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Icon Biography
Icon was born on November 29th 1981 in New York City. Growing up with three others brothers wasnt easy. New wave was big at the time and the first tape he got was INXS from his father. As the third child at times he felt neglected so at school he became the class clown, making people laugh and disrupting class. Feeling like an outcast, Icon would get into fights at school but once home he was comforted by the sounds of music. Uptown Manhattan was becoming more crowed with violence and his father found a job in Lawrence, Ma a city north of Boston with a large Hispanic base his family ended up moving there when he was seven, it was a big change from the city. Each time they went back to his hometown of NYC they made sure to stop at a music record shop to buy the latest cassettes. Man the first tape I got was Big Daddy Kane, he was so quick with the words it was mesmerizing!
At home hed watch as his brothers practice dancing for a group called F.B.I.(Fly Brothers Incorporated) with singer J Smoothe and rapper mc Die who would later be known as Krumbsnatcha. As Icon watched his brothers dance to Heavy D, Chubb Rock, Kwame, and Slick Rick he began to enter school talent show as a dancer. As time went by hip hop grew out of the back up dancer phase and focused more on lyrical content.
His brother Starsky started rhyming along side Krumbsnatcha, "I remember Krumb free styling about anything and making people laugh". Starsky had a crew that he would have ciphers with, as the little brother Icon followed and started rhyming in private, only showing Starsky his flow. He would later build up enough confidence to rap in front of the group and enter those ciphers. When he was fourteen Krumb himself made him part of a crew called P.O.W. (Prisoners Of War) this was one of the sickest rap crews coming out in the local hip hop scene. But jealousy, envy and the lack of progress eventually broke up the click.
With P.O.W. slowly dwindling off the map Icon and Starsky formed their own duo Mano E Mano. They were able to catch a small buzz perfoming in local clubs & even in other cities in the country. A lot of people loved us but no one would give us a shot says Icon. Older brother Starsky was getting tired of trying to make it until he eventually gave up rhyming to start a family.
Icon went on to persue his solo efforts recording freestyles with Dj Sun, one of 94.5s hottest djs. Icon would keep his keep his love for hip hop through freestyles & battles, he even took first place in a battle at B.U. but that wasnt enough. Discourged he started to save enough money to move down south to Atlanta, Ga. Thats when he received a call from old time friend and fellow mc Starks. With both already fed up with music and the way things were going they decided to do something about it. Forming i-N-s meant no looking back.
