The streets are definitely watching, talking and listening closely. However, there are few who can bear witness to its manifested truths and recount them like urban folklore to the world. Once in a while a special musical talent comes along to give a voice to ghetto street tales of trials,tribulations and triumph. Cobb embodies the ultimate rags to riches rap dream, advancing from past poverty to future royalty, largely on behalf of his lyrical talent coupled with incredible dedication. Reminiscent of Hip-Hop's 2nd Golden Era (94-99), Cobb's swagger and slick wordplay are as commanding as they are infectious.
Born Tyrell Davon Marshall, on October 8th, in Baltimore,Md, Cobb underwent some tough times after his mother returned to her hometown of Peekskill,Ny, after realizing his father loved the streets and other women a little too much for her liking. All this before the young rapper was even a year old. Without a man in the house and a mother who not only worked days but nights( her night job that of a drug dealer), he spent many nights listening to his radio until he fell asleep. " I loved LL, I used to play Bigger and Deffer everynight, that and Kane but my mom took that tape after she heard me singing the words to "Pimpin Ain't Easy"." But it wasn't til age 11 that he decided he wanted to be a rapper," I just wanted the girls, all the girls in my school loved the rappers on t.v., so i was like i'ma be like those dudes."
After winning local talent show after talent show he begin to make a name for himself as a fledging rapper and although he was becoming a very good point guard at his middle school and later at his high school(where he would eventually play on a state championship team along side childhood friend and future NBA all-star Elton Brand) he always knew basketball wasn't his calling. " I just didnt get the same feeling from playing ball as I did from music." But it would be the birth of of his first brother that would derail that calling just a bit, thinkin he was lightening the load off his mother he decided to become a self-supportive teen. Turning to the streets doing what he thought needed to be done to make money he began hustling, as he vividly discusses in his lyrics. His mother getting married and moving the family to Shreveport,La only seemed to delay the inevitable, he would eventually dropout in the 12th grade and become a full time grinder.
But after a 5 year hiatus from NY and the allure of peddling drugs lost its luster, due mainly to a gun charge, a federal investigation and a long sitdown with his grandmother, " she just explained to me that i couldn't continue to do good and bad at the same time because my bad was starting to outweigh the good", Cobb decided to focus his undivided attention on music....no basketball, no hustilin'...just music. Linking with longtime friend, mentor and manager Charles "Chuck" Leonard and doing everything he could to get in the rap game(including mixtape appearences on Dj Whoo Kid, Dj Capone and Dj Killatone), 2 years, a bunch of broken promises from A&R's and Music Execs alike and tired of playing the hurry up and wait game, they subsequently decided to do it themselves. Chuck would go from manager to CEO and Cobb would go from Unsigned Hype to the flagship of the upstart label, Tha Council.
Mix in the influences of some of music's all time greats along with a few of its current stars, stir in the variables of growing up in N.Y. during the crack driven 80's and 90's, mix that wit the uncanny ability to make thought provoking street music and you would have one of rap music's fastest rising stars....Ladies and Gentlemen! I introduce to you...Cobb.
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E.B holla's at Cobb 3:08 in:
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In The Paint with Elton Brand, June 19th 2008 (with fellow Clipper Chris Paul) Pt 2
Check Him Out Every Thurs. 6 p.m. Est/ 3 p.m. on the west coast
Livevideo.com/EltonBrand
