THE BRAND AND THE MAN

...Fast-forward to the summer of 2004. I am living back in Fort Myers, Florida working at my family's screen printing business and taking classes at then Edison Community College. Uninterested in school at the time, I strayed and decided to focus my energy into something more important. Cleaning screens, living paycheck to paycheck and travelling to places like St. Pete and Orlando for underground hip hop shows. Then, on August 13, Hurricane Charley smashed the gulf coast. Charlie moved back to Tennessee and I started to scrap metal with Dustin and his dad's trailer. Eventually, the trailer was stolen, but that was the following year and after another hurricane. Anyways, after Charley in 2004, we took a quick trip to San Jose, California, spent most of our cash and came back. It seemed the aluminum was endless...Then, one day while catching shirts at the end of the dryer, I overheard on the radio that there was a surplus of stray animals from the storm. I went out on lunch, saw "Montrose," adopted him sick and malnourished, changed his name to Buddy Miles Davis and taught him the ways of the junk yard dog. By this point, I was steady making my own shirts to hand out to friends. One of these shirts was a message that I had made in a very basic text in maroon ink on heather grey shirts. The statement was backwards. DUB EKOMS. Being known by friends at the time for straightening out bent joints from my pockets, I naturally took on the name to represent me and my collection of shirts that was taking shape as a brand.

The following year, having a passion for hip hop with a taste for music from Weather Report to GangStarr, in between and beyond, plus being inspired by people like the RZA and Madlib, I was motivated to get my hands on the Roland SP-404 sampling machine, some Technic 1200 turntables and a Tascam multi-track recorder. I was going to chop loops for self and the few local hip hop heads with which I become sympathetic with through the years. My record collection continued to grow. My beats I called Herbin'. Mostly because my childhood out on a primarily environmentally-protected island was anything but urban and very much surrounded by the good herb.
Writing poetry and rhymes re-emerged in my life, but I still needed to learn to take the pen to the drawing paper in order to be more self-sufficient with my designs. That's when I developed my symbol. Now, ten years later, in 2014 I have been with Irene, my life's partner, for over five. The shirt collection has grown to over 30 designs, some of which were discontinued or never released to the public. I have collaborated on designs and collections with the likes of Vast Aire, Popa Wu, Wordsworth, Shogun Assason, J. Sands and many more. Plus printed merch for some classics like Artifacts, Lone Catalysts, eMC, Tragedy Khadafi and Count Bass D. I have thrown a handful of events with artists from local favorites Strange Arrangement and Sriracha Chakra to Akil the J5 MC, Blueprint and now, for my celebration of ten years, J-Live. Musically, I have done a mixtape project with Cocoon Movements and DJ Afar, have a track with Hellrazah from Sunz of Man, and a group project as Light Beams Conflux with Centaur Sapien and Shamalex. In the future, I will be releasing a multitude of new projects including poetry books, artist design collaborations, interviews, videos, publications and more. Not to mention the ever-growing stack of designs I keep in the vault. Most importantly, though, I have reached out and connected with a vast group of worldly people such as yourself. I strive to unite with individuals that stand strong in the center of their own personal cypher and push for progression and balance. Peace.