Feel Good (promo)

I Cry (promo)

Judas (promo)

Keep On (promo)

Thang On Me (promo)

Prafessa the Paragon was born and raised on the north-west side of Huntsville Alabama. Growing up “Fess” had many influences ranging from parents and old timers who had survived the civil rights movement and went on to become activist, educator and ministers. His respect and understanding of what it means to struggle and survive was instilled in him from an early age. 
As he progressed in life “Fess” became a leader amongst his peers by being an outspoken personality when it came to challenging the institutionalized thinking of the community. Sometimes his personal philosophies even put him at odds with society as a whole. At the tender age of fifteen he was nearly expelled from high school because of referring to the superintendent as a racist. These types of conflicts followed him throughout his youth well into adult-hood. 
The encompassing struggles of being young, black, and male were enough to make him an irritant to police but a hero to the ghetto. His desire to fight back coupled with the stark frustrations of realizing that he was “damned if he didn’t and damned if he did”; lead him to his first experimentations with drugs and alcohol. Day became night and night became day as yet another prodigal son of the struggle fell victim to addiction and recidivism. His travels to find himself lead him to the streets of Saint Louis where he caught his first major case; distribution of a controlled substance. Little did he know that the isolation of being incarcerated would set the stage for God’s voice to cut through the confusion and chaos that had become his life.
His mother had taught him that “sometimes one has to get outside their minds to be truly objective” and being as how pen and paper were a couple of the only instruments available while incarcerated…he started writing. In the form of letters to his family he began expressing his disillusionments, fears, hopes and dreams. In doing so he was able to exorcise the demons that kept him in a perpetual state of conflict and addiction. Many of these letters would become something like a catalyst to the poetry which in turn became some of the first songs he ever wrote. “Fess” honed his skills as a battle rapper, making a name for himself within the Missouri Department of Corrections. In fact even now “Fess” has been heard to say that some of the most talented rappers he’s ever heard were on those prison yards. 
Upon his release he stayed true to the promises that he made to the soldiers still suffering behind prison walls and to the ones trying to hustle their way up out of the poverty of the streets. That promise was to only create art that reflects the life that we have really lived.   

  


theprafessa