Barry Adrian Reese (born July 7, 1982), better known by his rap name Cassidy (also known as “The Problem” and “The Hustla”) is a popular rapper from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was born and raised in North Philadelphia. He was in a group called Larsiny together with his home-town-friends Cal Akbar and Shiz Lansky.

Cassidy rose to prominence as a battle rapper and started appearing on mixtapes. Producer Swizz Beatz signed him to his Full Surface label distributed through J Records and featured him on Swizz’s 2002 album Presents G.H.E.T.T.O. Stories. Cassidy has also appeared on tracks by Snoop Dogg and Wyclef Jean.

Cassidy recorded the Split Personality album in the year 2003. The record is divided into three parts: The first is credited to Cassidy and reflects his pop side, the second, credited as “Tha Problem,” aims at fans of his mixtapes. The third is credited to B. Reese from fans from his early days. [1]

Cassidy recorded the track and lead single “Hotel” with R. Kelly in Kelly’s Chicago studios with a vocal contribution by Kelly - there is also a version featuring vocals by Trina. The song became a hit, reaching the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 in February 2004 and the top 5 of the UK charts in May 2004. The song also reached the Australian top 40 in late May 2004.

Split Personality was released on March 16, 2004 and debuted at #2 on the Billboard 200 album charts and at #1 on the R&B/Hip Hop albums charts. The second single, “Get No Better”, featured a contribution from labelmate Mashonda but did not do as well on the singles charts, reaching #82 on the Billboard Hot 100. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.