Before college radio, before the showcases, V was diligently known for rocking on corners and creating mixtapes full of freestyle verses and full tracks in the little virtually unknown city of Passaic, New Jersey.
V says, "Take a look in my 6th grade yearbook...since then I knew I was destined to be a music artist."
The dream that would later turn into reality all started with V's cousin Sylvon Wright (Von-Ra of the group Energy & Light, and owner of Irocdis.com). V was inspired by Sylvon's near success and began to pursue his rhyming with more focus. The "playing of words" soon turned into a ritualistic commitment. V was encouraged by the simple, but profound words of Sylvon, "Yo, cousin, just keep writing." From there a regimen of consistent writing coupled with a strong determination, the "playing of words" soon turned into a ritualistic commitment.
V's first break came during his performance at an African American Festival at 3rd Ward Park in Passaic, NJ. Local producer, "Big Trev" spotted the hungry young emcee (then 15) and decided to invite him to the studio to work. The rest as they say is history.
V began his first recordings out of Big Trev's studio. The hunger was there, but the experience and knowledge of the industry were the crucial factors that could only be obtain over time. Inspiration was born in V with the experimentation of music on the Akai MPC2000 and synthesizer worked by Trev. Through the mentorship of the local producer V began to realize what lengths could be reached with sheer determination and creativity.
Big Trev planted the seed that would soon lead V into more freestyle sessions with other local emcees. V met with Deadeye during a high school math class where they were both busy writing in their rhyme books. The two would then collaborate and form the Verbal Marksmen that would later create a demo of their talents at Enormous Production Studios.
In between making music with Deadeye, V met another local emcee, the Rap Assassin. The duo of V and the Rap Assassin would create a separate demo produced by "Brown" out of West New York. The two performed at venues throughout their local area and was honored to showcase their talent for the legendary B-boy Ken Swift of the Rock Steady Crew!
For the next few years, the Verbal Marksmen shared many sessions and eventually ran into another rhyme group from Paterson, NJ call World Affiliated. The two groups stayed in contact and later V was added to the group, and the name was changed from World Affiliated to The Formulis.
Since that day, V has been scaling the Hip-Hop scene with his partners Phonetic and Fenalm (of the Formulis) who together have performed at the following places:
The Harvest Moon with the group Scienz of Life
The Old Bay with Pumpkinhead and CyMarshal Law
The Aqua Lounge with 9th Prince and Alvare
Hip Hop Assault at the University of South Carolina
The Love Sexy with Guy Incognito & Arcane
The Court Tavern with K-Banger, Fallen Angelz, and Unstoppable Unity
Boyd Park with Life-Long, Flo Brown & Ras Roots...to name a few
Other venues include Jazz-n-Java open mic poetry slam at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, other local talent shows, Hip Hop Meets Poetry Show, and more.
Current Projects
Currently V is working on his solo EP "Basics 2 Advanced" that is expected to drop in the beginning of 2005. For now check out the wisdom and music on V's website www.Venomous2000.com
Special Features to hear Venomous
V has been featured and interviewed on 88.7 fm WRSU Rutgers University and 88.7fm WPSC William Paterson University, and www.Futureflavasonline.com (archive #11 ACL SHOW)
You can also catch V's feature on the Power Man & Iron Fist album by PumpkinHead & Cymarshal Law.
The new Adult Swim Remix album by Twilight.
V's production skills can be sampled at www.mysticskillz.com where he is currently producing an album for Ego-Himself. Also be on the listen for the new beat page that will be coming in 2005
Available for Purchase
For previous work, you can still pick up a copy of the Formulis album at www.CDBABY.com (just type in "Formulis")
Contact Venomous:
For show booking, production, collaborations and more contact V at Venomous2000daultraemcee@yahoo.com or www.Venomous2000.com
OUT NOW: Resurrection Hip-Hop Mission II: Phonetic & Venomous the Mixtape featuring Silent Knight, Rasheed, K-Banger, Fenalm, Twilight and more.....
Phonetics' Bio Born and raised September 18, 1980 in Paterson, NJ, Kevin McMillan aka Phonetic discovered his interest in Hip Hop from listening to his older sister playing MC Lyte and LL Cool J records. He also had a brother in law and cousin who were both apart of well-known groups around Newark and Paterson, which also played a part in Phonetic's growing interest. Around the age of nine years old he started testing his skills at freestyling with his cousin and brother in law. Shortly after hanging with his influences, Phonetic noticed that freestyling came naturally. Therefore he began to take rhyming seriously. He learned how to count bars and how to format songs, and he was taught early about the importance of a good hook. Phonetic started rocking with a group called the Formulis where they put out one independent album. Formulis took the streets selling them hand to hand and not doing to bad for themselves selling around a 1000 copies. After the album, they also put together an EP that sold around 1500 copies. That was then, and now Phonetic has found a style of his own and is well rounded in his art. Now this MC/Producer/Engineer is ready to showcase his talents to the world. He has done shows all over Jersey such as New Brunswick, Sayreville, Passaic, Paterson, and Montclair. He has been as far as South Carolina to showcase his talent. Unstoppable, he has even opened shows for acts such as Ninth Prince of Killerarmy and Science of Life. Currently Phonetic is working on his album (producing most of his material) and shopping his Demo to major and independent labels. He targets listeners that enjoy the lyrics as much as the beat and the hook. Phonetic thrives off drawing his listeners into his music by painting a clear picture for his fans to see and understand his lyrics. Phonetic listens to many forms of music to enhance his abilities in figuring out different sounds and styles. Phonetic's time is well over do in the hip hop world and he is more than ready to take his music to another level for the world to hear. "I love music too much not to be successful in it."
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