Pinnacle

Keenan Scott II was born on March 8, 1987 in Queens New York. His humble beginnings started out in Jamaica, Queens living on Farmers BLVD. with eleven members of his family including his mother, father, sister, aunts & uncles and cousin. Soon after he moved to Flushing, Queens into Pomonok Housing Projects at the age of three. His parents separated when he was six years old. To young to fully understand what was going on, but he just knew he wouldn’t see his father as much. As a kid teachers sort of saw him as delinquent, constantly fighting in school day after day. His family had to go on welfare due to the constant struggle of the working middle class. So he always appreciated everything that came his way. Some of his fondest memories growing up in Queens was being on the block with the neighborhood kids, watching music videos on the Box (cable) and listening to the groups his mother would play around the house like Jackson 5 and Nat King Cole, which he contributes to his earliest musical influence. His mother Margaret soon reached a point when she was fed up with New York and wanted to move for a new beginning. So she took Keenan and his older sister and moved to Southern Maryland before he reached Junior High. Keenan gained a whole world of experience moving from the inner-city to the suburbs. He continued to go back and forth from Washington, D.C’s Union Station and New York’s Port Authority to see his father and the rest of his family they left behind. Maryland brought a new opportunity, knowing most of the people he grew up with didn’t have the same chance. Coming from such a diverse area never seeing the difference in anyone’s color, this is where he first experienced racism. And it seemed like his families financial problems followed them to Maryland, not being able to leave the retrains of welfare. He started writing at the age of thirteen as a release from the many emotions that plagued him throw growing up with no father and trying to find himself in a world he didn’t think he fit in. Keenan amerced himself onto the D.C poetry scene at the age of fifteen being drawn in by the advanced lyrical content it presented. Being so in love with Hip Hop, the café scene appealed to him more then radio hits at the time. He contributes his early lyrical wit and content to a SLAM Poet ten years his elder by the name of 13 Nazareth which took him under his wing. Still an emcee at heart, he sharpened his lyrical ability in the coffee shops/ lounges and honed in on them in the recording studio. Keenan started to use those long trips on the Greyhound to write things from poems to song lyrics and listening to different artist from Nas to Lauryn Hill to Stevie Wonder, etc. trying to put all of them into pot to create himself. His father always told him to know who you are; you have to know who came before you. His father originally being from South Bronx and being a huge Hip Hop Head himself, always told him to research and study the works of KRS-One, Rakim, Grandmaster Flash and The Furious Five (R.I.P Cowboy ), and many others. Keenan made sure he studied his craft and the pioneers his father often talked about. He has a dream that the world will finally hear his voice. He hopes he will be able to be a mirror for all who are willing to look into someone that could possibly express the feelings and emotions they might not be able too. He wants to speak especially to the working class he comes from. He never settles for nothing less then the constellations; so I guess his sister gave him the right name after all, PINNACLE.Header Banner Made with MyBannerMaker.com! Click here to make your own! Make your own banner at MyBannerMaker.com!