Before They Were Famous

Before becoming the latest in a long line of promising drill-rappers to emerge from New York City, NAS EBK was born on July 2nd, 2003 in the Bronx where he grew up around 158th and 3rd Avenue. Nas began his life as an aspiring basketball player and in his teenage years, he played for the Eagle Academy school in New York, winning a championship in his Freshman year. After that first season, he was recruited by a prep school out in Pennsylvania which would force him to re-classify as a Freshman yet again. Unfortunately, only a few months into this new environment, Nas would find himself in a physical altercation with another student, leading to his expulsion from the school and the eventual dissolution of his dream of becoming a professional basketball player. All things considered, it was a pretty tragic turn of events because Nas had enough talent to attend a division one school – instead, the street life would come calling around the age of 15, throwing his life into chaos and turmoil for the next few years. During this period of his life, you could find Nas hanging around the Courtland projects in the Bronx, but he’d eventually migrate away from that area and post-up in the block known as SevSide after getting betrayed and robbed by friends from his former hood. That’s where and when he would meet fellow rapper Kay Flock, someone who would come to play a huge part in his musical success. In the years before he started making music, Nas used his reputation around the hood to build a massive following on social media and to hear him tell it, he says he already had around 10,000 followers on Instagram well before he ever created his first song.

On November 6th, 2020, up-and-coming rapper Кing Vоn, would die at the age of 26 from multiple gunshot wounds incurred during an altercation outside of a a club in Atlanta, Georgia. Von’s tragic passing ended a two day-period that would see him celebrating the release of his debut album, “Welcome to O Block” by throwing a massive party in Atlanta, only to then, hours later, be gunned down in the streets. Why was Von k1lled at the height of his greatest accomplishment? What exactly do other rappers like NBA YoungBoy and Quando Rondo have to do with what happened? And are the Atlanta Police to blame for what went down that night? The answers to those burning questions are exactly what we’re going to explore as we unravel the complicated Case of Кing Vоn.

Before Spazz Drilly would become one of the deadliest drill rappers of all time, he was born Tabu Harris sometime in the year 2001. He grew up on the G-Side neighborhood of the Bronx which might be a small place, relatively speaking, but it sure does have a ton of violent gangs occupying its streets. After all, everyone from the Bloods, to the Crips, to the YGz claim a piece of turf somewhere in the area. It was on these tension-filled streets that Tabu began going by his earliest nickname, Spazz Jet, while repping the Blood Hound Brims – a Blood set that operates under the New York Brim Army. Back in the not-so-distant past, the Blood Hound Brims were one of the most vicious gangs in the city, but in 2019 they’d see a number of their members convicted on charges of racketeering, drugs, and weapons charges. Spazz joined their ranks sometime shortly before that around the age of 17 after already having earned himself a reputation as a hot-head around G-Side -- someone willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. When his good-friend Dumb Out, aka Damien Gilbert – who Spazz not only grew up alongside but also reportedly once jumped Lil Tjay with -- invited him to officially become part of the Brims, Spazz was only all too happy to sign-up.

Аdrіаnа was born on November 4, 1991, in Downingtown, Pennsylvania but she moved around a lot because she grew up in foster care. She was told that she is of Russian, Serbian, and a little bit of English ancestry, but she says that there is no way to verify this so she can't be absolutely sure. We did what we could to try and find some childhood photos of Adriana but those appear to have been scrubbed from the internet. Growing up in 13 different foster homes gave Adriana a bit of a different upbringing than most. Speaking with Howard Starn she revealed that there was one foster father who ended up becoming a daddy she’ll never forget. Adriana was only six years old when she was cared for by this particular dad, and the situation was as normal as can be then. She was bounced out of that house at nine thanks to the system but retained fond feelings for those particular foster parents.

Noticuz is a YouTube personality and content creator whose best known for creating a ton of inventive comedy videos on his self-titled YouTube channel. This young man only just started trying his hand at YouTube a little over three years ago and by the end of his first year, he had already reach around 5K subs. Flash forward two years and Noticuz has blown that impressive accomplishment right out the water, acquiring over 315K subs on his primary channel alone. But outside of some hilarious videos -- many of which involve him getting into hijinks with New York City’s most popular drill rappers -- what else do we know about this dude? The truth is -- not much -- which is why we got in touch with the man himself and asked him to send a long some details to make sure his fans got to learn more about him than ever before. So, if you’ve been enjoying his content from a distance but always wanted to know more about the man behind Noticuz, then stay tuned to our newest episode of Before They Were Famous!

