The early 80's. That's when Richard Lee Mallows' love of Hip Hop began. Watching films like Beat Street, Breakin and Crush Groove had a big influence on his life. He started out break dancing in school corridors, battling anyone who thought they had skills. After a while Rich started rapping to his favourite songs, nothing unusual there you may think except instead of receiting the artists lyrics, he wrote his own. Over the years he developed his skills while going through numerous name changes and linking with different crews. After many setbacks and dead ends, Rich almost gave up on music. That is until he linked up with his cousin Abstract. They chatted about music amongst other things and Abstract suggested meeting with some guys he'd been working with. Those guys were known other than Mike-S and mc S.Kalibre. From then on UTI was born. By this time Rich had decided on a name that summed up his lyrical versatility of being able to spit with both smooth, laid back ryhmes and a more heavy battle type flow. That name was RL Gemini. RL being the initials of his first and middle names and Gemini being his zodiac sign and a metaphor for his different rhyme styles. Soon the four guys were recording songs about everyday life and drinking to sex and fictitious stories of getting shot by the armed response unit after a drug deal went bad!!! An album was recorded but due to personal issues Gemini moved away. Abstract also relocated to London so the album was never released. It was during this time that Mike and Kalibre formed Hard Livin. The crew still kept in contact and Gemini was constantly visiting family and friends in the Medway Towns. Whilst visiting he would link with Mike and talk of a solo album kept being discussed. At the end of 2003, Gemini moved back to Kent and over the next two years the solo album was recorded. Why did the album take so long to record? The truth is it didn't! It only took about four months but as situations changed so did the lyrics and the music. One track in particular was "Who Am I?" That actually got recorded three times, when Mike and Gem thought they had nailed the track, Kanye West decided to release a track using the same sample!!!!! As you can guess, it was re-recorded to the version that finally made the album. With features from S. Kalibre, Redeye, Lady Paradox, Dap C, Dirty Verbals from Iron Bridge, Bethany Barber and Split and cuts by Mr Steel and Mike Menance, the album "Enter the Lyrical Dragon" is an entertaining and diverse account of Gemini's life so far. Many shows have been performed and open mic sessions attended in and around the Medway towns including a role as support act for the legandary UK artist Blade. This role was repeated at Cargo, London for the launch party of Blade's album "Guerilla Tactics".
Connected to the crew U.T.I. (Under The Influence) consisting of S.Kalibre, my cousin Abstract and producer Mike-S. The album "Enter the Lyrical Dragon" has been recorded andwas solely produced by my boy Mike-S of Hard-Livin. The album features verses from S.Kalibre(Hard-Livin), Split, Dirty Verbalz(Iron Bridge), Lady Paradox, Bethany Barber, Dap C and Red Eye with cuts from Mr Steel and Mike Menace. As yet a release date is unconfirmed as label dramas and other situations have held things back. Stay up and stay blessed, RL Gemini
