THE LIFE OF QUOTE

[A.T.M. QUOTE]

"I grew up around the drugs, guns, murders, and any other negative influences that were out there for me to see, yet here I am, 24 years old with no charges, a high school diploma, and what I consider to be the educated mind of a college graduate. Whenever a young black man grows up in harsh conditions and does something wrong to become a part of the prison system they say "he’s a product of his environment", but what about when they grow up in those same conditions and does the complete opposite, what is he then?" Quote



My Life...Before Rap


Mario Romelle Watson, better known as the rapper Quote, was born December 5, 1983 in Wilmington, NC. Though Quote didn’t live in the best part of the small town of Wilmington (birth place of Michael Jordan), it would be false to think that he grew up "rough". "I can’t sit here and tell u I had a rough childhood. I mean we did the food stamp thing and all that but I never had the run down shoes and clothes and Christmas was always good for me. My story couldn’t be about struggling as a young child watching my moms do drugs and borrowing bread from the neighbors...that aint my story. I kept the new Jordans on my feet and the new outfit when I was a lil daddy but I have to credit that to my moms struggling as a young single parent to make sure me and my lil brother had it even if she didn’t". Clara Watson, Quote’s mother, had him in her final year of high school, while managing to graduate unlike many of our societies young parents. When Quote was five years old his mother gave birth to his little brother. The three of them, with very little help and income, moved to Clara’s first apartment in the Taylor Holmes projects. "Nah, Taylor Holmes wasn’t the roughest projects in the world or nothing like that, but it wasn’t a sweet little neighborhood though. I mean I had plenty of nights with no sleep because of gun shots and sirens. I’ve seen the fiends and drunks and homeless people outside where we played, but I blanked all of that out. It was like it was there, but I didn’t see it or hear it for the most part". This was very evident when it came to Quote’s schooling. Though he dealt with many of the harsh realities that many young black families deal with in today’s world, he managed to be a part of the Academically Gifted program throughout his elementary school years and maintained his good grades through high school. "It was crazy being one of very few black kids in my classes in elementary. It was like I wasn’t supposed to be there. I got invited to all of those kids’ parties and it was like I was in a different world when I went to there houses. Pools in the backyard? We had the one community pool that had been pissed in a million times and had hardly ever got cleaned by the city. We had the freeze lady house and they had a mini grocery store right in there houses".




Throughout the early years of Quote’s life, he never had a real relationship with his father. Whether it is the fact that he wasn’t prepared to be a young parent or not being able to because of serving time in prison, Quote’s father didn’t become a serious part of his life until he was nearly ten years old. "I spent every weekend at my pops moms house ya dig so I knew who he was not to mention the fact that no matter where I went in Wilmington I had to hear stories about his old high school football days, but that whole side of my family had a reputation in my city, whether it was from sports or guns and drugs, we were well known". At the age of ten Quote would become very aware of "the other side" of his father’s family’s reputation. While sitting in the house watching the news in his new home in the Dove Meadows projects, Quote was told by his mother to go outside and play. "I didn’t know what was going on. I mean what parent tells a kid to stop watching the news to go outside in the projects and play, but who was I to say no". The next day Quote would find out why he was told to go outside. His father had been shot in the head at close range the night before. His father survived the gunshot, but instead of changing his life around he became one of the biggest drug dealers in the city. "It was like him getting shot turned him into a hustler, not a man who wanted to go get a good job, but one of the most talked about drug dealers in Wilmington. I can’t lie; I reaped the benefits of his hustling like crazy. I was getting the Jordans on Friday instead of Saturday with a couple outfits to match. I was one of the flyest dudes in middle school back then with the popularity to go with it. I mean I was the son of a hustler, the other kids from the hood looked at me like I was selling the crack". On his way to his first year of high school, all of this would come to an abrupt end as Quote’s father was incarcerated on drug charges. Going into high school is a very pivotal point in any teenager’s life, even more for Quote and those who faced the same situations. "Tell me how do u go from getting everything u could possibly want without even asking, to having nothing coming in, back to that single parent home with ya moms paying all the bills by herself with two kids?" Well this was the situation Quote was placed in. Now struggling with having to decide between having nothing, working a nine to five, or take up the trade he had seen be so illustrious to his father uncles and cousins, Quote decided to head to work. "Wendy’s was my first job ya dig. I was flipping burgers for the new Jordans and outfits. I never thought about selling drugs. When my pops got out of prison he became a fiend, I had an uncle that did heroin and at one point overdosed. Even though he lived, I saw the other side of selling drugs, how could I contribute to that? My uncle got shot in the torso and was sh**ing in a bag all over drugs, nah that aint for me".




