Life Don't Rhyme

Anonymous asked: hey MC, is there any way that you can give us a history of your illustrious rap career? How you got started? How you formed your various groups? How you decided to start the Insider?

Anonymous,

Sorry I just got around to this.  It’s a bit of a long synopsis, so hear goes.

Peace.  Sure.  I was born with a Shure SM-58 Microphone attached to my hand.  The Doctors were perplexed.  They marveled and studied me for weeks in a secret Laboratory in South Georgia.  Over the years….

Okay, here we go.  I’ve been a hip-hop fan since my brother traded me his Run DMC (Self-Titled) tape in 1984.  I have been hooked ever since.  In college, I roomed with Joe Brewer aka Sintax the Terrific.  He had been rhyming since he was younger, and actually cut a demo with DJ Dove of SFC while he was in High School.  DJ Cartoon did a beat for him and everything.  At the time Sintax went by a different name which I have been sworn to secrecy not to reveal.  Anyway, Sintax convinced me, because of my love of the music and culture, to try my hand at emceeing.  That was in 1995.

I wrote some rhymes, and we decided to start a group together.  That group was called the Pride.  We released an album together in 1996 and began touring around South Carolina on weekends.  The Album, by way, was a horrible mess.  We followed that up with an EP in 1997 entitled “Common Knowledge”.  We had met a guy named Jendor (Shadow of the Locust) at CRUvention in ‘96 and we ended up buying 6 beats from him.  We also met High Tech the Recon around the same time.  He laid down one beat for that EP as well.

Back in those days, the internet wasn’t popping like it is now, so finding other like-minded groups was much tougher.  Through our limited resources, we found a guy named Sev in upstate NY and a group called Labklik operating out of Arkansas and Oregon, and we really identified with them.  During a freestyle on my way home from work in ‘97, I said something about “Deepspace5”.  Got home, spoke with Sintax and suggested we start some sort of crew affiliation.  Called Sev and called Listener and Illtripp from Labklik, and Deepspace5 was formed.  Right after that, Sev and the Pride released a split 12” (first piece of vinyl for either of us) and started servicing it to college radio.

Met Dust at CRUvention 1998.  All of the Deepspace5 guys at the time (minus Illtripp) were there and we were back and forth between the convention and our hotel room/studio writing and recording the original Deepspace5 EP (available at www.deepspace5.bandcamp.com). 

Dust was DJ and producer for a group called DPS (DeadPoetSociety).  Within 6 months of meeting Dust, I went full time with his group and toured with them for a full year (1999).  At the end of that year, Dust moved to Atlanta (Rahlo, the other MC in DPS stayed in Indianapolis) and we formed Mars ILL.  We recorded Raw Material and released it independently along with Josh and Sphere of Hip Hop Records.  During the process, I had met Playdough over the phone, and asked him to do a song with me for the album.  We had met briefly at CRUvention ‘98 but definitely had not connected.  He got the beat from Freddie B, we did the song together and “Black Market” Happened.  After that, I asked he and Fred to join Deepspace5. 

Man….that’s all I have in me to type today on the Manchild History Channel.  Once Raw Material dropped and then re-dropped on Uprok/Tooth and Nail, everything is pretty well-documented. 

Bottom line.  I’m blessed to have had the opportunity to do what I do and to have had the chance to make this music over the years.  It’s pretty mind-blowing.  Thanks for listening.

Life Don’t Rhyme,

Greg Manchild Owens