Before They Were Famous

Before becoming one of the most popular streamers currently gaming on Twitch and all across social media, BruceDropEmOff was born Bruce Ray Jones on September 23rd, 2000 in Riverdale, Georgia. As a kid, Bruce grew up in the nearby Clayton County area where he developed a deep-seeded passion for two things in particular, fashion and gaming. Back then, Bruce attended Kendrick Middle School before heading off to high-school where a few of his fellow classmates would turn out to be Lil Keed and Lil Gotit. During his teenaged years, Bruce had to battle back against depression as a result of difficulties he was facing in school. Not only was he suspended multiple times early on in his high-school career for misbehaving, but his grades began circling the drain and he failed a series of classes as well. On the other side of things, his family life wasn’t doing all that well either. After having spent much of his childhood living with his mom, at the age of 13, Bruce moved into his dad’s place and wouldn’t see his mom again for nearly five years.

BEFORE her face would be revealed in November of 2022 as the cover image of Drake and 21 Savage’s collaborative mixtape “Her Loss”, model, adult dancer, nail stylist and artist, Suki Baby, was born Qui Yasuka in North Carolina. As you might imagine – when Drake and 21 originally revealed Suki Baby as the front cover to their new mixtape, it left many fans confused, wondering not only who this mysterious woman was but how she earned this distinction in the first place. To begin with, Suki is of Japanese, Black, and Cherokee descent and after being born in the state of North Carolina, she spent the majority of her childhood living in Japan with her mom. During that period of time, Japanese would become the first language she ever learned to speak, but her adolescence overseas was marked by a serious case of bullying. As the only student of mixed Black and Japanese descent in her city, Suki put up with a lot of snide remarks and outright insults during class hours. And not just from the other students, but the teachers! Her mom would do her best to defend her, but eventually, it all became too much. Rather than keep Suki in a toxic setting, her grandmother put her foot down and encouraged Suki’s mother to send her back to live with her father, so she could grow up more comfortably in Houston, Texas.

Before he would tragically pass away at the age of only 17 years old, rapper Edot Baby would be born Elijah Irvin on February 6th, 2005 in New York City’s Harlem Hospital to his mother Tanya Gabriel -- a hairstylist -- and his father, Vincent Irvin. Thanks to the name he’d make for himself incredibly early on as a promising drill-rapper, most people tend to think that Edot came from the Bronx, but in point of fact, he was raised in Harlem. Now, last time we told Edot’s story, we got our information a bit mixed-up and said that he was raised by a legal guardian named Tiffany Taylor. That was our mistake and one we’re looking to rectify. Tiffany is actually Edot’s sister and while he considered her both a sibling and a mother-figure, his actual mom, Tanya, as well has his father, both maintained a meaningful presence in his life as well.

Before becoming the man who first discovered Drake, Jas Prince was born on October 30th, 1987 in Houston, Texas to his mother, Mary, and his father, James Prince – the CEO of Rap-A-Lot Records. Back when Rap-A-Lot was still looking to find its footing, Jas recalls showing up at his father’s business to sweep the floors, work in the mail room, and occasionally hype up the label’s newest release as a member of the street team. Since then, the company has established a reputation as one of hip-hop’s most influential labels, an estate that Jas may one day very well inherit for himself. But with his father still going strong and not looking to retire anytime soon, Jas recognized he’d have to make his own way in the industry and he’d wind up doing so by discovering one of the biggest celebrity talents of recent memory. Looking to follow in his father’s incredibly successful footsteps, in 2007, a then 19-year-old Jas went searching for an artist of his own to groom. While still in college, he scoured the internet for a potential client and ultimately stumbled upon the MySpace page of a Canadian rapper named Drake.

Before he would become arguably one of the most popular members of hip-hop’s newest collective known as “41” -- the rapper TaTa was born Zaire Tasean Rivera on February 17th, 2005 in the Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. Born to his mother, Joniqua Alvarez and his father, Zaire Rivera, Zaire Jr. was raised in a Puerto Rican and Panamanian family alongside three brothers, Zyon, King, and Prince, as well as one sister, Laila. Together, these four spent the vast majority of their youth growing up on the streets of Brownsville in Brooklyn. As a kid, Zaire’s early life was pretty rudimentary. He used to fill his hours by playing basketball in the park and then picking up a controller and gaming well into the night. He also had a deep-seated passion for music, looking up to a number of hip-hop icons including Drake, A Boogie Wit da Hoodie, and Lil Wayne. His infatuation with these rappers’ skill sets would lead to Zaire trying his hand at writing rap lyrics of his own from a young age -- but he didn’t concentrate on music as much as he might have liked to at first because he also had to focus on his education.

