Kode’s Bio It all started with a quaint leaflet entitled "F*k the Industry" As he read it a young Jae Willz became intensely fascinated with this character dependent hip hop life style "I started off in the handball courts drinkin Jim Beam at 13 just to fit in.. All cause I thought it was the thing to do" the now 29 yr old artist declares as he takes a sip of another alcoholic beverage.. To Jae aka Kode that's one of the problems with the industry now he estimates everyone is doing something to fit in and no one is really being there selves.. "I just wanna make a positive change on our upcoming generation.. So they never have to have their lives get as f*kked up as mine has.." With a strong 5% nation background , as a younger rapper he built with some of the greatest minds of San Diego California's underground hip hop scene.. To name a few off his first krew was "Irate" which consisted of himself known back then as Lethal Tha Philosopher , Magnus The Ultra Entity(which in his opinion was and still is one of San Diego's greatest talents) "Ya Mag had a lot to do with the early formation of my persona.. He had the all spark that fed me when I was hungry for this hip hop scene.. At like 16 they would let me hang with them and take in the TJ club scene and cruise the mall for shorties" RGS a now very accomplished producer currently associated with Full Clip Ent was another member of the underground conglomerate.. "GS was like my teacher He was hollerin at his leader/ og about me long before I was even consciously awake to this hip hop life.. His older homeboy who is now the manager of his label was locked up and all GS kept telling him was that I was talented and just needed direction.. So I guess in a form and a fashion GS was the reason I became so strong with this hip hop movement He was always havin me battle kats no matter how nervous I was and I would usually win even when I was an undeveloped artist.. Then we would do free style exercises and read up on topics like government corruption and high recidvism rates.. You know s*yt that directly affects our culture.. So he would be the ties that binded me together mentally.. And Ive always thanked him for that.." Also Unicron now known as H20 was a greater part of the group "I never really got to know 20 that good cause he came in at a later formation of the group it seemed like to me.. Hes a good dude and his delivery is awesome.. Another thing I do feel was extremely peculiar was that he was connected to Southeast before I ever accepted my heritage there and so in essence despite many other kats feelings about my relation to that Ive always been around and affected by it.." Lastly but not least of all there was Abel Majestic who was a pertinent part of the now defunct Irate krew.. "Abel is my n*gha man. He was the one who helped me settle into an og mind frame.. You know bigger thinking and all that I mean I was watchin him cap galz at an early age and was like if he could do it I could too.. He was and always will be like an older brother figure to me.." Then one day Irate broke apart "It is wat it is let it be wat it was.." For Jae Willz his hip hop identity started before he could even really define his own existence in it.. "My auntie worked for BMG.. I had an uncle who was a producer back east My step brother at the time was a handicapped dj and had his own clothing store in Sacramento Ca And he also gave me my first piece of hip hop gear a Mecca jersey back when Mecca was first jumpin off.. So when you speak of being immersed in the culture head first that was me.. I mean this gal we adopted at one time even used to let me borrow her hip hop records and used to tell me that I was gonna get overly attached to it.. That was before the jails, prisons, and institutions.." A bright student who was honor roll most of his life and had exceptional test scores all the way up to his expulsion from San Diego High Jae attests that he never meant to go to the wrong side it just sorta happened. "I think wat really drove me to the dark side was when in my IB classes(a school program for highly intelligent kids) other kids would make fun of my homies who weren't as smart as me or them.. I mean that drove me nuts I used to get into arguments with them all the time and I think I realized back then that if society was that judgemental I didn't wanna be a part of it.. That's when I really started ditchin school and hangin out with the "stoners" and taggers and gangstas.. It was like the only place I felt comfortable.. I used to go to school to ditch schoool to come back to school and catch the bus home and erase the messages before moms kopped em.." At that point a young Jae met Timi Reeves aka Taboo.. Taboo was my link to everything.. She still lingers in my mind like everyday man.. She used to go with me to her job at round table pizza kop a pizza and make me sit down and work on hooks, beats, koncepts, and verses.. All that.. She