For Justin Michael Cox, known as B-3, music started out as a mere hobby, and became a passion.Born in the Garden District of Uptown New Orleans, Justin Cox, 25, has seen his music experience come full circle. At the age of ten he picked up his first musical instrument, the clarinet, in order to join his middle school concert band. "I picked the clarinet because it was the cheapest instrument in the store," he commented. Justin admits the first song he learned in the middle school band was the Christmas time favorite "Jingle Bells."Despite his family's disapproval of the hip-hop and rap industry, Justin slowly began to discover the bounce beats and hip-hop flavor of New Orleans. In the eighth grade, UNLV and Sporty T were artists he frequently listened to.As soon as Justin had his high school diploma in hand, he moved on to Louisiana State University and the Golden Band from Tigerland. For four years Justin was a member of the highly publicized and world-renowned band as a member of the woodwind section. While at LSU, Justin continued to listen and research the rap industry and also began to experiment with producing beats. "At first it was really just a bunch of guys joking around having a good time free styling on top of instrumental tracks," he explained "but then I really started getting into making beats." It was during this developmental phase for Justin that he teamed up with Common Era Records and was signed to the label as a producer.Today the Computer Science graduate looks to the past to better his production of music in the future. "My ideas have not changed but the equipment I am using is more up-to-date and I can see my music going from an idea to a tangible resource," Justin explained.
