Born in Chicago, IL and raised in Joliet, IL. TWAIN has etched out a unique lane in hip-hop & the true indie music space throughout his time as a recording artist & performer, all after once dreaming of being in music as an adolescent.
Relocating to MN a year after finally becoming a bonafide musician, he hit the ground running in and outside of Minneapolis and Saint Paul releasing underground albums and mixtapes in the 2000s, also doing these releases online during that time as an digital early adopter-before the advent of iTunes and the streaming era (and social media). This made for a near seamless transition into officially releasing music commercially, his first of that type of offering being his classic 2009 album 'Truth or Consequences'. A gripping, personal tome with a more musical soundbed, that album became his magnum opus. In more recent years he’s released a couple of love letter projects to his region, the ambitious 'CENTRAL STANDARD TIME' album in early 2020, which includes the powerful single “Changes” (feat. Jay Jeminii), which was considered for the Recording Academy’s first ever GRAMMY®️ BEST SONG FOR SOCIAL CHANGE songwriters honor. And the critically and culturally acclaimed 'Midwest Mayor' special music project in late 2021, which was produced entirely by his Southwest PA music partner LUKE-O.
In October 2025, he released his long planned body of work 'The Love Triangle Project'.
A memorable live performer, some venues and performances the 6x Hollywood Independent Music Award Nominee has had the pleasure of performing at are Penn State University, Peavey Plaza, the Fine Line Music Café, the Big Turn and FOR THE LOVE music festivals, and the Midwest Basketball League’s Halftime Show.
Visually ushering in this recent era of his career, he’s compiled his self-described “modern music video collection” of five celebrated Vevo certified videos from his recent projects on Vevo/YouTube, which total thousands of views to date.
Some of the popular songs in his catalog include the smashes “Polo Suit” and “Joliet” (feat. Cariah Brinaé), which has surpassed 10,000+ purely organic streams worldwide, the aforementioned “Changes” (feat. Jay Jeminii), the hard-hitting “Perspective”, and the smooth “Nu & U” (feat. Jay Jeminii)
As a music executive he’s successfully mentored and produced a few acts. He’s also launched a number of live music properties, such as the concert series “A Night Over South” in South Minneapolis, which collects food donations for host venue Fallout Urban Art Center’s food shelf, and R&B concert series “TWIN CITIES MUSIC LOUNGE”, plus many more. He formed ILL COUNTY Management in 2018, and has proudly represented & managed women exclusively thus far, helping empower & support their dreams, and building their music businesses with them.
He’s received press in online outlets and music blogs such as Star Tribune’s CityPages, The Current, UNDERGROUNDHIPHOPBLOG DOT COM, Music In Minnesota, and CanvasRebel Magazine, to name a few. He was selected as a Homegrown Featured Artist by Minneapolis’ B96 96.3 FM. And his music has been recognized and received airplay from and on Brandon “B.Dot” Miller from Rap Radar Podcast, SiriusXM’s SHADE45, Dash Radio, Go 95.3 FM, The Current 89.3, and has surpassed the 10K purely organic streams benchmark on Audiomack; being selected by their music editors twice to trend on the music platform.
