Deondre Charelle, known as the artist Duke Charelle, is a collective of musicians that toured from the group Parliament-Funkadelic.

 

Deondre grew up in a musical family and started playing classical music beginning with the clarinet at an early age of 8. He was fond of a variety of music, mostly R&B until he heard Eric Clapton and Parliament Funkadelic and then knew that he wanted to fuse genres and transition into rock music. While in middle school, he joined the Jazz band playing bass and after moving to Michigan to live with his father, he had a literal dream at age 16 of being on stage playing guitar that inspired him to teach himself f to play the guitar, to read music and go after his dream. He would practice for hours for perfection. It was also in high school that Deondre became interested in poetry slams and writing music. And, with great zest to perform, he took a song he wrote for history class at Ann Arbor to the infamous folk music venue the Ark. By Senior year at the teen club The Neutral Zone he took fourth place in a solo guitar battle.

 

Deondre transferred to Eastern Michigan University after being accepted to Berklee college to be closer to his family. There he began to play around the college scenes, performing at various charities. However, it was not until senior year and running into Parliament-Funkadelic, Deondre learned secrets of his mother’s side of the family and that she used to perform with them. He in-turn later began performing with them at events. He was more inspired and kept pushing the limits of learning and performing music.

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 In 2018, Deondre began to produce his first album. He wrote all the lyrics and many of the bass lines. While, at the same time, he was producing, performing, and working with Yorg Kerasotis, and T Money Green (a producer who has worked with The Dramatics, Snoop Dogg, and Dr. Dre) with the production of their act Lin-Say. Duke Charelle, on his first album Beyond the Magic Mirror released through Sony AMG Toronto, also teamed up with Prince ex-drummer Dean Ragland who has played with everyone from George Clinton to Booty Collins. The first album can be described as psychedelic pushing the envelope and capturing the material and spiritual essence of life’s ups and downs.

 

Duke Charelle has won numerous awards for his music and performances. Apart from being a part of the NME Online Music Awards live performances for a consecutive five years he has taken home the Akedemia Music Awards in 2016 for Best Funk Song, Tantric Dance. Duke Charelle's single "Liquid Galaxies (Grains of Sand)", reached Billboard Top 100 chart, with rank #22 on the compilation album "Hotline Miami: Vol #3, as well as #6 on iTunes charts. Duke Charelle writes from personal experiences with expansive psychedelic thought to transcend beyond the self. His work has inspired many and he sees the future of much more music that inspires to come.