Denace

Beginning of Career

Denace first started to gain popularity after performing on Greece's Got Talent, performing songs such as "Tired of Being Broke", "Just Like That", and "Fuck Wit Me". He made it to the finals before being eliminated. He then started to upload videos to YouTube in 2009. His song, "Letter 2 Myself", became a big hit online driving in thousands of views. He soon gained popularity mainly for his voice and flow similarities to Eminem.

The Gift and The Curse

In 2012, Denace stated he was working and ready to release his debut album titled "The Gift and the Curse". This title stemmed from the gift of him having much talent in rap, but the curse of sounding much like Eminem. Majority of the album's production came from Allrounda Beats and Sinima Beats. The single "Love Ballad" from the album was a huge success increasing the hype for the album. The album also included remasters such as "Tired of Being Broke". The album also includes the hit song "Farewell".

On April 20, 2013, Denace released The Gift and the Curse to much success. The album charted top 20 on iTunes rap albums.

New Beginnings

After the success of his first album, Denace stated that he would be working on another album for a release in 2014. Denace released a single titled "Watch the Flames" sampling Ed Sheeran's "I See Fire" which became a big hit on his channel. On April 15, 2014, Denace released 'New Beginnings' which entered the charts once again, hitting the 20th spot on the iTunes rap albums chart.

Dead End EP

After the success of both albums, Denace announced a break-up EP for a release in early 2015 titled Dead End. Three singles were released from the EP, titled 'Drinking About You' and 'Find My Peace', and 'Let's Be Real'. The EP was released on March 24, 2015. It broke top 30 on the iTunes best rap albums charts but didn't follow up to the success of his other projects. The album proved to be a flop.

Denace later stated that he would be taking a break from rap to straighten out personal issues in his life.

The Final Chapter

On June 1, 2015 Denace released a new single titled "Assassin" indicating his return to the rap game. On June 10, 2015 Denace announced that he was working on a new album set for release in late 2015. Denace confirmed that the project will not contain any love/break-up songs.

On September 16, Denace released a new single titled "Ronda Rousey". The single was originally scheduled for a September 7 release but didn't come out as expected. This same problem happened with the release of Dead End EP. The single eventually released for both, Google Play and iTunes.

On November 30, 2015, Denace officially announced the album to be titled "The Final Chapter". It will be a storytelling album. Denace also stated that the album include production of his own, while his past albums were produced by others (e.g. Sinima,Allrounda, etc.).

On December 8, 2015, Denace announced via Facebook, that the album will be available for pre-order on December 14, with an official release date set for December 21.

On December 10, 2015, Denace has said that the album is called "The Final Chapter", is because he said he will end a point of his life and move on.

Upcoming 2016 Album

On December 17, 2015, Denace officially announced, via Instagram, that a new album is in the works and will follow up to his upcoming album 'The Final Chapter', confirming he'll continue making albums. Not much is known about the new album, but a snippet to a new song was released on his Instagram page, along with the albums announcement. The album is set for a Spring 2016 release.

Personal life

Dennis Maniatakis was born on May 1, 1985 in Athens, Greece. Although he was born in Greece, he moved to Chicago, Illinois when he was six months old. He moved back to Greece when he was 21 years old and stayed for about 4 years before moving back to Chicago. He started posting his music to YouTube in 2009 under the name "Nasty" and eventually changed his stage name to Denace as he grew more popular. In 2007, Denace was a contestant on Greece's Got Talent (video mistakenly claims it is The X Factor) and made it all the way to the finals but ended up losing. In 2015, on his YouTube channel, Denace announced he would be taking a break from making music after the release of his third album to sort out his life before making a return to music. He then announced his departure from music would be dependent on the sales of his 3rd album for financial reasons.

In his podcast series with Dispencery7, Denace said he was working on ending a cigarette addiction he's had for years. A few weeks later, he eventually announced, via Instagram, that he ended his cigarette addiction (Although, due to recent posts on his Instagram page, he may have gotten back on his addiction.

On October 15, 2015, Denace was mentioned by Tamara Dhia from a Youtube video from the channel of Complex magazine. A Norwegian rapper who goes by the name of "Mads Veslelia" was blowing up into popularity on the internet. Just like Denace, Mads Veslelia was noticed because he was also compared to Eminem because of his voice and style. Tamara Dhia has mentioned Denace on the video and showed a sample of Denace's music video of "No Lies".

Influences

Denace as "Nasty" mentioned on a youtube video called "I Am Nasty" he listened to a lot of rappers who were signed to No Limit Records. Mystikal was his favorite rapper, and said that he was the reason why Denace wanted to become a rapper in the first place. Denace also said Eminem is one of the rappers who influenced him, even if he sounded like him.

In a Q&A video he did with fellow rapper, Dispencery7, Denace said he's been a fan of Eminem since he first blew up with his debut album, The Slim Shady LP. In the video, Denace said when he first heard the song "My Name Is", he thought the song was garbage and never bothered to listen to Eminem. Several months later, a friend told him to listen to The Slim Shady LP and when he did, he became a fan.

Controversy

Denace has always drawn comparison to hip-hop artist Eminem due to the similar voice and flow he has. This has led to many of his songs being re-posted on YouTube by other users claiming they are new or unreleased Eminem songs, even though they are songs by Denace that were all posted long before on his official channel.

The controversy began once Denace released a Diss track titled "Die Already" against the rapper Soulja Boy. His track had the same instrumental that was used for Eminem's diss track "The Warning", which was targeting the singer Mariah Carey. Many anonymous youtubers downloaded Denace's track from his myspace account, and uploaded the track as a video having Eminem's name on it instead. In August 3, 2009, Eminem posted on Twitter saying he didn't release the diss track targeting Soulja Boy as he said,"Wow whoever made "Die Already" really does sound like me. But it ain't."

On May 28, 2015, a user on YouTube posted a video claiming it to be a leaked track by Hopsin titled 'Crown Me King.' It turns out, the song was actually a freestyle Denace posted on his YouTube page years earlier (Titled "Queer - Hopsin Diss") that was re-uploaded under Hopsin's name. This caused outrage when Hopsin fans commented on the video, claiming that Denace created a fake YouTube page as a way to spam his music.