DarkSyde

The artist known as DarkSyde was born Joshua Thomas Empey on June 15, 1972. Although he had been raised listening to many different genres all his life, what was to become hip hop captured his imagination and touched his soul. Later in his life, rap helped him survive his turbulent teenage years and at the age of fifteen he started writing raps himself. After high school he hooked up with Mike Redoble and Chris Sidillo(then known as DJ 916) and recorded one song in the winter of ninety three under the name of JT Elite. The song, What to do now, was a commentary on how more often than not life on the streets ended up leaving you in no win situations. The song got a little buzz at local parties and he was poised to start pushing his music hard as well as record more songs when life decided it had other plans for him. He met a woman who didn’t approve of his lifestyle and at the age of twenty he walked away from the game. Fully prepared to be a husband, he cleaned up his act and hung up his mic. Fast forward 14 years. With his relationship circling the toilet and nothing to show for the last fourteen years, the artist formerly known as JT Elite sat down on his 34th birthday and took a long hard look at his life. The only regret he had ever had was turning his back on his talent and the rap game. He decided to start rapping again. Through the snickers of friends and the disbelief of his family he started recording his first CD. He chose the name DarkSyde because of his habit of always rooting for the villains in movies. He had always had an affinity for the bad guy and as anyone could tell you when provoked into anger he was quite capable of becoming one. He finished recording tracks for his debut CD on his 35th birthday. Once again he is poised to take the local underground scene by storm. This time, as he sits wearing his evil grin, he’ll tell anyone who’ll listen. He ain’t droppin’ the mic for the devil himself.