ScHoolboy Q

Having been born on a military base in Germany, Hanley probably experienced the kind of upbringing that is by no means a unique story in the hip hop genre; despite the fact that he was a talented American football player throughout his youth, he also found himself embroiled in gang culture, growing up in South Central Los Angeles; he joined the Crips at the age of just twelve, and sold drugs to get by - a teenage occupation that often saw him involved in street violence. That particular trajectory would eventually land him in jail at the age of twenty-one, when he turned to hip hop and music making more seriously than ever before - in interviews, he’s cited it as an important outlet for his aggression. He signed with Top Dawg Entertainment in 2009, a move that would ultimately lead to him collaborating with label-mates like Kendrick Lamar, Jay Rock and Ab-Soul.

His debut album “Setbacks” dropped in January of 2011, and was a modest commercial success as well as well-received critically; he quickly went on to capItalize on that momentum a year later, with the sophomore album “Habits & Contradictions” going over very strongly indeed with the critics. The ascendancy of some of his aforementioned label-mates has seen the press mark him out as being part of one of the most exciting movements in modern hip hop. He made good on that promise with “Oxymoron”, his third album, in February of 2014 - it featured guest spots from the likes of Tyler, the Creator, 2 Chainz and Raekwon, and the fact that it topped the charts in the U.S. confirmed that he’s one of hip hop’s brightest stars.