shawn da don

st.albans, NY

Biography

Follow me on www.twitter.com/shawnsafaridon Grindaholic that's what you can call me..I'm constantly on the grind one way or another. I'm down to earth, cool, laid-back gangsta, Businessman, intelligent, spontaneous, open-minded, mentally, physically, and financially stable. Good sense of humor, low tolerance for bullshit. D.E. is the movement. Destiny Entertainment(production, marketing, promotion, executive production, management, ghost writing, artist development) ARTIST SHAWN DON, CITY MAINE, SIVE, AVA DENERA, PRINCE RAH, BIRDIE, MEAN TEAM, SHIRLEY HYPOLITE, DESTINY ENT. "BUILT FOR THE STRUGGLE" Cop that City Maine "STREETS DON'T LOVE YOU"Mixtape Cop that Shawn Don "MOMENT OF TRUTH" Cop that AVA DENERA "SET IT OFF" Mixtape Abraham 165 jamaica he got the official copies. It's been a long time coming, we destined to blow, cause NEW YORK feelin this Destiny flow. Destiny Entertainment "We built to succeed" Destiny Entertainment was founded in 1998 by S (Shawn don) Clarke! Shawn Don aka Mr. Grey Poupon, aka Mr. Two Steps from M.T.V, Is in the Building. The Biography As you read on you..ll hear about this once haunted young man turned mulit-talented artist..struggle with the day to day trials of the music industry and you..ll read about his trying and sometimes deadly path to stardom. In every possible way Mr. Don is truly answering to the call of duty both in the office and in the studio. Born in the late 1970..s to a very young couple which consisted of Shawn..s very young mother and his father, who was a street savvy hustler. Shawn (born Safari ) witnessed many disturbing events at a young age growing up in Harlem, New York. He viewed the lives and slow deaths of dope fiends and junkies as he and his parents stepped over them in the hall to get inside of their apartment. Shawn at the age of three witnessed his first dead body, which provoked his parents to move him to Queens and isolate him as a means of protecting him from. Shawn..s parents did not know that Harlem Life was already in his blood...The fact that Shawn..s father was a hustler gave him that hustler..s mentality... Growing up in Queens in the early 1980..s wasn..t exactly a walk in the park. The streets were ran by gangs, drug dealers, the mob, and the NYPD, the biggest gang in New York. The option to join any of them was always there but it didn..t stop Shawn from doing what he had to do. Shawn was always ambitious and eager to get his own. Shawn was picked on as a child because he didn..t have the luxuries that the other kids.. parents could provide. He rocked his hair in an afro and they teased him calling him BuckWheat and instead of British Knights he rocked Pro Wings with cardboard in the bottoms to cover the holes. The teasing created a high drive for fashion inside Shawn. So when he managed to get his first job at age 11 delivering pizzas in his neighborhood he quickly turned the tables and became the dude to have whatever he wanted that was new and hot. ..When did you fall in love with Hip Hop?.. Shawn realized he had a love for hip-hop when Doug E. Fresh and the Get Fresh Crew debuted with their first single titled ..Show/Laddidadi... Shawn was also influenced by his uncle Gerard, who was an exceptional lyricist. Gerard used to hang out in the famous ..Greenhouse.. (where is the Greenhouse and what is it?) with many upcoming greats such as the Rock wilder and Redman, just to name a few. At the age of 10, Shawn was given the mic by his father, in which he would freestyle rap. And the pressure brought on by his dad speaking in his Jamaican dialect (Potwa) was enough to make him improve. Not too long after, these influences gave Shawn the courage to begin writing his own rap lyrics. Shawn entered Junior high school with the likes of many rappers like 50 Cent and Cadillac Tah, etc. Shawn would freestyle rap and friends would tell him he was hot, but that wasn..t good enough for him. So by the time he entered high school he would engage in ciphers at luncheon tables and would participate in school talent shows. He always dominated the competition, but once Shawn was introduced to basketball and the street life, rap took a back seat. At the age of 16, Shawn and his close friend, Rodell were kindly taken by Rodell..s father to meet Russell Simmons. Simmons told them to bring back some songs. It was 1993, and this was the same year Dr. Dre dropped his album ..The Chronic... They were good young rappers. But that..s exactly what they knew how to do .. rap. They hadn..t yet mastered the art of making records and that..s exactly what they would need to learn in order to advance. It was something like a back to the street meeting. They didn..t have a music manager of any sort to help them put their songs