RICO CHAMPION / NATIBOY

In The late 1970's Deanna Lynn bore her first born son of 7 children in whom she recognized early on in his young life that he had an extraordinary gift of creative writing. From his earliest years of grade school through out his entire trip through jr high, high school and even a brief stint in college he was praised for his choice of words and wording when writing and for the vision of how to creatively take any form of literary art to the next level of artistry; weather it be a poem, speec...

In The late 1970's Deanna Lynn bore her first born son of 7 children in whom she recognized early on in his young life that he had an extraordinary gift of creative writing. From his earliest years of grade school through out his entire trip through jr high, high school and even a brief stint in college he was praised for his choice of words and wording when writing and for the vision of how to creatively take any form of literary art to the next level of artistry; weather it be a poem, speech or writing a mere story he always shocked and amazed his teachers with his thought process. Settling for the simplest way to say any certain thing in writing was just to easy and boring to Rico; which in turn caused him to push himself to a more thought out creative writing process that has most defiantly carried over into his music! Deanna saw in her son Rico a gifted and talented writer but what she also noticed in the same breath was that Rico possessed an incredible ear for music. Deanna recalls of Rico of whom from a very early age sang, hummed and pointed out the smallest details in music; weather it be a background vocal, harmony or instrument that even adults didn't or couldn't really recognize, or even vocals, harmonies and instruments that didn't exist in the song but would fit or even make the song better Rico recognized them, sang them or acted out the instrument that would fit; he was brilliant. Growing up in the lower income sections and projects of Cincinnati Ohio Rico loved sports, writing, and drawing in which he excelled in all 3 but the love of his life was and is music! Music always over took the majority of his day; singing, dancing listening to music and watching music videos was the highlight of everyday. His mother Deanna a music lover and aspiring soul singer herself whom at the rip age of 15 & 16 used to sneak into clubs to sing with her older sister's boyfriend's band [but soon abandoned that dream to raise her young son and his future brothers and sister] loved music so much that she recorded on multiple vhs tapes through the years hours and hours of music videos; everything from BET's Video Soul with Donnie Simpson to MTV's Yo MTV Raps! with Fab Five Freddie / Dr Dre and Ed Lover; there was never a day in the home Without music playing or even times when the cable got cut off there was always music videos playing, they woke up to music and it carried on through out the day. Early on As a young dreamer Rico frequently envisioned himself as a mega star as did most young boys and girls alike to the likes of Michael Jackson and later on the boy bands of the 80's and early 90's; he loved rnb, soul, gospel and hiphop but then in 1988 his uncle recorded him, his younger brother Brittany and cousin Ira in his mother's living room performing LL Cool J's I'm bad on video; Rico being the oldest of course was LL in the video and when he saw himself on tape that was the first time he really considered and thought about being an rapper and seriously doing music and that's when the dream became a vision. Through out The next few years with hiphop's struggle to the top and the explosion of kid hiphop acts and groups to the likes of mainly So So Def's Kris Kross and Michael Bivins Another Bad Creation A.B.C. It further solidified that someone like him could make it, he thought "hey their kids like me, if they could do it why can't I". In 1990 while in the 5th grade; outside of using the boys bathroom in elementary school for its main purpose Rico use them in two other alternative ways; it was one the place where he regularly fought the bullies of the school and two the place where he first battled rapped and performed in any fashion outside of he and his brother Brittany performing their favorite songs at the time for their mother in their living room which Deanna had them do frequently . Although the rhymes he recited weren't his own but were the lyrics from a "Young MC" video that he watched all the time, figured out nobody knew the song and used it to win battles; he was bitten by the reaction and admiration he got from the crowd as he out rhymed and styled his opponent. In 1991 Rico wrote his first original rnb song and hiphop rhyme, joined his first hiphop group The Cash Money brothas named after the film New Jack City and a neighborhood stepping crew named B5O; music had taken over! Rico's first songs were never presented to anybody outside of his mother because he hadn't yet learned the art of beats and measures, bars and hooks so he knew they weren't ready for display; disgruntled and discouraged he laid down his pen. He remained a fan of hiphop and listened to as much hiphop as possible and although Deanna was a music lover herself she wasn't a big fan of hiphop which at this time gangster rap was what Rico's generation was listening to; but not in her home. The only time he heard the songs that weren't radio edited was around the hood from someones car, house, when class mates would rap them at school or whenever he was able to hang out with his older cousin Ray Ray who listen to hiphop from mainly the west coast and down south. At this point Rico had never owned his own hiphop tape until while over Ray Rays he heard a 90 min dub tape of Houston rap legend Scarface's "The World is Yours" on one side and on the other side was Ant Banks first album and also MC Breed's The New Breed album which featured hiphop legend Tupac Shakur. Throughout the tape there were many different MC's to listen too; for there where 3 albums on one tape but the two artists who stuck out to young Rico was the straight forward, real and emotional rhyme skeems of Scaface and Tupac; they seem ahead of and better than anybody in their class and Rico latched on too them and in turn the two icons became his two of his favorite