Miss RI to sing on it since her talent was singing. Her voice was amazing and the song called, Choose Life was featured on MDP’s Healthy Lessons for Life CD. Miss RI asked MDP all about what he does and she decided to tour with Mr. Deep Positivity during her entire reign as Miss Rhode Island! Not only did she appear at many of his on stage performances but she also became the special guest co-host of his award winning TV show titled, Deep Lessons for Life. She also volunteered as an instructor in his Nonviolent Verses Rap class at several schools for the entire year!  Miss Rhode Island recorded several songs with MDP including his hit songs titled, Believe and Beauty in You which are also featured on his Healthy Lessons for Life CD. 

 

In 2010 Mr. Deep Positivity was selected as one of the Top 100 unsigned artists of the year for the Urban Music Awards. He has invited to attend their gala celebration in New York and walked the red carpet with his lovely wife Michelle. 

 

MDP, a former member of Sonicbids, read about the Life in the Years contest to benefit senior citizens with Alzheimer’s. Winning song submissions would be included in a compilation CD featuring recording legends Carly Simon and Natalie Merchant. As MDP read the submission request he started hearing the words to the song he would title, Nothin’ but a Number. With only an hour and forty five minutes before the submission closed MDP wrote, recorded and submitted the song. That song was one of the winners of the contest and MDP later learned he was selected out of 150,000 entrants to be on that CD compilation! What a tremendous honor!

 

MDP learned of a contest for Earthday 2010 that wanted songs about saving the planet from global warming and pollution. He helped his After school program called, Nonviolent Verses, write and record the song titled, Save the World in only two classes because the deadline was fast approaching and his class only met once per week.  That song finished in second place in the National Contest and MDP and his students received an all expenses paid trip to the Nation’s capitol to perform the song in the National Mall for Earthday 2010. His students opened up the Earthday celebration with their song and shared the same stage that legends Sting, John Legend and the Roots later performed on. It was an unforgettable weekend!  MDP’s students performed their song on the Road Show which aired throughout New England. The most amazing thing was most of these students near rapped or performed before and they all did an incredible job!

 

MDP entered the My Plate Fruits and Veggies Video Contest and won 1st place in the country with his Wrap Rap song and video for the best tips for eating healthy at home. He received a nice cash stipend and certificate from the USDA for his victory! This song led him to the creation of his Healthy Lessons for Life CD that he wrote for former 1st lady Michelle Obama to promote her Play 60, Let’s Move and Health Eating initiatives. Amazingly performing those songs at an Eat Healthy RI event led MDP to become the Healthy Ambassador of RI and tour every school in his hometown of Providence, RI through sponsorship from a grant from the Mayor's Healthy Communities Office.  During the Healthy Ambassador’s Tour he reached over 18,000 students in 18 months and also gave out sponsored 500 CDs to students who competed in his How To Be Healthy contest. At the end of the contest students winning artwork was showcased in a special art gallery set up in the Downtown Providence public library and the city sponsored a huge kickoff event hosted by MDP and the mayor’s Healthy Communities Office. MDP seeks to duplicate this contest at the National level to get youth across the country doing positive projects that  create youth leaders!

 

During that summer MDP was contracted to do the most difficult summer tour of his career performing at 57 outdoor free lunch sites in Providence in only 5 weeks. Amazingly he completed the tour and his performances increased the free lunch participation of youth across the city!

 

Parent Support Network (PSN) has continued to be an avid supporter of Mr. Deep Positivity over his 20 year career. For two consecutive years PSN acquired grants from DCYF to fund the facilitation of Mr. Deep Positivity’s juvenile delinquency prevention curriculum called, the Deep Lessons for Life. This curriculum was written by Mr. Deep Positivity and infuses his music, fun activities and professional instruction to create student leaders who get to teach back what they’ve learned for a special episode of MDP’s Deep Lessons for Life TV show. Thanks to PSN over 150 youth were trained and 8 classes had their TV show air statewide in RI. PSN also helped make one of MDP’s dreams come true by soliciting a grant that allowed for MDP to tour 10 schools in Providence and host a Positive behavior and Attendance competition. During his school tour the top school with the best attendance and least amount of negative behaviors reported won free CDs of Deep Lessons for Life or Children’s Lessons for Life for the entire school. Thanks to PSN three entire schools won free CDs and 1000 CDs were distributed to the students!

 

For his entire career MDP has been telling youth to keep it positive and follow their dreams! One day he was heard performing at an outdoor block party in Providence by a new organization called Providence Promise. This organization helps students save for and pay for college. MDP was asked to write the Providence Promise song and became the Ambassador of Providence Promise. He went on a Follow Your Dreams tour of many of the elementary and middle schools in Providence reaching over 8000 youth!  He also hosted and performed at amazing family fun night events where families enjoy food, entertainment from MDP, student performances and students won prizes for the best projects on how they would follow their dreams. The Follow Your Dreams tour with Providence Promise was featured in Forbes Magazine online and had nearly 200,000 views! MDP’s efforts helped Providence Promise Recruit over 2500 families into the program!  For the 1st time in MDP’s career he not only told youth to follow their dreams but now he provided them with an agency that could financially help their dreams come true!

 

In 2020 MDP received a grant from the RI Department of Health (RIDOH) in partnership with Bethel AME Church in Providence, RI to create a video to teach youth how to protect themselves and their families from Covid 19. A day after he was awarded the grant he found out he tested positive for the Corona Virus and became very ill. After a month long severe battle with the virus he finally was fully recovered on Christmas Day. He shortly wrote and recorded the Covid 19 - Beat this thing song based on the researched guidelines he was provided. He created the Covid 19 - Beat this thing music video with the help of youth from Bethel AME church and George Johnson his liaison at the church. The video was submitted to the RIDOH and they loved it stating it is the best Covid 19 prevention video they’ve seen. The RIDOH has been circulating the video throughout RI using it is help youth and adults across the state be equipped to beat Covid 19!  

 

MDP has been rapping for over 27 years and quit college to follow his dream of becoming a rap star. Many will be surprised to know that he wasn’t always a positive rapper. In fact he was a professional freestyle rapper who got famous on the streets of Providence for battle rapping and saying the most vile things. After being robbed two times for his studio equipment by so called friends MDP separated from negative influences including bad friends and bad music. He found faith in God and threw away over 100 negative songs vowing to never say another bad word, degrade women or battle rap again. MDP almost got a record deal with his negative rap music. Thankfully he never signed that deal or his destiny could have been very different. 

 

He left his full time job in 2002 and started Deep Righteous Record in the same year to pursue his dream. It has been an amazing journey full of struggles, obstacles and triumph. He now seeks to equip the next generation of youth to follow in his footsteps and show them the power of spreading Deep Positivity!