Millie Forte

Born July 22nd, 1987, Millie Forte (born Michael Payne) took to music at a very young age. Unlike most musicians Millie did not grow up in a musical home or family, learning all he knew of music at the time from the hood that he lived in. By the time he was 8 yrs of age, Millie had taken a great intrest in music beyond his time listening to his grandmothers old records in her basement. These old school sessions would not only educate the young Forte on the roots of good music, but would also be the spark lighting the melodic flame in his own soul. Such legendary artists as Stevie Wonder, Millie Jackson (where the name came from due to his potty mouth) Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, B.B King, The P-Funk, Prince, The Soul Children and Billie Holiday were the tickets to Fireflys early musical journeys. By the time he was 11 yrs old, Millie was not only wowing his family and peers with his voice, but also with his uncanny gift for writing songs with weight and deep meanings. Before he knew it, he had somewhere around 37 notebooks and 3 shoe boxes filled to the brim with songs, melodies and the artistic ideas that crept about his still young mind. As he came to maturity, Forte took a great intrest in not only music but the art of poetry and the rawness of hip hop and such artists as The Goodie Mob & the Fugees. It wasn't until the age of 14 that Millie began to find ways of combining his already deeply subject mattered songs with his own poetic writings & became a founding member of The Forte Fam. At age 14, young Forte (then called Alti Omega as a rapper) was introduced to the world of recording music by a friend telling him of a local recording studio in town. There Millie grew to slowly but surely perfect his craft in singing with the teaching and support of Jah-I Wintess MC, and was even blessed to open shows for TOWER OF POWER & THE SUGARHILL GANG. Now at the young age of 21, Millie Forte is on a mission...A mission to spark a musical ReVoLuTiOn. Not only to bring revolution to black music (we got way to many 50 Cents & Ushers people...come on), but change all geners of the art.