Biography

General Info

Early Life

The self-proclaimed Bad Man, B-Reft, was born in January 1987 in the heart of Calcutta - The once capital of India, co-incidentially in the same year as Michael Jackson dropped his Bad title. Like any other kid raised by devoted parents, B-Reft spent his childhood - pious and culture-driven - with his parents and grandparents (later joined by a brother in 1992).

Being a quick-learner and a self-starter, he spent his school days with an above-average happiness level. With his hunger for learning new things and perceptual abilities, he made his first stage appearance in 1995 in a recitation competition with his own poetry. His lean for literature and poesy later led him to develop a taste for western music and humour despite the opposing "environmental factors".

Known for his extra-ordinary sense of humor which often got him into trouble and having been born with a voice that could "sing a note or two", he developed a 'like' for fast lyrics and flow-driven songs, pulling his first stage performance in the 7th Grade, with a song titled Breathless by a then rising artist named Shankar Mahadevan - which was known for its lyrical quality and cadence. Having befriended the pen at a young age, attracted by Elizabethan literature, he later wrote a number of poetries, short-stories and a fiction titled What Willie Said Before His Death during his teens.

Low-Lows

2002, few years from graduating high school, 'B' - then known by his pseudonym Jerry Radwick, Jr. - underwent some life-altering changes and resorted to asocialism. Faced with some personal issues, the 16 year old J.R. cocooned himself - losing his GSOH, ending up becoming a man who never smiles. Things would ultimately overburden the teenage B-Reft to develop a history of insomnia.

Rhythm & Poetry

Pushed by bad times, the 18 year old Jerry Radwick would come across modern age poetry called "rap" while keeping up with musical trends in the wrestling industry. Initially inspired by LIMP Bizkit, Insane Clown Posse and Kid Rock he upgraded his music library and learnt about the "Freestyle" side of rap music from movies like Wildstyle and 8 Mile.

The availability of the "rap tool" finally led him to write his own songs over beats borrowed from his younger brother, Kacey Bridges (born 1992 as Swaraj Mehta) - then an aspiring DJ / Producer - and finally transformed to his new persona, B-Reft - name derived from the english word bereft meaning deprived or lonely.

In his own words, After studying the careers of some major artists like Mr. Marshall Mathers (Eminem), Mr. Curtis Jackson (50 Cent), Mr. Sean Carter (Jay-Z) and some not-so-big-one-hit-wonder-producing-and-trite-lyric-'mic'ing artists, I realized that it would be tough to make it big because of geographical factors. English rap music is a big pill to swallow for most of the people around me. What good would Sir William Shakespeare be if he wrote English plays but lived in France? He won't start writin' French scripts for Operas, would he? He loves English plays! But like Mr. Jimmy Iovine (Interscope Records) once said that The Internet has left artists with no scope for excuses, I thought I should try making my own indie releases and put some s*** out and get it spreading... See if they like it, know what I mean?

Hence began a Mission Impossible 4 of an endeavor to get signed / distributed overseas with no weapons but a microphone bought with months of pocket money savings, accounts at some community sites and a head full of ambition.

Theme & Style

B-Reft songs primarily focus on "sticking to a topic" and highlighting any relevant issues in light of the primary topic - be it using factual material or stories. A pinch of I.C.P. humour mixed with the deadliness and verbosity of D12 roughly painted with a coat of 2Pac's wisdom, his verses are fine-tuned to match the modern requirements of innovative flows and advanced word-play in this post Nas-&-Eminem Era.

B-Reft is a big fan of and heavily influenced by D12 members Proof and Bizarre and the entire G-Unit posse. He considers Proof a genuine lover of rap music and his song Forgive Me from the album Searching For Jerry Garcia as one of the most expressive rap songs ever written. His love for literature is often reflected in his lyrics in the form of alliterations and other figures of speech which are rarely used in raps.

Insane Clown Posse - being one of the largest success stories of being "indie yet major" - have been a major well B-Reft has drawn his style from - Be it in the form of being funny yet violent or coming up with weird and creative stories. B-Reft's verbosity and funny lyrics are also inspired by the success story of Eminem aka Slim Shady.

Career As A Rapper

B-Reft's indie debut single titled: Don't Tell Me What became public in the month of March 2010, accompanied by a self-authored animated music video. The single has received good responses thus far but being an indie release promoted only through the Internet, it only got exposure to a very small audience.

His debut album titled Geek Turned Monsta EP was released on 15 March, 2011 under the label name Monstamouth™ Entertainment.