So you’re trying to get signed to a major record company. Is that really what you want. Do you want to work twice as hard for half the money? Watch this video and leave a comment.

Young Guru’s Rise2Power

Born in the tiny US state of Delaware in 1974 as Gimel Keaton, Young Guru acquired his nickname in his teens, when he was teaching African history classes at a community centre. He also used his name when he began working as a DJ while still a teenager. In the early ’90s there were no clubs in Delaware, so Young Guru brought his own amplifiers, lights, microphones, and so on, which sparked his interest in music technology. He began DJ’ing in Washington DC in 1996, where he met singer/rapper Nonchalant, who had a top 20 single at the time, and became her tour DJ. Young Guru, who had taken piano lessons as a child, used the money he received from the tour to fund a six-month music recording course at Omega Recording Studios in Rockville, Maryland, which had a great impact on him. After Omega, Young Guru engineered Nonchalant’s second album, which was never released, but the producer, Chucky Thompson (Mary J Blige, Faith Evans) recognised the young engineer’s potential and invited him to come and work with him in Washington DC. In 1999, Young Guru went independent and moved to New York, where he worked with Deric Angeletti on his Madd Rapper project and with Memphis Bleek. The latter was signed to Roc-A-Fella Records, which led to Young Guru meeting Jay-Z.

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