Troy “Co$$” Johnson was born on the South Westside of Los Angeles in a small community east of Crenshaw called “Leimert Park” one of the United State’s top spots for Jazz and home to many of LA‘s finest hip hop artists. He started rapping at the age of 14. Troy’s father died when he was 15, possibly the most pivotal time in his life. While still having a religious foundation academically, he began hanging out in the street, making affiliations with gangs and gang members, helping give him a balance perspective wise. It’s the reason Co$$ is both conscious AND STREET, bad and good, yin and yang. The movement is truly and sincerely universal. He truly does it for the thugs and nerds alike, scholars and elementary school drop outs. He wants to show that the West coast has a lot to offer as far as diversity and innovation is concerned, it’s definitely not all khakis and tailors, although he proudly represents the khakis and tailors aspect. Most importantly, Co$$’s goal is to humanize the common day MC, to remind people that rappers are just regular people with regular people problems. For every record he puts out, he wants people to evolve with him, to share in the experience of existence. Co$$ is Ca$hUSKing and Ca$hUSKing is evolution. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.