Sean Barnes is a cutting edge artist born and raised on Chicago’s Westside, his story in the beginning is just like most inner city youths growing up black, in poverty and to a pair of young parents, but that’s where his similarities stop. His father was a member of the militant Chicago Black Panther party chapter under such revolutionary leaders as Fred Hampton, his father’s side of the family was heavy into education and the teachings of Marcus Garvey’s self-reliance and Black Nationalism philosophies.
While his mother’s side of the family was the exact opposite and full of criminals and drug dealers, but the one thing both sides had in common was a love of music and three of his uncles even played drums, bass guitar and vocals in a local Chicago band. From an early age all three of these things; black pride, the streets, drugs, and music were a big part of his life.
From an early age Sean Barnes loved books and learning, his mother said he had a curiosity and thirst for knowledge like she never seen before. After dropping out of high school in his senior year because the classes were too easy, boring and not teaching him anything Sean gravitated towards the gang life of Chicago. His uncles who were already deep in the game took them under their wings and schooled him in the hustling game of selling dope, crack cocaine and weed; they even taught him how to use the pills and chemicals needed to mix up what they called a BOMB mix of heroin that they sold to the addicts in their community. All while in the gang life and the hustling life style Sean never lost his thirst for learning and knowledge and he always knew that what he was doing at that time in life was wrong and not what he was meant to be doing. Malcolm X’s biography and the laws of thinking were two of his favorite books that helped change his life.
After realizing that the street life only lead to two things death or incarceration Sean stopped ignoring his passion for music and started really focusing on the raps he would write while listening to his cousins tapes of, Rakim, LL Cool j, run DMC the Geto boys, the Fat Boys, EPMD, and his favorite group PUBLIC ENEMY. After hearing how dope he was from his friends Sean eventually decided to take a risk and a leap of faith and move to California where he could change his environment and immerse himself into his craft. With no money no relatives and no place to stay he checked into The Union Rescue Mission shelter for men and found a job telemarketing so he could pursue his music dream. After living in the shelter for a year and running around L.A. talking and meeting anybody that would listen to his verses Sean met Chris Lee who had his own studio and started recording him. That led to doing open mics around town getting his name out and even working with artist like Badass, Yukmouth, Coolio, blactoven and Kumasi. He even did a session with legendary 2pac producer Johnny J and shock G. after making his rounds he met Leila Steinberg (the manager that discovered 2pac in the Bay) and she moved him into her house and started grooming him to be an even better artist, she even had him writing and producing music that would wind up on the TV show young n the restless and got him his first paycheck from his music.
