Rhymefest

Rhymefest (born as Che Smith in Chicago, July 6, 1980 -- ) – Rapper. A native of the Jeffrey Manor neighborhood of South Deering in Chicago, Rhymefest dropped out of South Shore High School and later completed his GED and matriculated at the city’s Columbia College. While a college student, he established himself as a well-known freestyle rapper in the area; however, he left school and relocated to Indianapolis in the mid to late 1990s so that he would be close to his new wife, who was a student at Purdue. There, he worked low-wage jobs to help support his wife and son Solomon, who was born in 1998. Although he initially struggled to make a living in Indy, it was there where he met important contact Mark Ronson through his former manager Ron “DJ Indiana Jones” Miner. In 2003, He signed with Ronson’s Allido Records, a subsidiary of Sony BMG’s J Records. After appearing on various albums with Ronson and contributing songs to soundtracks—including Big Momma’s House 2 (2006)—Rhymefest released his first solo album Blue Collar on Allido in 2006. Another important collaborator, Kanye West produced Rhymefest’s “Raw Dog” mix-tape before either was famous in 2001. In 2004, the two later teamed up to write “Jesus Walks,” which appeared on West’s College Dropout and won a Grammy for Best Rap Song. Since his success with “Jesus Walks,” Rhymefest has proven himself as a leading freestyle rapper and recording artist. A self-professed #1 Michael Jackson fan, Rhymefest recently created Man in the Mirror, a mix-tape that includes samples of MJ’s music and mock conversations with the King of Pop. An outspoken individual on various topics including civil rights, Smith co-wrote "Glory," which John Legend and Common recorded and won a Grammy and Golden Globe for Best Original Song in 2015. The song won another Grammy in 2016 for best song written for Visual Media, as it appeared in the soundtrack for the powerful film Selma.