Based in Cleveland, he began rhyming at the age of 12 and enjoyed early success gaining national recognition both as a poet and rapper. However, in 2001 he decided to hang up his microphone believing that his days as a performance artist had passed him by and settled into another successful career as an award-winning journalist, columnist, editor and educator. Luckily in 2004 he was finally persuaded by the young producer aLIVE (of the Cleveland based Muamin Collective) to drop by the studio and pick up the mic again. This prolific collaboration helped to define a new Cleveland sound that fuses musical genres and yet manages to remain rooted to the essence of their home city - the realities of living in which have become the source of inspiration Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.