Registry of the Evolved Database
File #26 Feb 2009 20:37
|
 Earl Simmons |
Vincent King, born as 'Otis Dawson' is a multi-million dollar franchise. His first hit single, which gained most of his fame, was 'Two Fists'. Many critics claim it was King's own personal 'Mein Kampf'. Written in his ten year stint in prison, the song is a declaration of Shard's forthcoming dominance of the music industry, and how nothing could stop him. After its release, hearing 'Two Fists' reverberating from cars in the inner city was commonplace. Though it was a favorite among many neighborhoods the single was a cult classic, and didn't click with mainstream hip-hop.
But King's career was only starting. His first record, titled for it's most popular song 'Keep Bumpin' claimed the charts rather quickly.
A product of his environment. Not an innovator, not someone who broke out of societal norms, not a pioneer. Someone who could take the pressures put on him, who could take the expectations, the stereotypes, and excel in them. It's not that Vincent King, born Otis Dawson, was an amazing man who could think out of the box to come to his fame and wealth. It was his ability to completely have a tyrannical rule over everything inside the box that made his millions. In layman's terms, Vincent King, could play the game. He could play it very well…
Middle class, unfortunately Vincent was not born in the hood nor the ghetto. He was born into the somewhat well off family of the Dawsons. Vincent was a classic underachiever whilst growing up. Very talented, and very intelligent, so brilliant in fact he felt no need to attempt. Vincent like many other youths in his situation was enamored by the presence and the lifestyle of the hip hop icons. The people his peers were wrapped up with, the people who so quickly swept a nation into their culture. Some kids want to be astronauts, some want to be doctors, some want to be gun toting gangsters with spinner rims. Vincent, unfortunately was in the latter category.
All too aware of the stigma of his suburban roots, and the untimely demise of one Vanilla Ice, Vincent decided it was time to stop being a kid, and start being a statistic. It starts young, moving drugs through the campus. Dealers always want to expand their territory, especially to the middle and the high schools. So they found runners, especially in the richer neighborhoods. At a young age, Vincent took this on to his misguided quest towards stardome. It didn't take long..
Before he was eighteen, Vincent was very familiar with the justice system. In and out of juvenile facilities, in and out of the backs of cop cars. He got picked up for everything, assault and battery, posession of drugs, posession of weapons, driving under the influence. Eventually, his parents lawyers couldn't keep getting him out of jail. And so finally, Vincent did hard time. Ten years…
Still known as Otis Dawson, the man was unrepentent and angry for his downturn. Blaming others for the road that turned him in this direction. That got him to this place. Three years of his time were done in anger, and he still kept playing the game. There are still ways to run crime, even from inside prison. You get connected with the right people, sometimes you can forget you're already locked up. He became a tool of the system, corruption, skimming off the top.
The rehabilitation system, didn't rehabilitate much of Vincent, though it is where he discovered his musical talent. The man discovered had linguistic acrobatics, spent a lot of time reading, studying, and writing. He wrote his first songs while he was imprisoned. Using the raw anger and frustration at the world, and the system which he had been ruined by to fuel his passion. He furthered his career as a criminal in bars, but he also started his career as a musician behind bars. It was behind bars that Otis Dawson decided to change his name. He wasn't going to be a superstar, or a gang lord, or anything. He was going to be King.
By the time he got out, Vincent was more connected than he ever had been outside of the institution. It was like his life of crime was ready to really get started. But in his circles, were music producers, there were people who could put his rhymes to tracks slap on the beats and show it to the underground. A few of his songs gained great acclaim on the local scene, but the song that really drew attention was 'Two Fists'. The song in which Vincent proclaimed how he was going to dominate the industry, how he was going to make the world bow to their knees at his greatness. His own personal, 'Mein Kampf'.
Big time labels started to hear Vincent's songs, and it became a frenzy on who could sign him first. But stepping up and out of the connections he had made would prove a more difficult task than it seemed. Everyone wants in on the money and when it was obvious that Vincent had the potential to bring it in, everyone was trying to get a piece of the pie. Threats on his own life, threats on his parents, destruction of his own property. If he was going to fly up, it seemed he couldn't go alone. He had to 'pay tribute to the people who made him'. It was about then when Vincent started regretting the decisions that he had made. But the beat goes on, and Roc-A-Fella records produced his hit single 'Keep Bumpin'' which climbed the charts at an alarmingly fast rate. Determined not to be a one hit wonder, King abandoned his inner city roots and moved to Los Angeles to continue and focus his career as a rap artist. By some, this was considered an act of war.
Once his eyes finally opened in the hospital, King was informed that his home had been broken into and he was nearly beaten do death. Beaten with bottles, bats, and other weapons, Vincent's former gang connections had left him for dead. King was also informed that a piece of glass was still lodged inside near his vital organs, the surgery was too risky to take it out. This little piece of glass was a reminder of how the world kept trying to bring him down. The nickname 'Shard' was quickly taken on and the release of his new hit song: "Crusada'" called out all his former criminal connections, those that tried to ride on his coattails and make their money off his success. It was his personal pledge to as stated in the song 'Cleanse the world of these mothafuckin' hater's.' It was time for 'Shard' to make new friends.
Part music industry captains, part criminal underlords, King's new associates offered him substantial protection from those who had previously presumed he was dead. It was in these few years of calm, that Shard cemented his fame and superstar status. 'Sand Castles', 'Mastermind', and 'Timestoppin' were songs that rocked the nation and propelled Shard into his super stardome. In these years Shard met the woman he assumed to be the love of his life. A young amazingly beautiful actress— the two were quickly married. But as they say— the calm always comes before the storm. In these times, King's former connections in Detroit had all the luck of stumbling on a younger and very talented rap artist. He was pushed onto the big music industry scene. What followed was a classic rap rivalry.
In the years that 'Tynee Tim' took the mic, King's life went back into a vicious downward cycle. His life was upended as suddenly his credentials as a rapper, as a thug, and even as a man were questioned to a nation wide audience. Songs that completely ridiculed and bagged on Shard were embraced as household songs. And naturally, Vincent had to retaliate. But this obsession with beating Tynee Tim, with throwing down the gauntlet and beating his former friends became an obstruction in his marriage. And eventually drove his wife, and two children away.
Shard was on the end of a losing battle, other names, big names in the rapping community sided Tynee Tim, and Shard's inability to get out a steller record was grinding his career to a halt. But Shard was still connected, and he still had help. Other names, superstars sided with Shard, causing a legendary rivalry to mirror the East Coast and West Coast battle. But finally, it came to violence. Shard's friends, his connections finally had Tynee Tim and his producers, the men who had formally beaten Shard nearly to death on their knees, with a gun in King's hand. King looked at the man down the barrel of a gun, at the man who had humiliated him in front of the world, who had driven away those closes to him… And he pulled the trigger.
Immediately regretting his decision, Shard threw himself to his knees at his rivals side and threw his hands on him. Everyone watched in shock, as King's hands miraculously took out the bullet and closed the wound. The man was completely fine. More than shocked, the men decided that the feud should be hastily shut down. And it was. Not too long after this, the bomb shook the world.
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