together. So they had to eventually learn on their own or quit the game completely. But the pressures of reality had set in and Shawn was faced with the fact and responsibility that he had a daughter on the way that he had to provide for and rap started feeling like a long shot. Shawn was arrested twice in 1993 for theft of a Mercedes Benz and an Acura Legend. Flipping cars became a fast means of getting money at a young age. He was placed on probation with the New York City Department of Probation. He quickly gave up the auto theft business. Larceny just wasn..t his thing. So it was back to square one hustling .. drugs. The dice game money wouldn..t be enough any more. It was as if the drug hustle was calling him his whole life. He had a seed to feed. Shawn still wrote raps for his personal satisfaction but had no means to make a profit out of ..em. At the age of 20, Shawn started Destiny Entertainment. The first artist on Destiny Entertainment was Ava Denera. At this point music became a priority to Shawn again. He put out a full-fledged promotion for Ava. He promoted Ava so much that she opened up for Trina on several occasions and was on every mixtape from Envy to Kay Slay and even put out a couple of her own mixtapes. Ava was on many college radio stations and even some well known radio stations. Ava worked with many producers like Just Blaze, Rockwilder, Sha-Money, XL and many others. Shawn performed alongside Ava at all her shows as the crowd..s hypeman. At the same time Shawn was also the man to handle all of Ava..s legal and business aspects. Love Dinero was the next project. Recording, manufacturing, and distribution led to getting Love Dinero a street buzz as a young DJ. He..s now the Mixtape General who won the Justo Mixtape award for best DJ. This gave Shawn the knowledge and experience on how to push an artist. It taught him about networking, the power of phone calls, and how important relationships are. Shawn even mastered song writing. He did ghost writing on the side for several artists, which was a good way to pay the bills. In 1996 Shawn had a tragic car accident that almost became fatal. It was so bad that the bone in his right arm was crushed to pieces, he had broken fingers, his face was cut up, and one of his eyelids were split in two places. After days of surgery and months of therapy it wasn..t too long before Shawn was back in the streets. Shawn would never be the same after the accident, but it would only make him stronger and more determined. After being arrested in 1998 on drug charges, Shawn decided it was time to go full-fledge with his music, but because he was under the supervision of the NYC Department of Probabtion, his mobility to travel was slowed down. Four years later the probation was violated, which landed him some months on the infamous Rikers Island. During Shawn..s stay at Riker..s Island, he wrote every single day for hours and hours at a time. Through stage experiences with Ava Denera, a lot of the butterflies were gone. Shawn even engaged in ciphers with other inmates. It became a ritual for other inmates in C76 to come to Shawn to hear new fire verses. He always promised them he was going to be big. So at this point Shawn had made up his mind that he was going to be one of the biggest artist that music as a whole would ever see. Soon after being released from Rikers Island, Shawn started recording his solo project. The first song he recorded was with a childhood friend, Moody Joon. The song was produced by Carlo Jackson and it was titled, ..We Movin... Shawn then moved to Atlanta where him and Moody Joon went on to record an album titled ..Rich Kids.. executive produced by Carlo Jackson. It included guest appearances by C-Bone and Nate (Koncrete) courtesy of Purple Ribbon Records and was mixed at Outkast..s studio, ..Stankonia... Don has opened up for lil boosie,State property,T.I.Papoose and others! Shawn moved back to New York from Atlanta to pursue his solo career. He recorded the classic mixtape titled ..Moment Of Truth.. in 2005, which featured many artists from his team. Shawn also created the underground banger ..Rat Bastard.., produced by platinum producer Crown (Firehouse Muzik). These artists included AVA Denera,City Maine, Black Smoke,Haze,Knox,Birdie,lamboghini Luch, Prince Rah, and Sive. ..Moment Of Truth.. took away any doubts that the streets had. Shawn's next mixtape brought him to levels above the first. The title is ..Industry Virus,.. which speaks for itself. Shawn Don is viewed as one of the hottest artists New York has seen in years. Not only is Shawn street smart, but his intellectual level is superb. Shawn is definitely a force to be reckoned with. Between his determination, his lyrics, and his creativity...Shawn is destined to succeed.