also told me that Irate would break up before it did and that one day Id have to stand on my own two.. Of course I didn't believe her at the time.. I mean those were my n*ghas I believed I was never gonna leave them and they were never gonna leave me.." But as with all great stories the main factors of Irate did split. "Taboo told me those aint ya true homies. Ya jus rollin with them for now.. I woke up with no homies" It comes a time in every mans life when its only you and God and you can either help ya self or fail.. Jae was only 16 when he hit his first stint in juvenile hall and was then transported to a drug rehabilation hospital known as Mesa Vista.. "I can clearly remember the screams of people being shot up with thorazine and I think they put me in that white room with the straps on the bed and the camera in the corner a numerous amount of times.. I was really on sum bugged out s*yt at that point of time" Irate had finally broke up and Jae had jus about given up on rap "I swore I was gonna quit this s*yt I mean to me at that point it was jus a hobby.. We had done a couple of shows and I loved the knowledge part of it but I almost felt it wasn't for me.. Then I met Big Slim" After being released from juvi and running away from home a couple more times Jae finally started to settle down for a period of time and started volunteering at his local teen center.."It was funny cause back then I would help teach kids about hip hop the same way Orko and Masters taught me with that F*k Tha Industry paper.. Jus telling shorties secrets of the game and how and why not to get trapped up with certain idealogies.. At that point I was doin shows and battles up at the Epicentre which was our local teen center.. It was a small venue but it was good practice for later shows and we had a lot of fun.. That's where I met Big Slim and forged a bond with him.. Funniest part of that equation was we knew each other before we even knew we knew each other.." Jae and Slim ended up formin Herbin Renewal which never ended up droppin a full album.. "Slim and I did our first show in Feb of 99.. It was kalled Victims Of Tha Industry and was like a training class for this game.. We spit bout the dos and the donts of the industry and oddly enough Orko from Masters was there and actually applauded us greatly and Dajahn Blevins executive director of the Kuumba Fest show offered us a position on the African art council .. After that Slim made me promise that I wouldn't quit rappin and that I would push through with this project. I wasn't ready then though" "I never got anything.. Father never coached my games.. Wondered if my life was different would my mistakes be the same" Just as so many of his kind before him did Jae got involved with the evils of the game and ended up on probation, then violated that and ended up on parole "I cant tell you my entire life story cause I don't remember most of it and it would take years to tell cause parts of it are still happenin.. But I can tell you I made the wrong choices and then saw the error of my ways and decided to use hip hop musik to advance myself and others through these struggles.. From Eb dyin and Solo dyin in front of me I realiize that this is all we got And until President Obama got in office it felt like WE as black people never really got anything unless it was got put in handcuffs or got locked up" His personality went through a myriad of changes as he got older and changed his aliases "The final stage of my life was Kode.. I called myself that cause the lp is called Kode Name: Yg and in the middle of me making a thorugh album one of my friends was brutally murdered in front of me and it felt like a part of me died with him.. At which point I decided to carry myself under different Kodes and policies that I felt didn't exist in the game anymore and were what it lacked in itself.. S*yt like honor, courage, personal responsibility I guess I finally reached a point when I was just sick of all the bul s*yt seein people die, hearin bout people die, police telling me I had conspiracy charges on me.. S*yt like that.. It was my final wake up call" "Push the button watch the elevator pull you up, for all the haters this right here is a pull up" Kode Name: Yg is scheduled to drop on the first of the year Jan 09 and is a in depth self anaylsis of rappper Jae Willz aka Kode.. It talks bout love, personal relationships, drugs, sex, raisin family, and his various trials and tribulations.. "With this lp it took a long time cause its al the experiences in my early life comin to a culmination and I wanted to do it right.. I wanted to make sure that I made sumthin that I was gonna enjoy and that others would too but would also educate everyone involved to the balance of good and evil that we live through everyday.. I aint sayin my life is any better or worse than yours.. All Im sayin is I know where I f*kked up at and if someone like me had of came along and