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LP: I'm Bonafide
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Van Ripper
"Sometimes I feel I am cursed because of the things I have been through"
- Van Ripper
What happens to the soul of an innocent boy, when tragedy seems to be lurking behind every door and what happens to the dreams of a young child when everyday a nightmare becomes reality.
Van Ripper was born Van Ezra Phillips on August 30th, 1982, In Harlem, New York at a time when drugs and violence could so easily share a spot on the playground with impressionable children. Young Van watched as crime not only joined him on the playground but also in school and at home. Some people have the pleasure of not witnessing death until their of an age where they have a better understanding of it. Van witnessed death far too soon. Devastated by the sudden death of his mother when he was just eleven and with the death of his father and best friend at the age of nineteen, the grief became overwhelming. Van saw this as a clear sign of his own demise. Turning to the streets was his avenue to escape all the terrible things life had already given him, but where there is death there is also life. After the arrest and the pain, a light still shines on Van and that light just gets brighter with each passing moment. Van hopes to reach a mass of people so they can hear, relate, and learn from his experiences.
"When I rap I talk about the things I've been through and seen. My music is real and I always rap from my heart"
-Van Ripper
He is in the driver's seat of his own destiny. On the road to success, the streets better yield to him. He is known as Neph but the world will remember him by Van Ripper.
A soldier on enemy lines!
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