Biography
As a child Messiah began break dancing in his hometown of Atlanta, GA. In his teens he earned a reputation for being one of the best breaker’s in his crew. Shortly thereafter break dancing took him to NY where he joined the Rock Steady Crew. All the while Sol Messiah was b-boying he also had a love affair with DJing. The day he saw DJ Jazzy Jay spinning on Numark TTXUSB turntables with Afrika Bambaataa is the day it all started. Today he is on the forefront of technology by being one of the first to use Numark's V7 digital turntable while touring with Nappy Roots.
For Messiah the step from DJing to producing was a natural progression. Talented with a mastery of production that could not be learned easily without hands-on experience, Sol Messiah captured the attention of Dallas Austin. Messiah soon created a catalog filled with timeless tracks. Alongside Dallas he went on to work with TLC, Madonna, Monica and Boys II Men.
Sol Messiah became recognized as an accomplished DJ in the early 90’s due to his ever-growing mixtape popularity. Sol Messiah and Dallas Austin opened a hip hop shop in underground Atlanta where Sol Messiah featured his classic Sol Messiah Mixtape series. Being that under ground Atlanta was a big tourist spot, people from all over the world would come looking for these addictive sound scapes that Sol Messiah was crafting. That popularity led to club promoters approaching Sol about residency in clubs. Sol Messiah then landed gigs in the popular hip hop clubs such as The Warehouse , the Velvet and Soho. These clubs took Sol Messiah’s name to the top of the food chain.
Around 1997 Sol Messiah left Dallas Austin for for greener more independent pastures, introducing the rap Duo MoZae. His work with MoZae was an independent project released by Sol Messiah and his partner basketball star John Salley on Sol Messiah ent. Through Navarre distribution. The success of this duo independently sparked the interest of football star Bob Whitefield and prompted Whitfield to fund Sol Messiah’s new act called Jatis. Jatis and Messiah soon after landed a deal with Steve Rifkins inprint Loud Records, home of Wu-tang, Xibit, Mobb Deep and Akon. After a long bout with Loud and Sony Sol Messiah took his star rapping to Jatis, Bobby Creek, t, eminem and Shady records. There, Bobby Creek would grow larger than life with the shady family and gain more accolades for Sol Messiah.
With change in the music industry these days Messiah has learned to adapt by creating his own distribution network through the web at ingrooves/ universal distribution. Along with that, Messiah has acquired a publishing deal through Universal publishing.
Always the artist, Sol believes today marks the dawning of a new era. The era of Food, Clothing and Hip-Hop; going back to the essentials that characterize the life we live. Yes, Hip-Hop is that vital. Food, Clothing & HipHop is basically the life that Messiah has lead because all aspects of his life have involved hip hop. It has provided shelter and employment and a spiritual base for this cultural icon. Through this concept of Food, Clothing & Hip Hop Messiah is able to release instrumental albums, mix tapes and vocal albums with no middle man or politics of the music industry.
The most important stance that Sol Messiah takes is the dedication to the culture of hip hop and living the life that one sets up for themselves. Through DJing and producing. Through this philosophy, Sol Messiah obtains fulfillment of his motto of Food, Clothing & Hip Hop.
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
