Ian Davis

Forget the doctored up bio written by someone else… What up, world?
My name is Ian Davis and I’d like to think I’m pretty good at this rapping and producing music stuff. NO, I’m not one of those guys who TELLS you how great I am and hates on everyone. You know, the “I’m so nice, he sucks, she sucks, I got 20 classic albums you never heard of with the cell phone camera picture on the cover, the game ain’t ready, blah blah, blah”. Yes I make music. Yes I think I’m good at it, but it’s up to everyone else to say I’m great, I just do what I do and I hope people like it. I know EVERYBODY is a producer these days and EVERYBODY is the next Biggie/Pac/Jay-Z but believe me when I say; I have worked and studied my craft religiously. I started young when I brought this cheap Zoom drum machine and a $200 Dollar Yamaha keyboard. I always had these words, melodies and rhythms in my head (I know, sounds crazy, right) and they never went anywhere. They just built up in my dome until I could release them. So to free up some room upstairs, I began making beats around 15 or so (younger if you include the MTV music generator). I always written lyrics and rapped but before I made my own tracks, I had to rely on other beat makers. I always hated the songs not being exactly like I wanted so I started doing it myself. I started working with my best friend and we called ourselves E&L Beats. I can’t front, I did learn and use Fruity Loops (man I used to sample tooooooooo much) but it never sounded or felt quite right to me. It was more hollow and robotic (thanks to my audio engineering classes, I now know why.

Fast forward to my college years when I linked up with a guy named Kymmar Williams. He had ties with Blackhand ENT and ran his own management company (Urban Suzpex). He started to manage us and I got my first taste of real production (yes there is a difference between beat making and producing). We made music for commercials, NBA wizards stuff and for rapper Grafh. We did two songs for Grafh. My partner produced “Bring That Money Back” and I made “Make It Hot”. I remember the video shoot for “Make It Hot” so clear. All the people in the room were moving to MY creation. This all came from my mind to my fingers to these speakers… I knew then that this was what I wanted to do with my life. Then I got rich and lived happily ever after, right? –nope. The song never got on his album and work started getting light. Later, we would sever ties with Kymmar. I admit now, as a man, I was childish then. Looking for the quick buck and letting other people’s situations interfere with mine. Maybe Urban Suzpex wasn’t the right place for me but I should have been a man about it, my bad homie. But hey, God has a master plan for us all. Thankfully that was not the last page in my career or for Urban Suzpex, but only the end of a chapter for both of us.

Not being on the album kinda hit me harder than I let people know. But instead of quitting I worked harder on my music. To get a better quality sound, I studied audio engineering (Philadelphia University of the Arts) and music theory (Widener University). But the greatest asset to my music came from just living a real life. Love, loss, heartache, lust, ups, downs, fast money, being dead broke, death and the approaching birth of my son- I dealt with them all at once it seemed and for the first time I had more to write about than just drugs, guns, hoes, being the man and partying. Don’t get me wrong, I’m from the hood (Chester, Pennsylvania. No, not Philly. It's close by but miles away at the same time.) but I don’t consider myself a hood dude. I know too many real cat’s who actually live like rappers say they do for me to rap about stuff I don’t do anymore or associate with. I’m blessed not to have to hustle to make a living and I’m proud of that. I am not fake by any means so now I write about life- The good, the bad and the ugly, not just the street aspect of my life though i am proud of where im from. It made me who i am. Well any way... Going through all that personal crap made me a better person and musician but it cost me my partner. He wasn’t happy with our progress (and my personal issues, to be honest) so he thought it best to split and do his own thing down in Miami. I wish him only success. Being on my own for the first time in my career wasn’t all that bad. I actually got better and better. I started to write, produce and record my own music. I also sharpened my stage performance by taking my Motif keyboard and doing local gigs. Then one day, something great happened to me.

When recording my song “She Crazy”, I got offered an internship at the studio of Grammy Award Winning Producers Dre and Vidal (shouts to the big homies). A lot of people don’t understand how priceless an internship can be. Even though it’s free, I’m learning from the best. I got the chance to meet them both and I told Dre that I would be like them sometime soon. I’m sure he was like, “yeah right” but I t