Freshco

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.. The movie should have been called FRESHCO GUMP not Forrest!
As a young child, auntie Allison had Shawn to draw a picture of a fruit... and there it began. Next he was drawing action heros from comic books, real life objects and people.
In the early 80's New York was graffiti central, so following the crowd, Shawn strived for street fame using the name "Blas One" on every wall (including the Brooklyn Bridge) that his marker and paint cans could find (1980 - 1988). "We were all in awe of artist like Min One, Iz The Wiz, OE, AC, Lee, etc... Boy, what kids will do!"
Shawn became known to do whatever he was into at the time, very well. The list is as follows; He was a Roller Hockey wizard, winning every possible award from peewee league up through junior league. As "Magic", he won a rolling skating dance championship at United Skates of America in Brooklyn and was recruited into the Fancy Wheelers and then the Star Light Rollers (who appeared in a Gladys Night video in the 80s)of Park Circle roller rink. He was known as a top roller skating dancer throughout New York's five boroughs. Whoa!... Shawn remembers celebrating about taking 7 hours to learn how to ride a Uni-cycle.
Then there was skateboarding. He was doing 720's on his little orange skateboad before his teens. Shawn was doin bicycle ramp & ground tricks years before X Games ever appeared on television. "I remember the half-pipe in Red Hook Brooklyn". He use to stand on his bike "feet only" for blocks at a time, peddle with his hands and also wheelie for 30 plus blocks, straight. "I read all about guys like R.L. Osborne and Bob Harrow".
He became the new popping (Electric Boogier) whiz that made it to the final auditions of the movie Beat Street (as part of the Brooklyn Body Mechanics) and personally witnessed the Hip Hop & Break-Dancing explosion at New York clubs like the Roxy and Roseland. Shawn studied poppers like Fabel and Mr. Wiggles. "Man, its kinda funny seeing folks like Usher, and all these new groups doing moves we were famous for in the 80s. One guy whose name was unknown by Shawn, was refered to as "Boots" because he wore Timberland boots and pop'd in them at Roxy all the time. Fresh copied much of his popping style. Years later he actually ended up being MC Kool Keith from Ultra Magnetic MC's!
Shawn/Freshco studied the body builder Lee Haney (who he recently met) as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie Pumping Iron. He then took 5th place in the 19-year-old NPC Body Building championship and later on became an advanced martial artist in Tae Kwon Do, winning tournaments against Black Belt level opponents.
Back in 1989 Freshco won the New Music Seminar's "Battle for World Supremacy" Rap contest. Crowned as the world champion rapper, he toured with Ice Cube, Kid Rock, D-Nice, Yo Yo and others. He appeared on MTV and BET several times making sure he said a different freestyle rhyme on every appearance! As Freshco, he earned a lethal lyrical reputation amongst the other rappers of the industry. Only thing is the mass public never saw Freshco (& Miz) reach that super star level. As Puffy then told Miz & Fresh "man, I can't do nothing with this contact". (Get a good lawyer folks!!!) What's the lesson?... Being a gifted artist and good marketing are two separate things!!! LOL! Copy and Past the following link into your browser to see the one and only Freshco & Miz video "We Don't Play": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QBDNsZECCI
A cool brother with glasses named Reggie was brought to Fresh's house by Hurricaine G and he told Fresh to call him at Eric Sermons house if I ever needed anything. After watching the seminar battles, he said Freshco had mad skills. Well a year later he drops a slamin album under the name Redman. Shawn also remembers this cat with the short dreds asking me to come see their show at the Apollo. They called him Busta and even when he got big he was always remained mad cool and down to each when he saw Fresh.
Before that, Uptown records has told Fresh & Miz to go see this kid whose office was a small square room with a boom box and a small metal desk. Years later he is referred to as "the mogul P Diddy". Call him Freshco "Gump". "By the way if anyone has a video copy of the 1989 seminar battles, please get me a copy, thanks (DJ Wiz of Kid & Play; I need another copy). Puffy told me Andrew Harrell kept my copy but I think Diddy did. Oh well".
At his high school friend DJ Enuff's house, Freshco rapped with The Notorious B.I.G. (really cool brother back then). "When we meet he told me he and his boy would listen to me while getting high in their car. He began to rap the lyrics to my song Now Ya Know. Such a down to earth brother"! On the way to DJ Enuff's house Biggie jokingly said that DJ Enuff and Fresh are not gonna catch him out there and have Freshco rip him "on tape"! The freestyle they did together (over my K2000 created track along with DJ Enuff's drops) became an underground exclusive.
Then there's that classic wax of the youger Jay-Z and Original Flava on Many Styles (also look closely at the "Can I Get Open video). After hearing Fresh's verse on Many Styles, out of the blue Damon Dash & Clark Kent phone Fresh and sign him to Roc-a-fella management (or Damon Dash Entertainment as it was). It was only Fresh, Jay-Z, Original Flava, Ruff-Ness (a lyrically gifted female), and Sauce Money. No Bleek, Siegel, Freeway or the rest just yet. Believe it or not, Damon could not get the labels to sign Jay or Fresh for a WHILE. "They liked our stuff but just wouldn't sign. Jay-Z was just a good but "no dice" at that time! With a baby girl on the way, I had to bounce from just shopping demo and making no endz". Damon and Jay blew up 3 years later. Eventually Shawn became Def Jam's go-to post audio engineer doing radio and video edits (non-cursing versions) for Hard Knock Life, Judgement Day, Super Thug, Rush Hour Soundtrack, the El Nino album and many more singles by request of Kevin Lyles and working with Folayon Knight. Shawn ran studio D at Soundtrack New York.
Shawn/Fresh won the City Wide Doubles Handball Championship (1-Wall) in 2001 in New York (with Ray Lopez). He enjoyed getting back into handball after years of displaying a slick long-range jump shot and handling skills in Basketball throughout the playgrounds of New York. "They would always think I couldn't make the shoot from that far out... LOL".
Briefly attending The Academy of Dramatic arts in 1995, Shawn was the lead in a Red Bull TV commercial (they were selling beer back then). In the field of audio engineering, he has worked at some of the top post-production facilities in New York such as Soundtrack and Photomag Sound. He's also been blessed enough to mix one of the first South Park spots, promos for The Matrix, recordings for King of The Hill and mixing for number 1 ranked cartoon shows Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon. He established myself as one of the fastest post audio sound mixers around (on Pro Tools). See http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1910925/
You may recognize the rapper's voice on the theme song of the animated series One Piece... it's Fresh. Shawn dropped an album called "Heaven Yeah!" which is Holy Hip-Hop, done properly (visit www.shawnconrad.com). "I found out the church isnt what I thought it was growing up (stand kneel, stand kneel, etc...). God is cool with you if you live you life with some flavor and hot-ness. He just wants acknowledgement for blessing us with the breath of life each day (among other things). So I didn't have to give up my "flavor" for being a Christian... I just had to be a better example for those who are around me. Plus I don't beat people I meet in the head with "religion".
During his free time he plays Tennis ("I'm a wanna-be Federer") and is an A-level Racquetball. In Fall 2005, he finished number 1 in Atlanta Georgia's USTA 3.5 Tennis singles competition. He went ahead and got certified as a Tennis teaching Pro in 2006.
In June of 2005, he and his wife relocated from New York to Atlanta. One daughter visits all the time from New York and their newest addition, baby Grace arrived in Feb 2006!
What a funny life this has been...