VerteX of Brown FISH

Vontai Brown, known to the hip-hop world as DJ Vertex, was born February 6, 1977 in the Westport section of Baltimore, MD. Son of Charles Brown, stage manager for several Baltimore events such as “Afram” and the “People’s Expo”, Vontai got an early start in sound and music. He began deejaying in the early 90’s making mix tapes (club and hip-hop). After realizing that deejaying had no big place in Baltimore, he began to explore the art of beat making. Under the watchful eye of “The Coyoteman” of Coyote Brothers Entertainment, Vertex began to thrive as a young producer for an Islamic based hip-hop group, The Adant Foundation.After leaving Adant at the end of 1999, Vertex joined his cousin and CEO of Raw Entertainment, Stacy Baker, in another locally based record company, D.O.C. Records. While under contract with Raw Entertainment, Vertex formed a group with Alpha, one of D.O.C.’s solo artists. The underground hip-hop group Born Cypher was formed, consisting of one prolific emcee and a grungy Deejay/producer. Often compared to Gangstarr’s DJ Premier, Vertex says, “ I feel honored to have my name and the great Premo in the same sentence.” Mid 2001, Born Cypher split due to creative differences.While a member of Born Cypher, Vertex produced several hits for his label mates Brown F.I.S.H. The lyrics and the production began to mix so well that Vertex was granted the opportunity to join the F.I.S.H. in July 2001. As part of his induction in the group, he had one day to fill the acronym F.I.S.H. Without hesitation, his response was, “Forever I’m Shirley’s Heart,” in remembrance of his sole inspiration, his grandmother Shirley Guest, who returned to the essence in June of 2000.And the rest is F.I.S.History