Deuce

Aron Erlichman (born March 2, 1983), better known by his stage name Deuce, is an American rapper, music producer and guitarist.

Deuce began creating rock-based music under his birth name of Aron Erlichman, early in 2005.

In 2005, he released four tracks—"Franny", "Surface Air", "Breaking Through", and "Sometimes"—from his first EP called The Aron EP on Broadjam, an Internet sharing site.

Upon signing with A&M/Octone with Hollywood Undead in 2008, Deuce states that he was also signed as a solo artist.

He released his first four-track EP, The Two Thousand Eight EP, which contained songs "The One", "Gravestone", "Hollyhood Vacation" (featuring Truth) and "Deuce Dot Com", all of which would four years later be remastered and released within his début album, the latter of the two being bonus tracks.

The EP was released through iTunes and received little success.

Shortly after Deuce was evicted from the band, the EP disappeared from iTunes.

Deuce accused the label of breaching the original contract terms and later sued the company under this accusation.

Deuce discovered a loophole that revealed he was permitted to produce remixes and mixtape-style songs using the instrumentals of other musicians, so long as he did not incur a profit.

A few EPs were released, the Swan Songs B-Sides EP and the Swan Songs Rarities EP in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

In 2009, Hollywood Undead released their first live album, Desperate Measures, which peaked at number 29 on the Billboard 200.

In late 2009, Deuce left Hollywood Undead, due to differences within the band members.

The first song he wrote following his departure was a song titled "Story of a Snitch" about Hollywood Undead, the 'snitch' allegedly being about Hollywood Undead member J-Dog, with the lyrics consisting mainly of obscenities and insults directed towards Hollywood Undead, also making claims such as he was kicked out of the band and that members of the band were "tryin' to spit just like me [Deuce] but they don't have it".

In an interview with YouTube interviewer BryanStars, Hollywood Undead members Johnny 3 Tears and Da Kurlzz were asked why Deuce had left the band, revealing that he was not working well with the band and that they had to "bend over backwards to accommodate Deuce in a lot of ways..." and also that he held them back on their song writing quality." Deuce in a different interview with BryanStars however stated that the band were in fact jealous of his leading role in the band and that he was fully responsible for the band's current position. Also, Hollywood Undead stated that Deuce required a personal assistant, revealed to be Jimmy Yuma, now Deuce's guitarist and lyricist, and Yuma replied that Deuce paid him himself, not the band, to set equipment up and to tour with him; the confusion was that the band also paid him to set up their equipment separately. Deuce also commented that on one tour, the band was waiting for him in order to fly to their next destination and blamed it on Deuce for being late; however Deuce had stated that the manager told him that the band had broken up and was not touring.

During an interview with JackedUp Radio, Deuce states that one of the disputes he had with Hollywood Undead was over having a personal Twitter account; Deuce claims that when he began to connect with fans over Twitter he was told that "if you keep twittering, you're not going to be allowed to go on tour".

Brought to fame as a member of the rap rock band Hollywood Undead, Deuce departed from Hollywood Undead in 2010 and has since moved on to solo work through the label "Five Seven Music", a branch of Eleven Seven Music.

He was formerly involved in a movement with fellow rapper Truth (Vardan Aslanyan) called "Nine Lives" (often stylized as both "9LIVES" and "IX LIVES").

He later co-founded Hollywood Undead with Jorel Decker and Jeff Phillips, and sang clean vocals and produced instrumentals for the band, until his departure from the band in early 2010.

In September 2010, Deuce made his first official live performance as a solo artist at California's Epicenter music festival, opening for Eminem, Blink-182, Kiss, Bush, Rise Against, and others.

In September 2011, The Call Me Big Deuce EP was released as the first collective release of material by American singer-rapper Deuce as an independent solo-artist.

Consisting of 14 previously released songs, the mixtape contains verses over instrumentals by 50 Cent, Eminem, Tupac Shakur, B.o.B and Jay-Z.

The mixtape did not contain the previously released songs "Freaky Now", "Surface Air" and "Now You See My Life", which would later be released with his debut album a year later.

Deuce completed work for his debut album in late 2011.

The lead single, "Let's Get It Crackin'", was released November 28, 2011, with an accompanying music video and features Jeffree Star.

Deuce released his debut album of the same name on April 24, 2012, which sold 11,425 copies in its first week.

Deuce has also collaborated with artists NXTREADY, Ronnie Radke, Brokencyde and Blood on the Dance Floor.

In early February 2012, three more pre-Hollywood Undead tracks were released and surfaced, including "Far Away", "Fallen Stone", and "Dreams".

Deuce co-founded the band Hollywood Undead as a vocalist and producer with close friend Jorel Decker (J-Dog).

The band began their musical career with the creation of the rap-rock song "The Kids", which was greatly promoted by Jeffree Star.

Deuce initially adopted and recorded songs with the band under the pseudonym "Tha Producer" due to his role in production but shortened this pseudonym to "Tha Prodeuca" and then "Deuce" not long after.

At the time of Deuce's departure, Hollywood Undead had gained success with Swan Songs, which peaked at number 22 on the Billboard 200 in its first week.

The album was scheduled to be released March 27, 2012, by Five Seven Music; however, it was pushed back until April 24, 2012.

The album artwork for Nine Lives was released on February 10 by Loudwire, who also announced that Deuce would be joining artists Blood on the Dance Floor, Brokencyde, The Bunny The Bear, William Control, New Years Day, Polkadot Cadaver, and Haley Rose on the Fight To Unite Tour.

The album's second single, "America", was initially set to be released for January 2012, but was released a week early on January 10 due to a leak of the full music video in December 2011.

Deuce commented on the album saying, "This album has that signature Deuce sound and is similar in flavor to what I created on Swan Songs, but completely unrestricted and rated NC-17. I took some of the shit I couldn't get away with on Swan Songs and brought it to another level for Nine Lives. If you liked what I did before, you will love this...".

The album's third and final single before release was titled "Help Me".

The song makes fun of the music industry as a whole and particularly James Diener of A&M/Octone.

The song was finally released on March 27.

In an interview by Gibson guitars, Deuce talked about the inspiration of his single "America".

"I was just going through a weird time, and I was really down. Then I said, 'I don't care how bad my life is, I'm just going to accept it and use it to my advantage".