Deadlee

Joseph Thomas Lee, better known by his stage name Deadlee, is an American rapper and songwriter. He is based in Los Angeles, California, is of Mexican American and African American descent, and launched his career in 2000. In 2002, he released his critically acclaimed first album 7 Deadlee Sins. The follow-up album, Assault With a Deadlee Weapon, was released in late 2006.

Deadlee is known for his lyrics, which tackle subjects such as race, class, sexuality and police brutality. On July 15, 2013, he changed his name to Joseph Thomas LeMar when he married his partner. The name is the combination of his last name and Martinez, the last name of his partner. To support Assault With a Deadlee Weapon, Deadlee toured with a number of other LGBT rappers on the "Homo Revolution" tour, managed by Camilo Arenivar.

In June 2009, Deadlee made four appearances in the prestigious Fresh Meat Festival, a trés moderne variety show spotlighting the cream of LGBT performers. He began with an angry spoken word piece written during a college tour, and moved into two classic Deadlee 2213 songs, the dance anthem "Nasty" and "Carnival in My Mind". Deadlee was acclaimed as both riveting and ferocious, surprising and astonishing the audience and proving himself a superb performer, able to bring the goods in any venue, gay or otherwise.

2012–present: Turn to acting Deadlee has made serious inroads into the movie industry as an actor, appearing in several films including the 'hood comedies', Hoochie Mamma Drama and Getting High in the Barrio. He also made an appearance as a homeless junkie in the Bruce LaBruce zombie thriller, L.A. Zombie, and as Pharmacy Punk in Rampart. He starred in Los Angeles' longest running play Eavesdropper. DEADLEE has shifted his focus to writing with a script for the upcoming satirical comedy CHOLO #1 based partially on his days auditioning in Hollywood. A new documentary AKA DEADLEE directed by Quentin Lee is slated for a 2023 release. DEADLEE is also host of the podcast "DEADLEE USA" where he formerly came out as an "America 1st Republican" supporting 2024 Republican candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

Public reception He received considerable press coverage with articles or reviews in the now defunct QV magazine, LA Weekly, The Advocate, Frontiers magazine and Urb. and CNN, after he announced a spring tour called "HomoRevolution Tour 2007" and attacked Eminem, DMX, and 50 Cent as "homophobic". The tour was reported in the British Guardian newspaper and Deadlee appeared on The Tyra Banks Show with Tori Fixx and Foxxjazell.

Despite his notoriety as a controversial gay rapper, Deadlee has also contributed music to On the Downlow, directed by Tadeo Garcia, and Vengeance, directed by Daniel Zirilli. Both movies include songs from Assault with a Deadlee Weapon. Deadlee demonstrated his acting skills in Zirilli's gangbanger drama. He is member of the Screen Actors Guild. In 2006, he made film festival appearances in support of the homohop documentary, Pick Up the Mic, in which he appears. He also appears on the Logo network's documentary series, Hip Hop Homos.

Discography Title Release date Label Format Catalog 1 7 Deadlee Sins 2002 D&D Records CD 2 Assault With a Deadlee Weapon August 15, 2006 Bombastic Records 100546