"Making music wasn't something I decided to do," the producer/emcee says. "It's been the one constant in my life as far back as I can remember."
He wrote his first rhyme at 7, and by third grade, he'd teamed up with a classmate to perform popular rap songs to entertain while their fellow students as they waited on the school bus. He took part in his first rap battle at 13 and produced his first beat (using his cousin's karaoke machine and a keyboard he received for Christmas) a year later.
As he approached his early 20s, he began establishing a presence in the local hip hop scene, hosting weekly hip hop gathering Critical Breakdown, snatching the spotlight during ciphers, or producing tracks for other up-and-comers. His profile was heightened even further when he joined forces with Boston indie rap label Acuta Records, releasing several mixtapes and albums as part of duo StormSession and the label's rap supergroup Pangea Pham.
While being born and bred in Boston helped Session discover his passion and talent for music, leaving the Bean helped him mature both as a man and a musician. After a short stint in New Orleans, he settled in Atlanta and began enlisting in beat battles, performing at open mics and networking with music professionals. An internship at Dallas Austin's Rowdy Records gave him an opportunity to produce tracks for label artist Sy Scott, learn the ins and outs of the industry, and make connections with some of A-Town's music elite. He recognizes how his transition from up north to down south has helped shape and strengthen his sound.
"I was brought up around lyrical music, and I was raised on all the 'golden-era' greats you can think of. I'm lyrical first. I think I have all the qualities of an East Coast emcee," he says. "But the band culture in the south also opened my mind musically," I've been able to grow just from being immersed in a different culture and meshing it with my culture."
Now, his insightful rhymes sound right at home couched inside artful production that's equal parts melodic boom bap, bass-heavy banger, and soulful street anthem.
His concept mixtape albums, including Too Much TV (with fellow emcee Willie Beamen), The F*uck Love EP and 20/20 Vision have proven to be the perfect platform for putting his cool, calculating and creative mind set on display. Plying his experiences for universal truths, he translates his ideas and emotions into a language anyone can understand and a sound everyone can feel.
"My music is about being who you are and letting people be who they are,” he says. It's about taking charge of your life. It's about believing in yourself and others. It's about love, sex, money, drugs, and violence and the effects they have on our communities and ourselves." He’s like the ghetto’s guy-next-door: tall, dark and handsome, young, gifted and Black, that likeable dude who understands the game, and his music strives to raise the stakes and even the playing field so that everyone can win.
