Michael “Deuces II” Cunningham II, native of Cincinnati and relevant in its rap scene, is announcing a new project titled “II Hand Smoke”, slated to drop July 28th. Cunningham joined forces with Picturemusic LLC and produced the theme song for Safeguard’s #safeguardsplash TikTok advertising campaign. Since the song debuted on June 1st, the challenge and song has been tagged in 34.8 thousand videos, with hashtag views north of 1 billion, as well as garnering the attention of Good Morning America.

“Cincinnati musician Michael Lee Cunningham II, known as deuces101 to his SoundCloud followers and fans, began pursuing music when he was just 13 years old and has been heavily involved in the Cincinnati music scene ever since.” - CityBeat “Cincinnati Musician Creates Theme Song for Viral #SafeguardSplash TikTok Challenge” GRACE DEARING JUN 24, 2020

The new project has been teased through a video series titled “Sessions 101”, a compilation of live studio sessions with Deuces laying down a verse in one take. Tracks include entirely original works as well as his own interpretation of chart toppers, such as his own verse over an instrumental from J Cole’s 1985. Deuces is hoping to take the momentum of Safeguard’s TikTok challenge and channel it into his solo career.

The marketing campaign from Safeguard intended to promote awareness of proper hygienic standards amid the CoVID-19 pandemic. By encouraging users to create videos of their own creative take on washing your hands for 20 seconds, Deuces’ song has ballooned in exposure. As videos continue to be created and viewed under the hashtag, #safeguardsplash has racked up 1.5 billion hashtag views.