Then Rap Came...And So Easy At That


So now here we are the introduction of the rap artist known as Quote. Though his story of becoming a rapper isn’t that of the typical artist, he has faced many adversities none the less. "I can’t lie and tell you I been rapping since I was five and I looked up to Run DMC. I just started rapping about two years ago and to be honest it was a fluke that I even started rapping". This is so true. One day Quote walked into the local studio where one of his uncles had become a local star, and recognized a few of the kids who had made the place their hangout. "I knew my dude KYD through his older brother. Me and his brother were good friends in high school. I recognized my mans Kellz through some old friends and my dude Tone grew up around the corner from my grand moms crib. So I was comfortable in there chilling then one day they were recording and I had always had the itch to get in the booth. I had a few verses in my head, I never wrote a verse down a day in my life because I was always nervous about somebody finding it, so everything I’ve written has been written in my head. So I went back there, got in the booth and I guess the rest is history or at least it will be soon". Thus began the rap career of Quote. In a matter of a year Quote had been featured on three independent albums, three mix tapes, performed in many local venues and even performed on the same stage as Lupe Fiasco. All of this from an artist who had never even seen a recording studio before a year and a half ago. After receiving a call from Grand Hustle after taking a trip to Atlanta, Quote realized he had talent and so did many others around him which may have severed some friendships and business relationships he had. "It was like everything was happening so fast and some people weren’t prepared for it. When Grand Hustle called me I didn’t believe it at first even though me and my dudes had went to their offices and put cds all over the outside of the building, but instead of me taking things into my own hands I put it into the hands of the owner of the studio we had. I trusted homie as not my manager but as my friend to handle the situation the best way possible but instead he tells me that he got to put himself in the position to "get his" cause we weren’t going to leave him and get money and he wasn’t going to get his. Needless to say, the Grand Hustle deal didn’t go through". This along with other problems with this person forced Quote, along with the rest of his friends who would later form the crew Addicted To Money (A.T.M.), to sever ties with this studio and find not only new motivation but a new place to record and make moves in the music industry. "At this point I was starting from scratch. He had erased all of the music I had...everything. I can’t front I was through with rap for a while. I guess I can say it was my dude Kellz along with hearing a lot of whack music, is what got me back in it". And back in it he is. Quote’s first release after the ordeal was his first solo mix tape "I Made It" which is stirring up a heavy buzz from NC to Atlanta. It was released late 2007 and has acquired heavy praise from all who have been blessed to hear it. Songs such as the title track "I Made It" show a more personal side of Quote, beyond the slick talk and ridiculous punch lines and flow. "I Made It is basically the last year or so of my life compressed into three verses. I lost my first cousin, who was like my brother, on December 29th 2006; I had been hated on by almost every whack rapper that had heard of me, and then the situation with the studio. I can honestly say I don’t remember writing this song. It’s like it was just there". Along with the "I Made It" mix tape, Quote has had numerous songs on XM Radio’s Shine 66 and is featured on the upcoming Shine 3 mix tape hosted by Dj Furious Styles, and has released numerous unofficial remixes such as Shawty Lo’s "Dey Know" and Rockos "Umma Do Me" which have been played on radio stations and in clubs all over the U.S. "To me, all of this is nothing. I’m ready to be sitting at the big desk in the big office in the big building. Rap is easy; being a wealthy entrepreneur is where I want to be".