I grew up in Detroit Michigan, Dec. 21 1970 in the heart of wintertime. Home of the Historic and legendary Motown.

I got interested doing music when I went to my grandmothers house and played on her Grand Piano when I was seven years old. I loved the way melodys made me feel and I wanted to create something that would make other people feel the way I was feeling. I made a sound decision to learn an instrument. My father was a master at playing the guitar, he used to play in the streets and in the alleys with the other older fellows in the hood. People used to gather around and sip on their wine and drink their beer as they listened to the ghetto harmonies of the block, it was cool so I knew what I wanted to do. But, I was determined to take it to another level. My grandmother used to tell me stories of how she used to braid Diana Ross's hair as a child and how Diana would go on blabbing about how she was gonna grow up to be a famous singer and everybody in the world would love her voice. These was the type of stories that used to stick in my head. My grandmothers son [my fathers dad] used to sing with Jackie Wilson, so as you see music ran in my family. I was also a very talented artist, a second quality that I picked up from my father.

I always loved music and art my entire life but as I got older I tried to define which would benefit me the most in the future. I thought it would have been art, so I asked my grandmother to invest in me and buy me an artist kit, you know with the tripod and paint, paint brushes, easel and all, and this was very expensive, but she didn't care and I began my art work, I figured if I start at a young age I would be somewhere as an adult, but as I got older and I studied the history of art and artist, I soon learned it is very very hard to make a living of off art coming from the ghetto streets of Detroit. It simply was not a market for it, so I just continued art as a hobbie. I then started to notice people on television spinning, twisting and flipping around like magical Yogas, this was "The Breakdance Phenominal", which in turn introduced The Hip Hop Culture. This here was perfect for me because it was something I can truly relate to. THE ART OF THE GHETTO. It was something that allowed me to keep my art [graffitti] keep my music [Rap] and learn this new dance to make me look like a floating Kung Fu Artist [breakdancing] and on top of all this, it was really cool and you belonged, you was special, you was a somebody.

This was truly a time when things was at it's worst in Detroit, drugs was at an all time high, murders was going on every single day, gunshots would rang out right outside of our doorsteps, and as we would wake up to go to school we would see the aftermath of blood and gore still stuck on the sidewalk from the previous murder the night before. It was so frequent that we all became somewhat apathetic, and was trained to "mind your own business and you'll be fine", so when the Hip hop era came into play, this was a perfect escape for all of the youths of Michigan to get into something other than drugs.

So I became an Emcee, a Hip Hopper, a B-Boy, and I dedicated my life to the art because although we was poor, this was something that brought us all "GREAT JOY". In a nut shell we became a very popular crew, I teamed up with some kids from another neighborhood, [*see that was the good thing about Hip Hop, if you had something to bring to the table, you could go to other hoods and join in with other crews, because you now had something in common with em' all.] they took me in as there brother and we battled crews, dancing, challenging, etc. By this time, another part of Hip Hop was growing and growing fast, [RAP] So during rehearsal time we would say stupid rhymes and make the girls laugh as we were doing the dozen in rhyme format. This is very popular style now with Eminem. [* as a matter of fact!!! the very exact neighborhood they showed on 8 Mile, was the very exact neighborhood we did all of our Hip Hoppin' in! I'll get back to this later.] As the years went by, Breakdancing started to play out, {only to Detroiters}, and drugs started picking back up. But me and my rhyme partner Larry Lumpkin "Diamond Dog" [which is currently number 1 on the charts across sea's with "In The Church"] we both kept the rhyme thing going. People used to laugh at us and tell us we was played out. "Yall fools still rappin? Ya'll need to get this real money." And this was the mentality or our native Detroiter. So we kept rapping, and by the time people realized that rap was not going out of style we had developed a style that made us untouchable, being true Hip hoppers, we respected the game of coming Original and developing Original Styles, so we called ourselves The Original Crew.

Well, I can go on and on and on about what Original Crew did to Detroit, as a matter of fact, everyone that is someone in the music industry that is from Detroit MI with the exception of "Xhibit" knows about the "Original Crew". From Eminem, Esham, Proof, D-12, Slum Village, J.D, George Clinton and our really good friend "Amp Fiddler", who's debut video is on VH1 as we speak........... entitled "Waltz of a Ghetto Fly", this is when I knew music was gonna make money for me one way or another.

We had the honor of opening concerts for "New Kids on The Block", "Kid N Play", "MTV Club Tour", "Anita Baker" won first place at televised "Showtime at The Apollo" Won the "Rap Up The Summer contest with MC Hammer" did a commercial on Fox TV, opened more concerts for "Biggie Smalls", "Death Row camp" "Rage" Dogg Pound Gangsta's" "Snoop", "Da Brat", "Bone Thugs In Harmony", this was a Tour for an artist we got signed to Def Jam called "LaRocko Tee", this is when we became record producers, figured we had the talent, might as well get paid for it. So we continued producing, with the pleasures of producing tracks for George Clinton, DJ Quik, AMG, MC Breed, Amp Fiddler, Mokenstef, Forshe', Paul Hill, Legendary Holland Dozier Holland, Scarface, 7 Mile, and a gang of others artists. Our label work includeds jobs for Universal, Motown, Biv 10, Def Jam, Priority, Koch, MCA, RAL, HDH, Laface Records and more.

I've been out the game for a minute, but I'm now making a comeback like MASE, my latest achievements has been producing music videos for various local and national artist. I've done work on B.G. and Chopper City Boys of Chopper City Records, Bone Crusher and M.C. Lyte in a documentary for K.I.D.D "Good Girl" and Tone Tone "I Ain't Playin Witcha'" of Wide Open Records. A complete movie and soundtrack entitled "In The D" a highly acclaimed film documentary about coming up in Detroit under the music scene and the violence endured during the struggle.

There has been many other accomplishments, to much to mention here, but this gives you a little ruff draft of who the founder of this site is.

Stay tuned, there is much much more to come. ................................."about that 8 Mile movie"...lol....

© Hip Hop Tutorials. All rights reserved

Click Here