MaxwellSage

THE HISTORY OF MAXWELLSAGE:When I was a kid I loved music and I listened to oldies because that's all my dad exposed me to... but as I got older, I got tired of hearing the same songs and would change the radio station to anything else that sounded good to me. Nine out of ten times I would find my way to the rap stations (106 KMEL, and WILD 107). It was third grade when I realized that I liked rap music and was done with oldies. I grew up listening to all the good shit of the mid-nineties such as Tupac, Biggie, Puff Daddy, Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, basically any one who was holdin' it down on the radio at the time. I liked all kinds of rap and all kinds of beats.Fast forward five years to when I'm in the eighth grade, listening to loads of rap, hanging out at the park down the street, and playing video games as well as Pokemon cards... One day while I was hanging out at the park, some kid challenged me to a game of Pokemon. The kid's name was Alex Park, or more commonly referred to by the nickname I later gave him, "AP". Our enthusiasm for Pokemon kept us hanging out and playing the game regularly. Until one day when Alex decided that we should try rapping over a cd of instrumentals he had downloaded. I never had any intention of being a rapper and the one time in my life that I did try to rap, I sucked. However, I gave rap another shot any way.With regular practice came skill and we soon began building our abilities to freestyle in Alex's living room and in my laundry room. As the months passed by I tried battling a couple random kids and had fun while doing it. I had always enjoyed clowning on people and that combined well with my enthusiasm for freestyling. When I was a sophomore in high school the leadership class hosted the school's first "Freestyle Friday". I was an unknown white kid with only a hand full of friends attending the school at the time, but I somehow summoned the courage to climb on stage and start battling. When I started rapping the crowd was amazed that a random white kid could come up and destroy the school's top competitors. I went on to win four of my five battles that day in landslide victories. Ever since then I've had a reputation around Encinal High School and also around Alameda to some extent as being a skilled freestyle and battle MC.I kept freestyling for any one and every one interested. I also battled any one around Alameda who was regarded as a decent MC. My local celebrity grew steadily as I furthered my career in freestyling. I began competing in battles outside of Alameda and even regularly attending a freestyle open-mic hosted by MC SHUSH and DJ Malik from MTV's The Real World. It was here that I grew comfortable rapping in front of crowds of strangers. Shush and Malik encouraged me to write lyrics but whenever I had attempted to do so it was never any fun, nor did it live up to my personal standards.So, I kept freestyling and battling up until the summer of 2005 when I was given a computer with FruityLoops. I had been practicing producing beforehand and was excited that I could finally record songs at home on my new PC. I had only been making beats until one day when Zac Rusi, more commonly referred to by the nickname I later gave him "The Rustla", came over and asked me to freestyle a diss song on a beat I made about a girl we both knew. I reluctantly agreed and we did the song. Weeks later I decided I wanted the song on my myspace so I made a music page to host it with no intention of doing any thing else with it. However, people began to add the page because they were excited that they finally had music of mine to listen to rather than simply hearing me freestyle on random occasions. The page became popular and received hundreds of visits a day.On this momentum I went on to write and record songs for what would later become my first ever album, entitled "The First". The album was EXTREMELY unprofessional but was acclaimed within Alameda and made a more than decent profit for what it was mostly due to Navid who sold it at Alameda High. After "The First" was done, I kept recording songs for my sophomore album I later named "WSA Story". (This album is still in production to this day because I want to take all the time necessary to really showcase my talent.)In the summer of 2006 I had been trying to get my song "Metro Phone" featuring Exstra on the radio simply by calling in and requesting it. My attempts came to no avail and all it did was make Wild 94.9 annoyed of me. However, a few weeks later, I did a collaboration song with fellow West Alameda producer/rapper Drinoman called "Mary Poppins Remix". Once Drinoman told me he had given a copy of the song to a dj at Wild 94.9 I soon began campaigning over the phone and myspace to get my friends and fans to call in and request it. About a week later, Wild 94.9 said they were going to play it on the air. I was elated by the news since I had always dreamed of hearing myself rap on the radio but never saw it happening. When I heard my voice I went so dumb. I felt really accomplished as an artist. Since then, I've performed in front of crowds of hundreds and been featured on various mix tapes. As of now, I'm living in Santa Cruz with my girlfriend, making beats and writing songs for "WSA Story" which I intend to release this summer... To be continued...