I grew up in NC listening to top forty radio. In the 80's, I was influenced by hip hop and rap as a way of dealing with frustrations and other sources of stress to avoid fighting and just the daily nonsense of trying to grow up in the South. I started writing and freestyling in junior high school. I also traveled to many different points of the globe while enlisted in the US Navy, and poetry over beats is the focus, although sometimes, songs just seem to create themselves.