I was born in Alabama, raised in Detroit, Chicago and Miami, and have done time (about 5 years) in Michagin, Florida and Oregon (where I am currently). I became a graphic designer, which I'd studied in school, and took the money I earned from that to build my own recording studio. I then decided to push even further and build a record company: I studied production and the record business 8-12 hours every day for 4 years. I produced about 30 or 40 tracks that found their way on to albums, and my hobby turned into a career. 　　 　　I could not have done this if I had not had to go back to Alabama, and bury my father where he was born, I was born, and my forefathers were born. I learned that I had a great potential and decided to take a run at being the complete artist. Realizing I was in the Northwest I knew there wasn't a huge hip-hop market, so I turned myself into an artist as well as a producer, so I could totally create the level of music I wanted to hear. So many times we African-Americans have been told how limited we are, so I took it to the extreme and constructed every aspect of the album, with one criterion: to create something monumental, to give everything that I've got without any weak links. The result is "Slave 323", the album I have today, which is a Southern black boy exercising his right to be an urban diplomat.