Born January 13, 1978, Montrese Smith was not supposed to be here. He was the result of a teen pregnancy. It was his mother's "first time". His father was a member of a group of high school singers called The Meditations. Upon hearing that he got the girl pregnant, he disappeared and was never to be heard from until 25 years later. Montrese never asked much about him, because his mother would go off the deep end if ever asked. Most men who grew up without a father would rebel at every chance, but not Montrese. He was an excellent reader, which honed his writing skills, and a young Picaso at heart. He loved to read, write, draw, and he had an unusual ear for music at a very young age. When he was five years old, his mother bought him a Smurfs drum set. He would sit at the set banging for hours until she couldn't take it anymore. Later on in life, he would come to find out why his mother could "cope" with his father not being around, or so he thought. She fell victim to substance abuse, which led to her demise in 2003. Before she passed away to a better place, she had three more children, Kellie, his only sister, and two little brothers, LeNard and Lamont.Let's rewind a little bit: He was born and raised on Detroit's westside, in the Dexter/Linwood area(Dexter, respectfully). Too young to know about Butch Jones and the whole Y.B.I movement, he and his sister had a pretty good childhood, other than the "cult-like rituals" his mother and her friends had at night. He looked forward to going to school, because that's where he shined at. As he got older, he was always going back and forth, from his Grandfather's house, to his mother's house, and was never able to make any life long friends, that is, until he and his family moved on Linwood. He was going through a lot of pressure at the time: the son of a crackhead, the new kid on the block, and his clothes were never up to par. Add peer pressure with a little bit of puberty, and what you have is a bright, young, male adolescent who was severly insecure. He had low self-esteem, because in those years, kids could be so cruel. Yet and still, he could get away with the help of music. He would listen to 96.3 FM at night to help him forget that he was so hungry, and to take his mind off of his mothers on-going shenanigans. It was here that he would meet his best friend, Fortez. They used to go at it in class, one trying to outdance the other (M.C. Hammer was the shit back then). Then, the night the Pistons won their second championship, the city went crazy. He and Fortez danced all night in the street, looking like a routine.
The next day, Fortez came looking for him to be in a dance contest, and the rest is history. They begin to make routines to M.C. Hammer, Another Bad Creation, and mostly known, Kriss Kross. This led them to start writing their own raps. Montrese already had it in him, he just was too timid to let it out. With the help of his new friend, he was able to breathe life into the words that he kept in for so long.It wasn't a whole two years before the police kicked in the door and raided his mother's flat. Once again, he had to pick up and move back with his Grandfather. He had hoped that he would stay this time, but as soon as his mother had her fourth child (LeNard was born while we was on Linwood), she checked into a shelter and sent for him. Disgusted, he lived in the shelter with his mother for about 2 months. After moving on Plymouth, getting raided a second time, and going through more domestic violence cases than she could stand, she decided to give that life of drugs up. She checked herself into a rehab on the eastside, he went to stay with one of his grandfather's girlfriends (the biggest player/pimp I know!), and Kellie went to stay with her father, while the little boys stayed with their mother. While his mother rehabilitated, Montrese was still stuck in the same mentality that his mother had almost forced him to live by. He stole, lied and cheated. He was now in high school, and his grandfather and guardian knew this, so they made sure he had what he needed. He was now wearing new clothes (and name brand at that!), and he kept his hygiene up. Finally, he felt good about himself. He found himself being admired by the girls, and he was not picked upon anymore. His grades never changed. When he found out that his guardian was just in it for the money, he urged his grandfather to take him away from the situation. Granddaddy took him to Grandma's, who was the sole reason his mother went down the road of drugs in the first place. When she found out that Vanessa was pregnant, she put her out (at 15!). Knowing this, Montrese didn't exactly hate his Grandmother, but he didn't love her all that much, either. He tried to get along with her, but she would always tell him that he was good for nothing, and he was going to end up like his mother. So as soon as his mother got out of rehab, he went to stay with her in the three-quarter house. Here, his mother met an ex-con, who was so disrespectful that he used to bring weed and beer in the house and get high right in front of the recovering addicts. They soon moved out of the house, and into a real house on the eastside, in the Gratiot and McNichols area. This was Montrese's first time living on the eastside, and he had heard stories about the gangs and violence. He was scared! He befriended a couple of guys on the block, through a mutual love for music, and he began to relax. It was here that he himself would start to 'experiment' with weed and wine. His first drink was Mad Dog 20/20 (Turtle Juice), and he smoked 8 joints the first time he smoked weed. Soon after, he was drinking Cisco, St. Ides, and Seagrams Gin, and smoking Black and Mild's. He started coming in late, skipping school, and it seemed as if his grandmother's words had came true. One morning, after climbing through his bedroom window and breaking it in the process, his mother put him out. He went to stay with his mother's friend, Michelle, who she had met at a NA dance. Chelle, as he called her, was nice enough to take him in. She even helped him land one of his first jobs, at a Subway on East Jefferson. He always went back to the westside to make