James D. Hunter, better known as Mata (pronounced May-tah), was born in the heart of Detroit, Michigan, Mata had a very rough child hood being that his father died when he was only nine months old. At the age of nine Mata's mom decided to move closer to her father as a tragic event happened with Mata's grandfather which lead to Mata and family arriving in Selma, Alabama. In the streets of Selma, Alabama, Mata ran with his older brother, Ro, who showed him everything needed to survive in the streets, and was very close with Mata but one day when Mata was 14 his brother committed a murder in which he was sentenced to 18 years in the state penitentiary. Not only did he lose his brother but the person his brother killed was a very close friend of Mata's, in one day Mata lost two people that were major influences in his life. Mata left with being the only male figure and nobody to look up too he turns to a pad and a pen writing lyrics about his life and struggles, then he started to rap in class at school, in the cafeteria, and people would gather around & just listen to Mata. Feeling he had a gift to rap, Mata formed a group with a couple of classmates called 5th Element and got signed to a local label called A.T.L.A.S.S. Records which was ran by Derrick Moore, doing lots of talent shows & got known around Selma, but never dropped an album. Mata was sidetracked by everything that was going on outside of school and his music getting caught in the gang life with his best friends Gunt 1/3 & V Dunning, Mata having to move in with his sister because his mom couldn't put up with it. Skipping school and hanging out late caused Mata to miss a lot school but still getting his work done and graduating with an Advanced Diploma. Was even in school choir but had an altercation with the choir director of the school. Afetr graduation Mata went to Alabama A&M in Huntsville, AL on scholarship and met his friend Darin aka Killa which led to the beginning of Mata's real career in the music industry. Killa introduced Mata to Cory Parham aka C.P. Da Dream. At first C.P. signed Mata to 3C Records but after differences with his partner Jeff, C.P. left to form his own label Slow Motion Sounds bring a long Mata as his flagship artists, which led to Mata dropping his debut album L.I.F.E... Based On A True Story. From then on Mata has put in work releasing mixtapes, appearing a long with label mates on compilation albums, performing with his group X.O., and helping build a big buzz all around the Tennessee Valley. Still running the streets Mata caught a couple of cases on drug related charges & other minor charges. Luckily Mata got out of jail on the day his son was born, realzing that he needed to slow down, taking it as a sign from above for Mata to get his shit together. Mata was always thankful just to be in the postion that he was in because he started off with nothing so anything he got was plenty. Now, Mata, teamed up with Jhi-Ali & Gunt 1/3 to form the triple-threat group X.O. have been seeing local success from new songs Guap, & Errday (produced by Zaytoven) and also getting worldwide attention from the new Paper Route Recordz Super-Group Hood Headlinaz with members Mata, Jhi-Ali, Gunt 1/3, Mali Boi & Money Addict which has landed a article in the 150th Collector's Issue of URB Magazine. The movement is coming on strong from Alabama with new artists popping up everyday and Mata is gonna be at the forefront of it all when Alabama rises to the top in 2008! Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.