Kevin Rhames
Kevin Rhames aka K-Low was born in Harlem N.Y. During his
teenage years he moved to Queens where he developed a
passion for Djing which led to back yard/House parties. Then
he graduated to creating tapes, which displayed techniques
with pause buttons that made his sound very creative.
After a while, his family relocated to Hollis where he then met
various individuals, who then turned out to be acquaintances
which led to the creation of a group called Live Squad. “We
looked out for one another when it came down to certain levels
of friendship, but there was always a void because of not having
a childhood together,” according to K-Low. As years went by
living in Hollis had violent times from neighborhood beefs to
clashes between so-called friends that ended in loss of life.
Therefore, the focus on music seemed to be one sure way of
makin’ it out of the hood.
As an outlet Live Squad began pursuing their dream even more
aggressively hoping to achieve a spot in the Hip Hop culture. So
they began to create an album and travel along with self
promoting themselves with any and everybody. On the way they
became friends with people from MTV and then connected with
already known rappers whose names we will mention later.
The Promotion Tour taught K-Low that everyone in the “Game”
was working hard like them (LIVE SQUAD) to make it happen.
That’s why at least to K-Low, New York networking was the best
when it came down to Hip Hop, at least back then. At any rate
this pursuit led him to meet and develop relationships with
Tupac, Biggie, Digital Underground, YoYo, Dr Dre, NWA, Ice
Cube, Ice T, Kool G Rap, Nas, Tribe called Quest, Brand Nubian,
Mc Lyte, Queen Latifah, Naughty By Nature, Busta Rhymes,
Heavy D, 50 Cent, Murder Inc Record execs and more.
From sports figures to entertainers Live Squads concept “The Game of Survival” which really was a foreshadow of either real life experiences or something that happened with someone in the Clique. However this became the foundation of how many
of their ideas began turning into songs. “We saw that the same Pain and Anger existing in every neighborhood across America
or at least every place we traveled or heard about through media,” states K-Low. When collaborating with Tupac everything began to come together. As Pac’s passion for the Black culture and Live Squads passion to express what really happens in these so called somewhat decent looking hoods began to coincide. “There are lots of misconceptions of what people might think is okay. There is Grime and Crime,” states K-Low.“Believe it or not through it all we prayed that God would bless our mess. We were not Church goers but we believed in Jesus Christ. We or at least I felt if I was going to Church, I didn’t want to be a hypocrite. So I needed to get right first. Not knowing Christ said come as you are or maybe the weed made me forget. My prayers seemed to have been answered because we
signed our 1st major recording contract with Def Jam records then some time later with Tommy Boy Records. At the same time producing music in my smoke filled room from the constant blunt lighting. But one day the smoke cleared and my life was forever changed. Something happened... And what happened to me, what changed me was nothing short of a miracle.”