I was born here in Atlanta, but my family is split between being from Detroit or here in Atlanta.
I started my interest in music watching my cousin, Torrey, go out on and rap at basketball courts with the adults. That’s when I started liking rap, but I started with music in church when I was in choir. Being part of the choir, I wanted to do something different, I didn’t want to be just another face on there. I was 13 and I started to sing gospel rap, then once I got in high school, I started getting into battle rap. One of the guys I used to do battle rap with after four years of battling, he told me about a studio that was down the street at his house. That led into recording music when we ended up going down there, then boom. We made a song in that same day with two of my friends.
After that, I ended up coming closer with my barber Triandos Morris. When you’re there, you find a lot to talk about and we ended up growing a bond together, talking about music and rap, recording and writing. One day, I got it in the middle of the night, that drive that hits you. I pulled up my phone, called him at 3 in the morning and I told him I wanted to take music seriously. The next day, he ordered a bunch of equipment and got it set up in his basement. We sat there together and learned how to engineer music from youtube, something we’re still perfecting at this point. Every person that sat in his chair after that, Triandos Morris would put me on the spot and would ask customers to see if I was good. He wanted to get the feel from real everyday people and see if they were willing to support any way they can as far as building relationships, investments and promotions.
We eventually built a team, some of the people that Triandos Morris cut ended up becoming part of the team. Then, we had some other artists come, some stayed and some left. As we started recording, more people came over to Triandos Morris’s studio at his basement and we gave them a shot. We came up with a team which Block Bandit came from. Cause, we see from ourselves, we’re the superheroes that come and lead. We’re here when everyone needs us, but we’re gone when there no problems. When shit hits the fan, the Block Bandit helps.
We continued with the grind, some people fell off, some stayed. Recently, we started getting our message and platform out there more doing shows for colleges, major labels such as Atlantic Records, local organizations and radio stations ranging from Tampa, Florida to Detroit, Michigan. This, besides Atlanta, is where my biggest plays are at. We most recently attended black empowering events like Malcolm X Day and we have plans on some Juneteenth events. Our message as Block Bandits wants us to show our melanin is not a downfall, it’s a superpower. We want to show the industry you can be different even if it’s not recommended.
