Let me take yall back…..Compton, Ca., the year was 1975. Born to a beautiful mother and a father that was still making his way in the streets… FAST FORWARD—> EAST SAN JOSE, CA. This is where my mother decided to reside after leaving the Los Angeles area. I grew up in the infamous El Rancho Verde apartments on Checkers Dr. Growin up in East San Jo, you had to be a lil’ harder than most, cause other cities was hatin, and it seems that someone felt they had to test your “gangsta” at any given moment. I had always been a rap fan from the very first time I heard Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5 do “The Message”, & when The Sugarhill Gang came out with “Rappers Delight”. I used to listen to alot of different artists from the East and the West coasts. It amazed me how they put thier words together over a beat to convey a message to the listener. Some of the early ones were so good, that till this day I STILL can recite thier lyrics word by word. I have very fond memories of kickin it with the homies bumpin rap/hip-hop back in the days.. My mother kept me laced with that old school music. The Escorts, Curtis mayfield, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, the Dells, Brenton Wood, etc…. Then when I would goback to Southern California to see my father he kept me wrapped in that old school music.

I loved every minute of it, soaking up the words and the meanings of very heartfelt songs that came out in the 60’s and the 70’s. I had a different experience growing up cause I was constantly back and forth from San Jose to Compton year after year. So I was gamed up from both Northern and Southern California. I got the oppurtunity to see things on a much wider scale, from gangs, street politics, drugs, and death. I got involved with gangs in 1987, even though I had been around them for most of my life. My family and the area I was doing part of my growing up in down in Southern Cal was Campanella Park Piru neighborhood. My older sisters and uncles all had ties to that area throughout the 70’s. It was different for me though, cause I’m coming up out of San Jose, in which the Crips controlled this city. So I became affilaited with the latter. Reppin that Nor Cali Crip Car, East Side 408 from Checcers Blocc/El Rancho Verde to the fullest. What did it get me?! …..Alot of wasted time, alot of court time, alot of jail time, alot of missed oppurtunities. I aint gonna lie when I was out there, I was rollin…and I had some good times, but as I got older I started to put things into perspective. I will never deny or misrepresent where I’m from, and the things I been through that make me the person who I am today. Cause I’m true to this. I love all my homies that I came up with, and respect and love the ones that lost they lives early in this path that we chose to walk. Would I change anything?! Hell naw, cause I was never no paper soldier, I was on the frontline doin it movin. However, whenever, it was whatever. I started rappin in 1986-87. Me and the homie Alvin McCoy (DJ Coy) and my partna Ali (Roc) would be posted putting together songs. We would then be in DJ Coys bedroom at the apartment he lived in doing the actual recording. He had a numark mixer and two turntables set up in his room.

We would just bust off different instrumentals that he had. It was so back in the day that we didnt have a mic, we would plug headphones into the mic jack and rap through that shit. Street shit started happenin real tough throughout the years of 1988-1993, so alot of my time was spent soldierin’ fro the Blocc, and sittin up in Juvy Hall and the Ranch. Fightin cases to shake the Youth Authority. All in an effort to become LEGENDARY in the East San Jo streets. Reese or Reesie has always been a family nickname given to me by my grandmother in Compton. Short for Maurice which is also my father and HIS fathers name. As I got deeper within the streets the “Gangsta” was added to it, and I became GANGSTA REESE. In 1993 while serving time in the Boys ranch in Morgan Hill, CA. I had a furlough in which I was able to leave the ranch for the weekend for a “home pass” I quickly hooked up with my childhood homie Ali, and we pushed out to Frisco to a studio and recorded a song called “Devils Tried to Kill me” I wrote that song while in the ranch in remembrance of my cousin Quincy “Q-Dhog tha Villian” Jackson who was gunned down by two coward ass San Jose Police officers on April 14, 1993. Them muthafuccas was so cold with that shit, since I was with my cuzzo when they shot and killed him, I was charged with his murder!! cause I was said to be in the “comission of a felony”…aint that about a bitch?! They was tryin to wash your boy up fa real…Due to the media attention and the shit that was going on with the Rodney King trial, the City of San Jose decided it would not be in they best interest to wash me up, being that I was a young black male (17), who was with my cousin who was shot down by some non-black officers (they didnt want to see no uprising in San Jose, like they had in Los Angeles) When me and Ali went to record that song, the “rappin” bug bit me again, like it had bit me in 1988. The song “Devils tried to kill me” is actually the first version of “10 Days” that appeared on my “Full Metal Jacket” release. I was released from the ranch on December 22, 1993 and quickly went back to Compton for a few months to get my head straight. In 1994 I took a lil’ demo tape I had and went over to San Jose State University to the rap radio show, trying to get my shit heard. This is where I met the San Jose mini-rap mogul Assassin. He liked my shit, and how I presented myself, and from that point on IT WAS ON AND CRACCIN!! 1994, Assassin allowed me to be part of an album/compilation called “Strictly for the Streets” We recorded iot at Pajama Studios in Oakland, Ca. as well as Tambling Sound in San Jose, Ca.

