D'aveli, born Damien Vivona in New Jersey on April 28, 1976 to Benedict and Charlene Vivona, grew up with a love of music inspired by his father, who played saxophone for such music greats as George Benson & Frankie Valli. His musical interests range from Kiss, Guns And Roses to Beastie Boys, Kid Rock and Notorious B.I.G. Damien followed the music career of Tupac Shakur aka Makaveli so closely that his friends in the music world dubbed him "D'aveli". In his early 20's, Damien worked in the packing and shipping department for Leisure Time Music with Manny G. Wells , a rack jobber in New York, where he learned a lot about the business aspects of the music industry. He also was an aspiring young artist that played left handed guitar and wrote all his own music and rapped. He took advantage of an opportunity and in a bold move bought the public domain trademark of the famous Casablanca Record & FilmWorks, home to such popular acts as Kiss, The Village People, Donna Summer, and Parliament Funkadelic. He produced and directed the documentary "Inside The Casbah", A History Of Casablanca Record & FilmWorks.