music with his boys, and party. His mother and Chelle talked him into going to Job Corps. He was a good student, but by this time, he was bored with school. Still, he was a leader in his class, Computers, and he got his G.E.D with flying colors. He met his first love, an older woman by the name of Rhonda. He soon got kicked out for hanging around the wrong crowd, and his girl had left him for another dude that he knew before he came to Job Corps. He went to stay with his mother in the same building that Chelle stayed in, for his youngest brother had caught lead poisoning from the previous house. He started to drift back down that old path, breaking into his mothers room and stealing money from her ex-con boyfriend. (Mind you all of this has been inspiration for certain songs.)After several fights with the deadbeat, he discovered that the con was using himself. He had no idea that his mother was, too. The con would bring the drugs in, and it was so easy for her to relapse. They moved back in the house his grandfather lived in, and he noticed how skinny his mother had got. She was back on that shit, and it was all the con's fault. Montrese witnessed his friends selling his mother dope, and that was it. He couldn't be mad at his friends for getting their money (why not?), so he left and went back on the eastside with Chelle, where he considered going to the Navy. He and a friend of his shipped out on Montrese's 22nd birthday in 2000. He came home on leave and stayed too long in November, and started smoking weed, something he hadn't done for a month before he even thought about going to the Navy. He went back 2 months later, and he still got to see some of the world (Spain, Italy, Greece, etc.), before they kicked him out. Embarassed, he went back home to his mother's house for a year or two before he had his predictable date with the inevitable. He and his mother had been in and out of it, and the con was the influence behind it all. He once again was homeless, staying with Chelle, sleeping in abandoned cars, "spots" when he could make some money, amd wherever else he was welcome. His unconditional love for music never died, as he still made it over to Mac and Mike's house to make beats and songs. He was chillin' with his long-time eastside friend, June, when he got the disturbing call from Chelle: "Montrese, you gotta come home so we can go on the westside to see about your momma!" When asked what had happened, she replied, "Squeaky (a neighborhood fiend) said your momma just got out of a cab with nothing but newspaper wrapped around her!" He couldn't believe it at first, because she had just started a job at SBC doing Customer Service (Momma was smart as hell, like me!). Already drunk, he bought another drink and downed it. He already knew what he wanted to do. When he got west, he immediately started looking for a gun. His intentions were to kill the con. It was all his fault. Montrese's mother had made the con into a cash cow, allowing him to use her name to obtain certain luxuries; after all, they had got married. But he had her strung out on crack again, and Montrese was ready to die for his mother. On his way back from a friend's house in (The Bubble!) trying to get a gun, he saw that the police had came. The coward-ass con turned snitch. His mother pleaded for help from Chelle, while Montrese - high and drunk - cussed at the top of his lungs, something he had never done to his mother. The police threatened to take him to jail if he ever came back, so he left. A week later, his mother came to stay with Chelle in hopes to get away from the con, seeking rehabilitation and refuge. His sister was in college by this time, so she was straight (she smart as hell, too!). Nard went to granddaddy's house (DeJa Vu, anyone?), and the bad ass Lamont went to a boy's home for obvious reasons. She stayed there for a week, and Montrese barely ever talked to her, though he was glad that she was there, and she was trying to get better. That Friday, she left to check herself into a hospital, and then to a rehab. Montrese didn't even say "Bye". He just hoped she wouldn't look the same the next time he saw her....damn. A couple of days went by, and this one morning, Montrese had a dream. In his dream, there was a being that he couldn't quite make out, and it was talking to him. After that, it started to levitate, and the sky opened up as if Heaven itself was welcoming the being. Rays of sunlight shined down in Montrese's face, and when the being was no longer in sight, he woke up. The sun outside in the mid-morning summer of June shined on his face the exact same way it had in his dream! Suddenly, Chelle and a friend of hers, who had took Montrese's mother to the hospital and was worried because Vanessa had not called back, came in. Chelle called Montrese in a voice that smelled of trouble. Ready to argue over something petty, he was suprised to see that both of them were trying to hold tears back, faces already stained with dry ones. They sat him down in Chelle's room, and told him the most shocking news he had ever heard in his life. His mother had died (of an overdose). The tears still haven't stopped. He never had a chance to say goodbye.....................................................
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...........................................For those of you that know me, or have had a chance to meet me, this is why I am so "anti-social". This is why I can't let go of the past. I left out a whole lot of shit, because I didn't want to write all of this. But for you to fully understand me, I had to run most of it down. Some of my best music was made in those hard times. My inspiration to rap about the things that I was going through turned into therapy. It didn't always help, doe. But now you know me, so you can stop listening to that song on the Full Scale Entertainment profile (see my Friends' List)! Well, not really..........if you want some of these "musical Frankensteins" that I be bringing to life, email me at [email protected]. RIP Vanessa Theresa Smith (my Momma), I Love You, always will, and I will never forget you.....
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