Mr. SOS
It’s no surprise… Hip-Hop is in a state of emergency, and when help is needed, the response is just three letters – S.O.S. There are few lyricists who possess the kind of fire that this Florida native holds. With a mic cord plugged directly into his heart, Mr. SOS has been an underground force, whose critical acclaim has pushed him further into the mainstream. His debut album How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb will bring this established mic controller to his deserved spot in Hip-Hop royalty… and he’s just getting started.
Born in San Francisco, CA, Mr. SOS was bound for South Florida by the age of six. His love affair with Hip-Hop began at a young age, starting with writing basic rhymes at 11 and learning how to deejay. “I knew Hip-Hop was something that I wanted to take seriously, but at that time, I didn’t exactly know how to do that,” explains SOS. Over the years, SOS honed his craft like most emcees – on the playground rhyming and forming makeshift rap crews. Making mixtapes out of loops and instrumentals, he started his own movement that carried onto to local stages.
Mr. SOS adopted the Internet early, marketing his work and creating beats and collaborations in a way that would take the rest of the industry years to learn. “It was the new shit,” he says, “and everyone said everything you need is on the Internet. I did searches for Hip-Hop and got on these mass email lists and message boards.” Piecing together songs with rappers around the world, and posting the songs around the web, SOS built his audience from the ground up.
Offline, his freestyle battles became the catalyst for national attention, with everyone from local radio stations like 99 Jamz to The Source magazine vying to give him exposure. A controversial appearance on the televised Source Soundlab’s Unsigned Hype Battle was the catalyst for a brief battle with Benzino over a fixed win and money owed. The beef was diffused, and SOS appeared on The Source’s Unsigned Hype DVD, as well as the Beef DVD series. All of this with no commercial release.
In 2001, SOS met Deacon the Villain and Kno of CunninLynguists in Orlando as the group was gearing to release their debut album Will Rap For Food. SOS’ prior collaboration with the group on the track “Ain’t No Way” was then included on the first CL album, and by the second CunninLynguists release, Southernunderground, Mr. SOS became the third member of Cunninlynguists. The group catapulted into stardom, through their clever blend of real lyricism mixed with intricate production by DJ Kno. “Had I never been a part of CunninLynguists, my lyrics would have never been this deep,” SOS admits. SOS left CunninLynguists by the time the group’s third LP A Piece Of Strange hit the stores. Mr. SOS then began his journey to a solo career.
Over the course of three years, SOS released the mixtape series SOS For President (Part One in 2004 and Part Two in 2005) and the EP The Pre Op in 2006. The stage is now set for How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. When Mr. SOS left CunninLynguists, he met a series of emotional pitfalls. From relationship issues, custody battles, and dealing with everyday life, SOS put his pain into his lyrics and Dr. Strangelove was born. While SOS was going through his share of drama, so was the United States. With the iron fist reign of George Bush, the destruction of the American spirit was happening before our eyes. SOS began to actively question the government more so than he had in the past and also ponder the end of the world. That became the basis of his album. How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (named after the Stanley Kubrick film) is an amalgam of every bit of darkness and light in the life of SOS and how he is influenced by the world. When asked why he chose the title, he simply states, “because my methods are unorthodox and also to represent the movie in a way because the movie is about the end of the world and so is my album.”
While speaking about the end of the world, SOS is now approaching the beginning of his superstardom. Throughout his entire journey, he has had one goal in mind – to push Hip-Hop forward. With his music, Hip-Hop can stop worrying about the drought of talent and learn to love the bomb that SOS is dropping. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.
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