R.I.P. Jeremiah Davis...One Of My BEST Friends...
LaRon_Cruz is considered, by many, to be a true, "Jack of All Trades." Not only does the 25 year old sing, he also writes all of his own material and produces the tracks as well. "Man, I had so many people coming at me saying, 'Yea man I can get you tracks, I can write for you too,'" says Cruz, "I would hear their scripts and never see any action. I knew I had something, so I took it upon myself to get things done." In doing so, LaRon_Cruz created a style all his own. "You can't put your dreams in someone else's hands and expect them to make them come true for you. You gotta have your own back, ya know?"
Born in The Windy City, Chicago, IL, to a not-so-fit mother and a father who was not involved at all, the young Cruz had to depend on his brother, Anthony, for all of his needs. "Real talk, if I would have been an only child, I probably wouldn't be here with you today. Mama would be gone for days at a time, and we lived in the hood. That was nothing but God." On one occasion, the two brothers were home alone, asleep on the couch, covered by only a coat, when two masked men entered their apartment and took everything but the coat, the couch and the kids. Anthony happened to be awake the whole time. "That situation could have gone wrong in so many ways. Again, God had us in his hands that night." When their mother returned and heard what happened, the only thing she could think to say, according to Anthony's memory of the situation, was, "You were AWAKE??? Why didn't you try to Stop them?" Anthony was only 6 at the time.
Cruz and his brother, after their mother's many stints in Cook County Jail, were taken away from their mother. Once again, the brothers faced trouble. Anthony's father was given the decision to keep his son and send LaRon to a Home, or keep the boys together, and send them to their nearest relatives: their maternal grandparents in Hopkins Park, IL.
The move to HP was a move that would change Cruz forever. The small town in Kankakee County, which is 74.95 miles (1hr and 30mins.) south of Chicago, was a culture shock. "There was definitely a whole lot less noise than we were use to in the city.â€
To Be Continued...
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