Venomous2000 TheUltraEmcee

"I define myself as a humble student of the art," reflects Underground Hip Hop sensation, Venomous 2000: The Ultra Emcee (Dwayne Sheppard). For the 29-year-old emcee, his "classroom" was his native Passaic, New Jersey; drawing creative influence from timeless sources including: soul classics like Marvin Gaye and the Jackson 5 to Hip Hop legends, KRS-One and Rakim. Cultivating himself as a force for Hip Hop, Venomous began freestyling verses and writing rhymes in 1994 heavily influenced by pioneers of the day: The Roots, A Tribe Called Quest, Wu-Tang Clan, and BootCamp, and what he describes as their 'hard/lyrical/divine approach to the music.'

Beneath his reserved exterior, dwells...