BigDawg Chino

BigDawg Chino, is a native of Cleveland, OH (the city that’s “a mistake by the lake”), and he is proud of his hometown. He views himself as intimately connected with the city and believes deeply that someone who can make it in Cleveland can make it anywhere in the world.

Coming from a harshly disadvantaged background, Chino started rapping at a young age, and he showed an early proficiency with the art. He is heavily involved in the rap community around Cleveland, and what he loves most about the profession is the respect and the love that it gains him from diverse groups of people: young people, old people, white people, black people, among others. Still, Chino is not blind to the flaws with the rap community, finding particular displeasure in the hate and aggression that he sees others displaying. He has had to deflect a constant stream of old aggressors who want to challenge him now that he has made it.

Taking up the art in earnest at age eighteen, Chino saw rap as an outlet for all the ugliness that he had experienced up to that point. His father had been in prison for his entire life, and he was raised by his mother alone. She did whatever she could for him, taking two jobs, one as a stripper and one as a welder. A mother of five, she often ended up in abusive relationships, and when Chino was thirteen, things became extraordinarily rough, a string of his mother’s boyfriends leading him to question his role in the household.

After making an attempt to stand up to one of his mother’s boyfriends, Chino’s mother kicked him out of the house. He did move back in with her eventually, but this became a pattern: every time Chino would stand up to his mother or to one of her boyfriends, she would again force him to leave. At the age of fifteen, Chino was accustomed to sleeping in parks and bus stops. He took up the life of crime to get by, hustling weed and robbing delivery men for their food and money.

Despite everything, Chino considers his mom to be his one true hero, and appreciates everything that she had done for him and knows she had given her all & done her best. Because she brought him up to value authenticity, Chino has zero respect for people who pretend to be somebody that they’re not. He is always upfront and never hides what he is feeling or thinking.

In all he has faced, Chino sees the value in each and every challenge, sees the worth of each and every difficulty. He knows that if she had never thrown him out of the house, he would never have been forced to grow up so quickly and become the man that he is today. His confidence in himself is unbreakable, and he knows that he can survive any struggle – and come out on the other side thriving, as he has always done. Because of his atypical upbringing, he is prepared to face the world head-on, no matter what the future holds.

BigDawg Chino inspires to take the entertainment industry by storm. He is not just an artist, he is an entertainer. The music he creates touch many in a way you wouldn't expect from a young rapper from the struggle. Not only will you relate, but he has this way, this essence, that brings one into his music. His lyrical content accompanied by great production will keep you bobbing your heads, while hearing and understanding his story. He says the things and feelings the world doesn't want to admit or express, or even afraid to say. Sit back and let BigDawg Chino take you into his world, while exposing the world we call home.