Imagine this: five years in the state pen, one Gold album and over 300 songs recorded and then you will have a small glimpse into the life of one of the country’s hottest artist’s, A-WAX.
A-WAX was born and raised in the small, industrial town Pittsburg, CA about 30 miles northeast of San Francisco. Pittsburg was hit hard like most inner city communities in the 1980’s with the Crack epidemic and A-WAX would be one of its many contributors. After countless run-ins with the local police and being kicked out of every school possible A-WAX’s mom shipped him off to the Pacific Northwest by way of the Seattle-Tacoma area. While gangbanging all but passed the S.F. Bay Area up, Seattle was hit particularly hard and soon enough A-WAX would be pledging his allegiance to a flag different then the one you find in a school house…a red one.
Fast forward through the all too common stories of street life and we find A-WAX getting out of prison at age 21 after pleading a Murder down to Manslaughter. Walking out of Walla Walla State Penitentiary in Washington and heading right back home to the Bay Area, A-WAX knew little of the path that awaited him.
Like many “Konvict’s” in jail, A-WAX took up writing and rapping to pass the time, never imagining it would become a career. As he puts it, “it was better than sellin’ dope and easier than out smartin’ the police”. So with that A-WAX would go on to release over 20 projects from 2002 until now with limited distribution and virtually no promotion. Although A-WAX was critically acclaimed and “hood certified”, the limelight and the fame and money that come with it continued to elude him.
A chance meeting with Konvict Muzik C.E.O. (and brother to music superstar Akon), would land A-WAX a highly coveted affilaition with Konvict Muzik which includes stars Akon & T-Pain. Shortly thereafter, A-WAX signed on co-management with street legend and entertainment guru T. Rodgers who is best known as a co-founder of the Bloods turned humanitarian, author, activist, producer, consultant and actor.
A-WAX has toured the country and recorded with a who’s who of industry heavyweights from The Game, Baby Bash, Richie Rich, 2Pac’s Outlawz, Fat Joe and many others. His Myspace page continues to get bombarded, having logged over 1 Million plays and 20,000 friends…making him very sought after in the online world as well. With all of these accomplishments in such a short time, A-WAX is definitely on his way to the top as he continues to garner praise from such industry staples as The Source, Murder Dog and too many others to list.
As his latest power move, A-WAX has hooked up with the up and coming industry powerhouse, Illburn Records to release several new albums including the highly anticipated RECESSION PROOF with GONZOE, another underground staple of the West Coast. Their first collaboration features E-40, C-Murder, Brotha Lynch Hung, and Glasses Malone and is sure to help to establish A-WAX as one of the Princes of the West Coast.
Pay attention.