I was in the studio and got to work with Bloody Mary (RIP), Laylaw from Above the Law, Rated R from ThugLife, Havikk the Rhymeson from South Central Cartel, as well as a host of others. I felt I had arrived then, signed contracts and all that good shit, but you know what happened? The streets called out to me again, and I got locked up, this time in Elmwood (Santa Clara County Jail). Caught the case in 95′, came home in 96′. It was my second time to the County. my first was in 94′ for another dope case. When I got out in 1996. I got with San Jose rapper Jaz, and we went and recorded some songs for the G-Roc compilation “Major Playas, Hustlas, and Gangstas” This time along I brought in my older cousin Darvell (Vell). Me, Vell, and Jaz got together to think of a name for our new “group”, this is how Full Clip came about. During that year I spent in Elmwood, I met another rapper that was coming up named Young 211. I also knew this mexican cat named A-ron that had this crazy ass idea about putting together a compilation of all San Jose rappers, and calling it Home of The Killa Sharks………thats some history right there… Me, Jaz, and Vell did a show as Full Clip at the Monterey County fairgrounds along with Ritchie Rich and The Delinquents. There was some internal disagreements within Full Clip, so it was decided that weparted ways with Jaz right after that show. While at the show though we met DJ EZ-CUTT who had been a producer for Death Row REcords, and also played a huge part in the rap scene out there in Seaside, Ca. He had grown up with my baby moms’ fam bam out there in Seaside, and he agreed to produce our album. What we created starting in late 1996 ending in late 1997 was the classic FULL CLIP album “Who’z Ridin?….. Since then I have stayed active in the game working with many people and appearing on many projects. I have worked with Assassin, X-Raided, Big No Love, Kapital Boyz, Crazy Times Records, Scrilla Mac, Big Oso Loc, Woodie (RIP), Doey Rock, Bear Face Locs, G-Roc, Brycentenial, Silence, Shea Sav, Convic, The Fonz, Marcel Hart, etc…..just to name a few, I can go on for days with that shit, but I’m not. Shortly after Full Clip “Whoz Ridin?”, came another Full Clip album “Tha 2nd Chamber’, then I signed a deal with DUGOUT Records and dropped that “Full Metal Jacket” album in 01′. In 2003 I hit muthafuccas with “EAST SIDE STORIES Vol. 1″ ….THEN I took a break. Concentrating on my four children and my family life. After sitting at home posted and being victimized to having to hear all this bullshit that was coming out. I got with FILTHY RICH and my boy Convic, and we put out ENEMIGOS “Agony & Ecstacy” JUNE 2009. Soon after that my dude Filthy plugged up with X-Raided and Bloc Star, word was put in for me from Filthy (even though me and X already had a history), Summertime 2009, I signed to Bloc Star Ent, and I’m LOVIN EVERY MINUTE!!! BLOC STAR Beeeeeyatch!!!!