Before he’d become a YouTube comedian and prankster, D’Aydrian Harding was born on August 3rd, 2001 in Wichita, Kansas where he grew up in what was generally a pretty idyllic set-up – and by that, I mean one where he didn’t have to worry about much as kid. Located smack-dab in the middle of America, there wasn’t a whole lotta trouble or even excitement for D’Aydrian to get up to – which means more often than not he used to hang out with his friends around the 44-foot tall “Keeper of the Plains” sculpture that stands at the exact point where the Big and Little Arkansas rivers join together in downtown Wichita. You’re probably thinking to yourself – that doesn’t sound very enticing -- but when you grow-up in a city with as little to do in it as Wichita, it’s either that or pleasuring yourself in the back of an SUV containing some of your closest friends just in order to get a thrill.

One sure fire way for to have a massive impact on the world is to write a best-selling book. Unfortunately, the process of getting that book published and then marketed to best seller status can be a daunting experience for anyone, especially if you don’t happen to have the necessary resources and connections in the industry. That’s where Game Changer Publishing and Cris Cawley come in. Over the past two decades, Cawley has devoted the bulk of her time helping entrepreneurs publish best selling books through her flagship company called Game Changer Publishing. Along the way she’s helped 1000s of reputable entrepreneurs, industry leading CEO’s, speakers, coaches and consultants accomplish their long time dream of publishing a successful selling book for more impact, income and influence. Cawley is an award-winning coach, a two comma club winner and one of the most sought after book publishing consultants in the market place today. Her company offers clients a vehicle to scale their brand, authority and credibility significantly with a best selling book, in a short period of time. Sometimes it can be hard to believe the hype when you don’t know anything about the person promising to completely change your life and business for the better. So, today, we’re going to introduce you to Cris Cawley, tell you her story and give you a taste of how she accomplished such remarkable achievements at such a young age, on our newest episode of Before They Were Famous!

Before 16-year-old drill rapper Rah Gz would die as a result of a shooting in the back of an Uber, he was born Ramon Gil-Medrano on September 7th, 2004 in the Bronx to a family of Puerto Rican descent. But growing up in one of the most dangerous boroughs of New York City led to Rah forming links with the local street gang known as the 800 YGz and this association would get him into a lot of hot water with police, including three arrests over the span of 90 days prior to his tragic passing. More than just that, he also found himself in difficult situations including in July of 2020 when he was shot for the first time at the intersection of Prospect Avenue and Oakland Place in Crotona. This attack would prove to be eerily similar to the one that would eventually claim his life and left him in critical condition.

Moving to a new country, especially one in which you’re totally unfamiliar with the language, can be hard on anyone. But for model Karen Bassily it opened up the door to opportunity. Originally hailing from the country of Egypt, Karen discovered a love for fashion modeling upon her arrival in North America and her introduction to “America’s Next Top Model”. Determined to make herself as famous as the faces she saw parading around on her television set, Karen not only taught herself English but a host of other skills as well like belly-dancing, singing, and horseback riding to give herself as wide an appeal as possible. Each new skill she developed and every photograph she took along the way became a building block in the foundation of her career – and today, she’s in the midst of turning herself into one of the industry’s most promising young stars with an ever-increasing presence on Instagram. How did she go from fleeing violence in Egypt to being featured in a music video for Wiz Khalifa? You’re about to find out on our newest episode of Before They Were Famous.

Before rapper Luciano would become one of Germany’s hottest hip-hop exports and the face of what’s now known as Deutschrap -- he was born Patrick Jamal Grobmann on January 28th, 1994 in the Eastern German city of Bautzen. Raised by a father from the African country of Mozambique and a German mother -- at the age of three, Luciano and his family including his younger sister, moved from their hometown to the capital city of Berlin. There, the cold, prefabricated buildings of the Eastern part of the city would become Luciano’s first childhood memories. As a kid, Luciano’s biggest hurdle to overcome was a really bad stutter. Whenever it was his turn to speak in class, he’d fumble around with any sound that started in MO. Which meant, more often than not, Luciano refused to speak up, even though he regularly knew the answer to the questions being asked of him. This naturally led to him feeling like something of an outsider from elementary school on. But Luciano refused to let this quirk define him. Instead, he began looking for techniques to avoid the issue, including controlling his breathing. It took him two years, but he wound up conquering his stutter by the time he entered high school.