Quanstar is considered one of Hip Hop’s true Renaissance Artists. The Atlanta based emcee has taken the independent hip hop world by storm using passion, innovation, and ‘plain ole’ hard work to stretch the envelope and showcase his multitude of talents and interests.
Born in Compton, Ca, Quanstar attributes his earliest exposure to hip hop culture to his cousin. It was through him that Quanstar found out about artists like Run DMC, The Sugarhill Gang, The Fat Boys, and Kurtis Blow. After that Beat Street, Breakin’, and Wild Styles took over; however, the one single moment that made him a bona fide “hip hop head” was seeing LL Cool J perform “Radio” in the movie, Krush Groove. At that point he got it, and knew that’s what he wanted to be.
In the years following, whether it was showing off his fancy footwork on cardboard, rhymin on the street corner about cars driving by, or taggin up his notebook in class when he should be listening to the teacher, Quanstar was completely immersed in hip hop culture. By the time he was 16, he was known as the fiercest freestyler in his neighborhood, and winning competitions all over the Los Angeles area.
Inspired by artists, like Jay-Z, El-P, and Hieroglyphics starting companies and taking ownership of their careers because of the lack of fiscal and creative control that the record labels were allowing artists to have, Quanstar along with Evaready RAW formed First Team Music Management. Through FTM, they’re only objective has been, “If we think it, then we’ll do it”.
Since, Quanstar has released 10 albums, starred and executive produced a documentary (Do It!: A Documentary), and toured internationally; in addition to these, he’s written a book (Water From Turnips), writes a blog on being an independent musician (Indie Hip Hop 101), does a cooking show with his 6 and 3 year old sons (Cooking With Quanstar), and designs Android Applications.
Never being signed to a label or having a major investor, Quanstar has accepted and embraced being an independent artist while setting out to prove three things:
He can do anything that he puts his mind to.
He doesn’t need much to do it.
Everything is hip hop.
