IamG

While most ambitious, career conscious college students were pursuing internships, IamG was getting in real work as an MC, performing on DJ Whoo Kid's Shadyville University tour and getting covered by major college blogs, BroBible and GoodMusicAllDay. The 2013 Syracuse University Music Business major graduate is taking his grind to the next level with the release of his latest project, Mia Vita the EP.

Influenced by the likes of Jay Z, Notorious B.I.G., KRS-One, Big L, Drake, Lil Wayne and IamG's father's playlist (Earth, Wind & Fire, Parliament Funkadelic, Salt N Pepa), IamG began creating his own music. "I started making these freestyle videos and stuck with it and got better and better," he said. He enrolled in Syracuse and majored in Music Business while continuing to hone his rapping. By his sophomore year, Chris Webby, his friend and fellow rapper, referred him to DJ Whoo Kid from 50 Cent's G-Unit Records. Whoo Kid invited IamG to join the Shadyville University tour where he hit the road 15 days a semester. During his junior year, he began touring with Mike Studd. He wrote his thesis on the merger of hip-hop and West Indian culture, taking more inspiration from his father's Jamaican roots.

The Mia Vita EP captures the party energy of his early mixtapes The Movement and Ain't Nothing To It as well the perspective of a successful independent artist with several stints on the road under his belt. "This EP is the starting point of the new IamG," he said.