V!RTU

Enter Cheston Dooley aka V!RTU. Born in the mid-70's in Southern California. V!RTU was also raised in Southern California alongside his younger brother Torrey. They were raised by their father due to an early divorce and demise of their mother. V!RTU was just the tender age of 6 and his brother was just 4 when the incident occurred. The stage was set for an eventful life with adversity at every turn. With the loss of his mother, V!RTU began to embrace the happier things in life; with th...

Enter Cheston Dooley aka V!RTU. Born in the mid-70's in Southern California. V!RTU was also raised in Southern California alongside his younger brother Torrey. They were raised by their father due to an early divorce and demise of their mother. V!RTU was just the tender age of 6 and his brother was just 4 when the incident occurred. The stage was set for an eventful life with adversity at every turn. With the loss of his mother, V!RTU began to embrace the happier things in life; with this came his love for music. The genre that caught his attention was Rap. He first got his exposure to this new artform by listening to the radio in the car with his brother on the way to school. Newcleus's "Jam On It" was a huge influence for him at the time. As the new Hip-Hop groups and songs came along, so did his ever increasing affinity to them. V!RTU started his Hip-Hop collection by finding an abandoned box of cassette tapes in the back parking lot of a church in Palmdale, California. To his surprise, the majority of the tapes had many of the popular Hip-Hop songs of the time on them. So along with the box he found and the occasional new cassette from the local music store V!RTU began his path as an MC. High School was where he first saw his desires to rap come to manifestation. BY sophomore year in high school he was regularly battling the other aspiring artists in the school, and even managed to make an appearance on a public television station in the early 90's. V!RTU spent the rest of the 90's dabbling in creation of his own music, but remained a steady fan of Hip-Hop and an avid collector. V!RTU relocated that Hip-Hop collection (along with his daughter and her mother) to Portland, Oregon in the Fall of 1996. Oregon offered a slower and safer lifestyle for his newly born daughter, and an escape from street lifestyle V!RTU had grown up around. V!RTU was now able to spend more time focusing on his music and finding legitimate and gainful employment. At the beginning of the 2000's is when V!RTU started to put some money where his mouth was and began to invest in his own craft as an MC. After teaming up with brother Torrey aka "MaddHadda" for a while, they decided to form the group they called "THEURGY". This duo later combined with a trio known as the Cutty Route and formed the super-group "Fabulous Saturdays". After a few members relocated from Portland to California, V!RTU decided to try his hand at a solo career. Since V!RTU was already an amazingly talented visual artist, he figured out a way to make the visual art help him towards his musical art goals. This new opportunity came in the form of custom sneaker painting. Over the period of a year (from 2008 to 2009) V!RTU contacted and painted custom shoes for over 10 industry recognized artists in exchanged for musical collaborations. After a year of painting and recording, V!RTU compiled his first official solo release entitled "The Shoe-In". This incredible 14 track album features production from (Fabulous Saturday's group-mate) producer extraordinaire, Cutty Dré, along with vocal features from some underground greats from all over the country (and Canada). To date, V!RTU has recorded (or participated in the recording of) over 250 tracks. It is rumored that he intends to record 1000 tracks before he considers any sort of retirement. SO, with that goal and level of skill, there should be plenty of good Hip-Hop music coming from him in the future.