artist period to this day. So overtaken by what he heard Rico stole the tape from Ray Ray and hid it from his mother under his mattress. Periodically he would get caught listening to the tape and Deanna would take them and hide them or flat out destroy them; so he had to then make dubs of it or steal it back from his mother so he found a new hiding place under a drawer in a desk in his room that she never discovered and now nothing could keep him from hiphop! In the fall of 1994 after some time of deeply studying Tupac and Scarface's ability of coveying exactly what they felt, thought, what bothered them, what made them happy or sad, angry ex.... in their music he finally picked up his pen and never put it down again. Rico convinced his crew that they should rap also and he form a group he named OGTL [Outlaw Gangsta Thug Lords]. Being that Rico still hadn't sharpened his rap writing blade he started learning by rewriting his favorite artist's song, implementing himself in the songs and switching the story to fit him eventually learning how to write his own story / rhymes and not lean on what he had heard. By 1995 a friend and later fellow group member showed Rico not only how to count music [beats and measures] but how to loop the instrumental part of any song and make it long enough too rap over on a karaoke machine and thus far start recording himself, his own songs that he wrote and perfecting his voice and performance. Rico grew in leaps and bounds and was years ahead of most of the rappers he came across in the city because he practiced so much in private which prompted everyone that heard him and his music to encourage Rico to keep doing what he was doing and that one day he would be great and never give up your going to blow one day just wait and see. Rico's grades in school suddenly dropped due to him not doing class work but writing raps in class and not doing homework due to him rapping with his crew in the streets, working a part time job and selling crack on the side; music and money where now the most important thing in life to Rico. Rico Masked his street life and hid it from his mother by not getting What he thought to be too deep in the streets, with a job, music and him not being sloppy enough to bring the streets home Deanna never suspected that her eldest child by the age of 14 began smoking weed, drinking beer, having sex, and selling drugs behind her back; after all he was a good child and always loved his mother and helped with the bills and basically helped raise his younger brothers and sisters when his step father left the home in 1994. There where many times that there wouldn't have been a Christmas, birthday or sometimes even school cloths for the younger children in the house had it not been Rico's help; he loved his family dearly and would do anything for their good, this is the man Deanna created. By the fall of 1997 while watching princess Dianne's funeral Rico and a friend formed a new group named "The World's Finest Royal Family" it was time to step it up a notch so he scouted out a studio and started paying for studio time which created yet another task to tackle, he didn't know how to make original beats all he could do was imitate the sounds and tell the engineer how he wanted the beat. Thankfully he finally ended up coming across an accomplished and musician by the name of Elliot Slaughter who was able to hear better what Rico inmated and he remained a loyal customer at Elliots studio until 2001 when Rico and the Royal Family / NATI BOY was fortunate enough to get their own studio and work and perfect music to no end. As of recent Rico Champion is not the drug dealer or thug that he once was subject to be but a well rounded real life man who loves people and whos greatest ambition is to see people be progressive in their mind, body and spirit, he's brutally honest and overtly out spoken; oh yeah not mention he's the livest cat rocking mic around these parts and whenever he gets to where you are he'll still be one of the illest MC's alive or dead; why wouldn't he be, he studies the greats!!!!!!!! Over a ten year time period Rico Champion and the underground label, movement and ultimately crew he branded "NATI BOY" has recorded over 400 songs and pushed out over 15 projects city wide won multiple contest performed at every night spot in the city and has gotten local radio air play. Loved by his fans and respected by his peers Rico Champion has worked with everyone in the city that has a name for themselves, notoriety, and has helped mold and develop every artist around him, Rico strives to help maximize everyones potential around him. Loved and hated for his bitter honesty and musical integrity he dubbed himself Grizzly Jones after he and NATI BOY's grizzly bear slogan and mentality in and out the booth for success and progress; and after music legend and icon Quincy Jones for Rico's intuitive musical vision and leadership. Rico Champion is the embodiment of the I refuse to loose heart of a warrior who will not give up die until he's done doing what he came to do and nobody can derail him in any way! The question is....... Why haven't Rico Champion been exposed to the masses YET....... The answer is simple. The very fact that there is a low level of exposure for the city of Cincinnati Ohio and its talent as a whole is the reason, nobody really pays the city any attention or pours into the city to provide an strong enough media outlet for the city and its starving artist. There hasn't been a strong musically movement and attention on Cincinnati since the sixties King Records home to legend James Brown! The solution......... Rico Champion must leave his home town and expose himself, venture out and go find success where success lives because time has shown him that's its highly unlikely that his success will come find him in Cincinnati. Time waits for no man and success will knock but do you reside at the proper address? By the time anyone reads this Rico Champion will have already relocated to the right or a better address for success to bump into him and continued his journey to the top in hiphop and soul music because thats what he does and hes never known any other way but to win and its still the first quarter of the game!!!!! So catch him on the other side of success!!!!!!!!!!!