Raw Deal Da Don

About Raw Deal Da Don

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Artist Biography

Born Antonio Hendricks, the New Jersey native R3-D's rise to music success was not a easy one. He never anticipated that music was his calling.

"I think it started around like the 7th grade. I had a report to do in english class or something like that, but pretty much we had to write a poem on a historical figure. I think i chose Fredrick Douglas because the man's life to me was an inspiration on that whatever I wanted to do, I could acheive with hard work, you know. Real motivation. But I was called up to recite it to the class. Midway the teacher stopped me saying that I wasnt feeling what I had written, and that the best way to reach a target audience was to express the emotions that you wanted the audience to feel the same way. I remember my boy Anthony was always making beats with his mouth. So my teacher told him to "drop a beat" for me believe it or not, and to express myself as one of my favorite artist would. So I began to spit my poem. And to my surprise the class actually cheered me on. My teacher said that my sentence struture, rhythm, and story telling was one of the best she had seen. I guess you could say that was the first rap I had ever written lol".

At that exact moment, R3-D and a group of childhood freinds decided to form a group called S2S(State 2 State), with R3-D taking on the name at that time, Lyrical.

"I took on the moniker Lyrical because people always told me that I was a very Lyrical type rapper and I was always somewhat suducing the track I was on"

With the newly formed group, R3-D and bandmates soon started to record freestyles at a whim. At this time he soon started to grow even more enthutiastic in pursuring a music career. He along with State 2 State recorded and release their first mixtape entitled: S2S The Family Part 1. The mixtape hit the streets in late 2002. With mediocore sales, the State to State crew went back to the drawing board and later realesed another mixtape entitled The Family Part 2: Same Hustle, Different Day witch was released in early 2003. Singles that made a mark to the listener's ears were "Get More Loot" and "Where Im From". The group was invited to perform in Fedville North Carolina in a amerture talent showcase. They didn't win but exposed themselves to a larger audience and getting the group name out in the streets. In the midst of working on a 3rd mixtape, rising conflict between the members abrutley ended the group. At this time R3-D fissiled out of the scene for a few years until one day he recieved a call from a former group mate, telling him that the group would try it again. He soon rejoined with is former band mates to give the group one more shot. They released Survival Of The Fittest. It was then that R3-D soon started to shine as a solo artist with wordplay that was diffrent from most rappers. With rising conflicts once again within the group, R3-D left State 2 State to pursue a solo career, releasing Step Into My World under the moniker R3-D, shorthand for Raw Deal Da Don in 2007.

"I needed a fresh start and a new image. People still remember me from State 2 State. One day I was freestyling with one of my homeboys and he said to me "If you keep this up, you will soon be the new raw deal of rap. And it stuck. "As far as the "Don" part of the moniker, I've always been fascinated with older mobster movies and times. The style of their fashion to the type of cars they drove to the countless beautiful women they were in the company of. They were referred to as "The Don". "The rest is history". As far as my first mixtape, it was a few new songs that I had written added to a few songs that I had written in my State 2 State years but never recorded".

The mixtape did extreamly well in the soundclick charts reaching # 23 after debuting at # 56. The mixtape's success and the motivation soon reached the ears of Black_Hart! of Dark Empire Recordings (expired link).. After setting up a meeting and discussing possible career moves, Raw Deal was signed to and offically linked with Dark Empire Recordings (expired link). Now with the support that he never had, and a team of eargerly hungry (expired link) that want to bring real hip-hop back, he is set to release his first official Debut Album under Beat House Records LLC