At only 26 years old, the Virginia Beach artist says he's on a mission to resuscitate and revolutionize hip-hop and turn it away from the "ice, guns and chicks in thongs" images flooding the market and poisoning the scene. Rhane says anybody from any walk of life can get into his unique musical perspective. "I call it soulful underground hip hop," he says, proud to be leading the charge for a more self-respecting, cliché-free kind of hip-hop. Instead of rappin' about bitches and ho's and drugs and gang life, "my music is more about relating to me and the lyrics. It's just good music. Anyone can relate to the music in some kinda way. There's a lot of personality in the music, and people can definitely understand what I'm talking about." Rhane says his creative and soulful brand of hip-hop gives the listener something to talk about later, and something to think about for a long time. Born in San Diego and raised in Puerto Rico and Virginia Beach, Rhane grew up with "a pretty straight childhood" with his brother and sports activities. Before music consumed him, he was into football, basketball, track and kickboxing. At age 12, the music of Michael Jackson was a constant presence in his house, but Rhane says he wasn't part of a musical family. One year later in seventh grade, Rhane says music kind of took over his life. "Me and one of my longtime friends heard a Red Man and Method Man track that inspired us," he says. "We got the single, and we started writing music from there." From his hip-hop musical beginnings, Rhane says he branched out musically in all directions to where he "doesn't stick to one genre or type of music." " I like to be musically open-minded - it can get boring listening to hip-hop all the time."
