SHRPSORD

Where I am from: I was born in Georgetown, Guyana. At the age of 15 I was sent to Brooklyn, NY to further my education. As far as talent, it's entertainment in a lot of forms. Where I lived and grew up in guyana was a dancehall. That's where I got my exposure to dancehall reggae music. By watching and observing Sound/Sets/DJs I learned to juggle/mix and run the mic. Before long I was playing segments alone, playing the right record at the right time and saying the right thing was easy, crowd control came natural. Word spread around my neighborhood about how good I was, and people wanted to challenge me on the mic, but we didn't have all the equipment so we used our mouths to battle. Even thought we were not singing our own songs, it was still intense because you had to sing the right song. So, I became fluent in reggae music. As far as I know reggae was originated in Jamaica, so most reggae songs come with a Jamaican accent. My Guyanese accent is not far from a Jamaican accent, but a Guyanese and a Jamaican would be able to tell the difference. Before long other people wanted to battle me and they wanted to use their own lyrics, so I was Tasked with writing my own lyrics. Most times it would just be easy to freestyle and pick 'em apart. When I moved to NY I was challenged again because I was exposed to hip hop & wanted to take part, but there was a cultural barrier. Even thought reggae artists had crossed over into mainstream hip hop, like Shabba and Mad Lion, it was still hard to be understood. So I began to work on my accent, not only for music, but also so that people could understand me. I would notice people battling in the lunchroom. There would be people who chat reggae battling and people who rap battling each other. I knew I had a mean flow, but it was a matter of people who rap understanding me. So, I worked on it and perfected it to where I can flip it up to rap or reggae. And I know this has been done before with other artists like Kardinal from T-Dot and Bornjamericans, but how I do it goes from raw reggae to straight rap. The reason why my album is called Both Sides is because I grew up in both Guyana and America. I had enough experiences in both places and both sides of culture, as far as hip hop and reggae. And I possess the ability to relate to both people from the Carribean and people in the U.S. I have met with record labels and producers, and they always say I can choose one. That would be like choose between being able to see and being able to breathe. So I'm gonna keep doing both of them forever. So the song you hear in the background is called Forever, cuz I'm gonna keep doing both sides forever.