Sean Patrick Forbes (born February 5, 1982) is a Deaf American hip hop recording artist.
[3] D-PAN has created videos for John Mayer, Christina Aguilera, Eminem, White Stripes, Owl City, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Clark Sisters, Imagine Dragons, and more.
In 2010, Sean signed a record deal with Web Entertainment, the same label that discovered and produced Eminem, and released his first song "I'm Deaf" with a music video.
In 2011, he released his 2nd single "Let's Mambo" with Academy Award winning actress Marlee Matlin playing his love interest.
After his 3rd year at RIT, he decided to take a leave of absence from school and move back home to Detroit to figure out what was next for him.
While attending The Detroit Music Awards, Sean met recording studio owner and Eminem publisher Joel Martin.
[9] Realizing that it would be tough to make it in the music business Sean returned to RIT to continue his education eventually completing a bachelor's degree in 2008.
Reaching out to a friend, Adrean Mangiardi, who was studying film at RIT, Sean asked him if he could make a music video of him signing Eminem's song "Lose Yourself".
[10] Upon making the video Forbes called Joel Martin, owner of 54 sound, whom he had been emailing for over a year now if he could stop by the studio to show him something he had been working on.
The first ASL music video that they created was for a song called Where'd You Go by Fort Minor, a group founded by Mike Shinoda (famous for his role in Linkin Park).
This upset Forbes thinking that musicians didn't want to make their music accessible to the 30 million plus members of the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing community.
Due to a lack of a partner to work with and great music to write to, Forbes was making his own beats but didn't feel that the material was strong enough to do something with.
During this time Forbes was traveling the country going to deaf-related events sharing the D-PAN videos with audiences and making a name for himself.
Working together for the first time since college, they instantly bonded again and Mangiardi proceeded to film Forbes performing "I'm Deaf".
Not mentioning her name, many people knew immediately whom Forbes was talking about, academy award-winning actress Marlee Matlin.
In addition to touring the United States and Canada, his travels also included trips to Israel, Norway, England, Australia, New Zealand, France.
Perfect Imperfection was well received by the Detroit music community and enabled Forbes to draw large audiences across the country.
Forbes went on a 2-week tour of Israel playing performances in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem to rave reviews with his band.
In 2016 DPAN.TV made history by producing an accessible broadcast of the presidential debates with sign language interpreters on the screen, viewed by over half a million across the country.
In April 2017, Forbes released a new song and music video titled "Two Blown Speakers" with long-time producer [Jake Bass].
The album also reached number one on several music charts alongside fellow Detroit rappers Eminem & Royce Da 5'9" On February 13, 2022, Forbes and fellow Deaf rapper Warren "WAWA" Snipe performed sign-language interpretations of the headliners' music in the Super Bowl LVI halftime show.