Shy One was born on July 16th, 1983. Growing up watching horror movies and listening to acts such as Rush, Led Zeppelin, and Metallica, one would be quite surprised to find out he now considers himself to be a hip hop artist. All of these artists would have an affect on Shy One, but it was the Memphis ‘Devil’ style music that would spark the creativity inside of him. Artists like Three 6 Mafia, Koopsta Knicca, Playa Fly, Tommy Wright III, among others. Along with Texas underground rap acts, including DJ Screw and the Screwed Up Click. While Shy One absorbs everything he can in music, there’s no disputing that these acts and movies in particular were the ones that would shape who Shy One would become. Shy One is proof that everyone has to start somewhere. His first experience with music production and creation came from making beats on his Sister’s lackluster keyboard. From there, he would press the karaoke machine microphone to the speaker of the keyboard, to record the beat. Step three would be to record over the beat, using the karaoke microphone. This was truly grassroots at it’s best. After using this process for years, Shy One finally recorded his first real demo, in a real studio, in 1999. It wasn’t until the year 2000 that Shy One’s career really took off, though. With the rise of the then-popular MP3.com, Shy One’s fan base could only follow suit. He uploaded a solo song, simply to get a feel for people’s reactions, and suddenly he was swarmed with e-mails and order request from Corpus Christi, everywhere else in the USA, and as even as far away as Germany and Japan. A few months later Shy One would reach #1 on these charts, truly carving out a niche for himself. It was around this time that, in the mix of all the production and lyricism, Shy One also started to pursue a new love: Graphic Design. He had been creating art at a young age, but it wasn’t until now that he started to enter graphic design competitions, and try to push himself as a true graphic artist. To this day Shy One continues to create graphic designs for himself, affiliated artists, and anyone with the heart for whatever they’re doing. Another unique trait about Shy One is that, unlike most artists in this day and age, who would rather rely on the internet as their sole form of communication between artist and fan, Shy One plays concerts and promotes his own music, direct on the streets. “It feels real good to go do a show over 20 hours away from my hometown, a really long drive, to be able to stick out my microphone to the crowd and people singing my lyrics to my own songs and for people to show me their Shy One tattoos. It is an amazing feeling.” It’s this kind of attitude that truly separates artists like Shy One from the status quo of today. In addition to playing hundreds of out-of-pocket shows around the country, Shy One will also, as mentioned, be at your city, throwing a flyer in your face. He’s not afraid to get out and make things happen: The formula that made so many other legendary artists be exactly that. Shy One has since released 3 solo albums, completely self-written and self-produced. Oh, and completely sold out as well. Shy One is an artist to look out for, he makes his own beats, writes his own song, does his own recordings, does his own graphic designs, does his own videos, he combines many different types of music, puts on an incredibly energetic live show, has produced 17 underground albums, and is so much more than what’s on the surface. He has gained a huge strong underground following marketing to fans of rap, metal, hiphop, indie, & techno music. In the end, though, it’s up to you. Shy One has worked hard to promote his music, he’s stepped up and done what he feels has needed to be done. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.