Before becoming the newest piece of eye-candy blowing-up “OnlyFans”, adult entertainer and model Sky Bri was born on February 21st, 1999 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Growing up in the small town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania prior to their emergence in the public eye, the only real friendship Sky Bri had in her life was the one she had with her boyfriend. Well, until she walked in on him sleeping with someone else when she was only 18 and was charged with assault for scratching up the dude’s face. Other than that, she was a good girl – no drinking, no excess partying, just staying in the night, after night. Why was she so often on her own? Well, according to Sky, she’s battled a horrible case of social anxiety from the time she was a kid and often struggled to figure out what to talk to other people about in social situations. Naturally awkward, Sky felt pressure to fill those quiet moments with discussion, but could never quite figure out what there was to say. Couple that pressure with the fact that everyone was always staring at her because of how beautiful she is and it became the perfect storm for creating a constant sense of uneasiness inside her at all times.

Before influential rapper Takeoff -- one-third of the hip-hop collective Migos -- would lose his life in a tragic passing on Halloween night, he was born Kirshnik Khari Ball on June 18th, 1994 in Lawrenceville, Georgia. That’s just the beginning as we have lots to cover in this video from their childhood. 2008 beginnings as the Polo Club. Old videos you wont find anywhere else and the latest on what happened late into the night on this tragic Halloween. That was 7 years ago and this man accomplished more in those few years than most do in a lifetime, okay let’s get into this Gone But Not Forgotten. When Offset was in elementary school, his family moved to the Atlanta suburbs of Gwinnett County where he spent the vast majority of his childhood alongside the two other individuals he’d come to form Migos with, his Uncle Quavo and his first-cousin once-removed, Offset.

Before Nicole Moorman would become the hottest celebrity defense attorney this side of Camille Vasquez, she was born on April 17th, sometime in the late 80s, in Chicago, Illinois. Nicole would then spend the next two decades of her childhood and adolescence living in the greater Chicago area while working her all-too fine derrière off to become a criminal defense lawyer. Upon her graduation from high school, Nicole would accept an academic scholarship to Southern Illinois University where she would spend the next four years obtaining a Bachelor’s Degree of Science, specializing in Criminal Justice and Corrections with a minor in Pre-Law Studies. During her career at that prestigious institution, Nicole would pad her resume by spending a considerable amount of her free time partaking in a number of extra-curricular endeavors, including as a member of the Student Body Government, the Criminal Justice Association, as well as the Pre-Law Association. Following her graduation from SIU in 2010, Nicole ramped up her workload by finally ditching Chicago and moving to Atlanta, Georgia where she enrolled at Troy University and earned herself two Masters of Science Degrees -- one in Criminal Justice and a second in Public Administration. Nicole would go on to achieve a 3.8 GPA at Troy despite the fact that she was moonlighting all throughout her time there as a Probation Officer for the Georgia Department of Corrections, eventually graduating from her program in 2013 with honors.

Before he would become one of drill’s longest-running Emcees, rapper Curly Savv was born David Simpson on October 18th, 1999, in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Canarsie -- a place where he generally got along with most people he met. In terms of his childhood, David grew up in a half-Jamaican and half-Italian family where he was the middle child of 5 -- but his parents split when he was quite young. His relationship with his dad early on wasn’t great because his pops always seemed to think that his son was out there acting up on the streets. But on the more positive side of things – his dad was also a DJ who introduced his young son to music for the first time. As a youth surviving on the streets of Canarsie, David would come to be acquainted with his eventual musical partner in crime –the rapper, Dah Dah. These two first met while playing little league football, which is actually where David came by his nickname of “Curly” as well. As anyone who’s ever seen a picture of this dude can tell – he’s got some mad curly hair – a characteristic that he’s had his entire life. Once he joined the football team, one of his teammates began calling him “Curly Fries” – the latter part of which Curly wasn’t feeling for obvious reasons. But he’d wind up keeping the first part of the nickname and add onto it later as he worked his way up the streets.

Before UK rapper Loski would become one of his country’s most promising new performers, he was born Jyrelle O’Conner on May 6th, 1999 and grew-up out on Kennings Way – a brutal stretch of South London located in Kensington. As a kid, Jyrelle was a huge movie fanatic and he especially loved any film starring Adam Sandler or Chris Tucker. He’d watch those classics with his two siblings on his father’s side of the family -- a little sister and kid brother -- both of whom he’s quite close with, which is similar to the relationship he has with his parents – including his father, former Brixton rapper, Ty Nizzy. Despite having a father in the biz, Jyrelle didn’t grow-up dreaming of becoming a rapper. Instead, he initially sought out a career as a professional football player (that’s “soccer” to us uncivilized folk over here in North America). Meanwhile, his earliest creative outlet was his love for drawing which he practiced often in the hectic halls of Lilian Baylis Secondary School where his favorite classes were Religious Studies and History. Over the years however, things would change. To begin with, Jyrelle incurred an injury that put his playing days on ice and he was eventually dropped from the team. With his dreams of becoming a professional athlete now dashed, Jyrelle fell in with a bad crowd around his local neighborhood and got caught up in the trappings of the hood. Starting around 2012, Jyrelle launched his career as a performer under the moniker of Lil Nizzy -- a reference to his father -- but by the time he started taking the prospect of becoming a performer more seriously three years later, he had adopted the name of Loski -- given to him by a friend -- and joined the Kennington based crew known as the Harlem Spartans.