About me

I grew up in Geneva, Illinois. Close to downtown Chicago. But my South African roots are a huge part of my life. My mom is 100 percent South African. The rest of her family is still there.

I started to play guitar when I was 10, on acoustic. I’m self-taught. I’ve never taken one lesson. I started singing when I was about five years old. When I was younger, I bought Diana Ross' Greatest Hits CD and listened to every song on my Walkman until I could mimic her voice. That's how I learned to sing.

  

I started listening to rap and hip-hop when I was in fifth grade. I was raised with siblings who loved folk rock and bluegrass, so I was the odd one out with Lil Jon blasting out of my boombox. I just really identified with the beats and the rhythm of the music and melody. Lately, almost all the covers that I’ve done have no guitar chords. I turn on iTunes and I play the song three times, then I pick up my guitar and try to play what feels right. Half of the time I don’t know what the notes or the key or the chords are. I just play what sounds right and I don’t write anything down.

The day before my 18th birthday I started posting  acoustic takes on tracks by hip-hop artists like Chief Keef, A$AP Rocky, Lil Wayne, and Ace Hoods When I did the cover of Ace Hood’s “I Need Your Love,” he re-tweeted that two weeks ago. That’s kind of where it all started. After Ace did it, DJ Khaled tweeted me and I think that got a lot of people’s attention, but it really didn’t blow up. After Chief Keef tweeted, that’s when it got really big. I saw that Trey Songz followed me and Vinny from Jersey Shore followed me. This lead me to gain a massive fast following , after WorldstarHipHop picked up my acoustic-guitar-based rendition of Chief Keef’s “Love Sosa” in December 2012

I have been asked to work with two different writers that wrote on Rihanna’s Unapologetic album. Kevin Cossom, who wrote “Jump” and then another writer, Xplicit. I am currently partnered with Rifkind and Russell Simmons’ All Def Music in partnership with Capitol Records, and I have just released a six track EP called bad intentions.