Emmanuel "Def Sound" Ricketts

Def Sound (pronouns they/them) is a Black Afro-Caribbean conceptual word artist born and based in South Central LA. Def is a postbinary contemporary hip-hop artist, producer, poet, educator and award-winning academic. Def is Grammy nominated  for their work as a producer on aja monet’s debut album ‘when the poems do what they do’.  

 

Def’s work as a poet has been included in Saul Williams’ Anthology CHORUS, while their music has been featured in Season 4 of ABC’s Grownish, LA WEEKLY, LA Record, The L.A. Times, The Frieze Art Fair, LACMA’s Poetry series POETRY In Color, the art exhibition The Black Index curated by Bridget Cooks, the Emmy Nominated Television series Music Diaries, and the Emmy winning Artbound on KCET. Def’s song I BEEN made KCRW’s list for Best Songs of 2022. Def’s song GOOD GRIEF was also added to Frank Ocean’s curated playlist for HOMER Radio. Most recently Def has been published in the book PROSE TO THE PEOPLE. Def is also an alum of UC Irvine and a recipient of the Lindon W. Barrett award from the School of Humanities. 

 

Def’s latest album FROM SOUTH CENTRAL 2 THE WORLD was up for Grammy consideration for Best Rap Album of 2024.

Def is currently a professor teaching Sonic Collage, Hip Hop Theory & Praxis,  Words For Music, DIY Artist Toolkit, and Black Time & Black Temporarily at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts).  Def is a word worker whose favorite medium is memory. When speaking about their practice Def spoke, “Every truth is a dare. Let’s dare to tell it.”