Too much Wu influence in my teens, and alot of admiration and appreciation for feudal Japanese custom... I'm obviously a junkie for martial arts flicks and every kid instinctively knows that ninjas are the shit. I'm an assassin on the Mic-rophone, but I'm disciplined, deadly, quiet and refrained... and I'm also a mic in derogatory terms. McMC.

Haven't hit an open mic in years, don't really have a DJ, but I've always loved jumping into street cyphers and leaving people amazed. Best thing I've heard a few times is "you make me wanna quit rappin'" - when I lived in East Denver and worked downtown, there was always street music everywhere and club life... and I remember standing outside on a smoke break, and a kid I cyphered with months before came up outta nowhere and wanted to test his darts on me - I was caught off point ha, but it made me feel good that he remembered me.

I went to a bar called Benders with some friends from work, and I rarely talked music with them... there was karaoke goin', and I don't sing, so I asked 'em to put on Nine Inch Nails "Downward Spiral", and I spit some hot writtens over that for like 4 minutes straight... totally unannounced and people were just screaming "YEAHHHHHHHHHHH" like crazy in a full house for something they never expected to hear. That was a good one.

I never had any big shows, but most people I ever spit for gave me my props... and that's real love.

Eliminates the middle man... takes away the idea of profit and gain as your only motivation, and your only worth as an artist. If people want to listen to you, and find you, they can... it definitely turned the music industry on it's head, and scared them straight. Of course, they quickly found a way to start controlling no man's land and making the free market into a small pond with a few big fish squashing all the guppies who built the foundation (like QN5 and Warlab who came loooong before Gnarls Barkley's itunes success stories).

All I need is beats and an engineer: I'd be a major work horse, but I don't what kind of revenue I could generate. My style is my style, you know?

It's been my thing to write lyrics and flow since I was 14. Rhythm and thought... flow... that's life.

The RZA influences me alot, in all aspects of music and philosophy. I'm influenced alot by artists like Enya as a cultural identity thing, a respect for her beautiful ways and her secluded castle lifestyle I'm so jealous of. Lauryn Hill for simply amazing talent, and yes, I love the Unplugged album not just Miseducation - very underrated as a thought provoking lyricist.

Wyclef as someone who went far with a microphone and guitar.

Canibus as someone who's still here, still raps just to rap, and will never ever compromise or dumb himself down just to get back in good standing with the industry that blackballed him. That's a real artist... f*** the money, f*** the fans - do it cause you have to do it, 'cause you're meant to do it.

Tonedeff for honesty, self sufficiency, perseverance, originality and creativity, and for never being afraid to do something different for his own reasons.

2Pac... too much to even start typing ha

16th Street Mall, Denver

Cool Edit Pro and a built in laptop microphone... that's it. NO BUDGET PRODUCTIONS INCORPORATED

Shouts to Mom, Ghattz, Ecko, Sestren, Tooth Lucero aka A-Bone, Jeremiah, Kyle, Martina, Cassandra, Chan, Anne and fam