In the city of Pittsburgh, many rappers/lyricists come a dime a dozen. Many of these artists leave as fast as they enter the hip hop world. But when it comes to this young man, hailed by his friends as the mad rapper "Kobrah--", there is a glimmer of hope at the end of the tunnel

Kobrah--, born as Steven Smith, Jr., was born on May 17th, 1987 at Mercy hospital. At a young age his mother exposed him to a wide variety of music, whence he gained his love for it. Many people say that he should have a general idea of the "Pittsburgh voice", as he has stayed in some of the roughest neighborhoods in the Pittsburgh area, including but not limited to Braddock, Hill District, McKees Rocks, North Side, Larimer, etc. Though his stay in some of these areas were short, Kobrah managed to pick up some of lifes greatest lessons during his stay. Overtime, he began to realize his gift of music. This was such a gift that his mother even took initiative and bought him musical instruments such as a toy karaoke machine and drumsets. As Steve aged, so did his musical abilities. Eventually his talents caught the ear of his best friend, Devon, whom bestowed the nickname "Kobrah--" upon him, stating that he "spit lethal bars like a cobra's venom". So from that day Steve took on the name and changed it into a form that would best fit him.

When Kobrah is not working on songs or producing tracks, you can find him on the campus of California University of Pennsylvania, where he majors in Graphic Design. During his time there he has established himself as a scholar as well as an emcee, maintaining a 3.0 GPA and being added to The 2005-2006 National Deans List. Kobrah also participated in sports on the campus, being involved on the University football and Track and Field team, however later on he would resign from sports to focus more on music. While in college, Kobrah plans to cement his place in the hip hop world by being the "one-man business", due to his knowledge of design and promotion.

Now you can catch Kobrah rocking out shows with many of his friends including CHIEF, Lyric A Capella, C-Ron, just to name a few. The world expects nothing but greatness from this young man: And greatness they shall recieve.





The Produktion Game

Steve learned about his music talents in a way you would not expect your average musician to learn. When he lived on the Hill District he was in his room playing Sonic the Hedgehog. (Haha...we know) Well...the game option menu contained the games sound effects menu where he used his joystick to bounce through the sounds and put beats together...his mom walked in on him doing this and asked him to do it again. This astonished his mother because you would think for a child his age, making music should be the last thing he would have thought about.

On Christmas that year his mother bought him a toy pool table. However instead of playing pool: this young man was making beats to some of his favorite cartoons, such as: Roco's Modern Life Ren and Stimpy Salute Your Shorts Scooby Doo The Flinstones and many more.... The weird thing with this was that he did this to not only his favorites, but every cartoon that came on!! His mother spread the word to his biological father and he went and bought Steve a drumset...this was a gift that he cherished the most, however Steve made a horrible mistake and used scissors to cut the wire (yes he did get a beating for that one lol).

Many years pass and Steve accels in making video game beats and managing to remember each one he did!!! Then he came up with an idea!!! He gained the idea that he could make instrumentals of his favorite songs...the problem was figuring out how to do it! At the time he has never before seen a beat machine or producing software. Then he uses his noodle and decides to make them using cassette tapes and a blank cassette tape...even using cd's and a blank cassette tape!!! Using this process Steve copiled over five full cassettes of instrumentals of the hottest songs at the time. For his age it was crazy remarkable...unfortunately he became upset one day and destroyed them. Stupid huh?

As time progressed and his talents becoming more recognized he became exposed to software and hardware for producing including: Pro Tools, Fruity Loops, GarageBand, Sony ACID, MPC's MC 808 & 909, Cakewalk Proppellerheads REASON Motif & other brand keyboards. It has reached the point where if you sit this young man in front of anything, he will produce something. If he cannot then he is willing to learn about it...THEN he will come up with something!!!!