At 16, DeVanté Swing traveled to Minneapolis, hoping to visit Paisley Park in order to audition for Prince.[2][3] Swing would later say, "I was up at Paisley Park every day begging for a job, asking people to listen to my tape. The receptionist kept saying she couldn't help me".[4] The rejection motivated Swing to relocate back to North Carolina, and work to improve his songwriting and production skills.[5]
In his early career, Swing served as a mix engineer, while simultaneously producing for other acts. He mix-engineered Hi-Five’s "I Just Can't Handle It" as well as producing several remixes for the track. Swing rose to prominence in the 1990s as the founding member of the R&B group Jodeci, one of the most notable R&B acts of all time.[6] Swing served as the main songwriter, producer and leader of the group. Jodeci also featured his younger brother Dalvin DeGrate. Swing is also credited for discovering several groundbreaking acts such as Timbaland & Magoo, Digital Black, & Smoke E Diggelera of Dru Hill, Tweet,Missy Elliott,[7]Ginuwine, Stevie J and Static Major. He is also credited as a video director for Jodeci, co-directing the videos for "Feenin'" with the legendary Hype Williams and "Freek'n You" with Brett Ratner.
Swing also mentored Flo Rida[8] in the early stages of his career.
