Casey Veggies (né Casey Jones) may be young but he definitely knows the value of prioritizing. Although this ’90s baby (born July 18, 1993) entered high school with hoop dreams, playing shooting guard for the varsity squad of Inglewood High School’s Sentinels, the Los Angeles native’s interest in rapping soon eclipsed his passion for basketball.

Back in ninth grade, the young MC had been recording songs and posting them on his MySpace page just for fun. But after receiving positive feedback on a few of his early tracks, Casey Veggies began to re-evaluate his relationship with music. “I was just writing and writing but then when I began recording things just started to fall into place,” says the emerging breakout star. “The response I got made me take it more seriously.”

While Casey Veggies originally started out as one of the founding members of the hip-hop supergroup Odd Future (OFWGKTA), he decided to strike out on his own following the release of his first mixtape, 2007’s Customized Greatly Vol. 1, which he dropped at the age of 14. “I just had a different vision for my own rap career,” Veggies says, explaining his decision to go solo. “I wanted to do my own thing.”

With the release of 2009’s Customized Greatly Vol. 2, Veggies not only proved that he had the potential to be more than just another MySpace star, but he also began to work closely with friends Joshton Peas and Anwar Carrots to establish a merchandise and artist management company called PNCINTL, better known as Peas & Carrots International. In an interview with The Madbury Club, the remarkably entrepreneurial teenager demonstrated a strong head for business as he discussed how “strategic sponsorships, limited merchandise, organic partnerships, social presence and influence ability have proved fundamental in the success of Peas & Carrots and thus, Casey Veggies.”

Indeed, Casey Veggies’ grassroots approach to marketing and promotion has not only garnered him more than 75,000 Twitter followers and over a million views on YouTube, but also scored favorable press coverage from a multitude of influential blogs and magazines, including complex.com, missinfo.tv, RapRadar.com, vibe.com, xxlmag.com, thesource.com, worldstarhiphop, and MTV’s RapFix blog.

Shortly after graduating high school in the spring of 2011, Casey Veggies joined Mac Miller as an opening act on his Blue Slide Park tour. Since then, he has performed with West Coast heavy hitters such as Nipsey Hussle, Dom Kennedy, Kendrick Lamar, and Hodgy Beats of MellowHype, as well as his friends from Odd Future, Tyler, the Creator and Domo Genesis, plus pop star Rita Ora, in addition to collaborating with artists such as YG, Rich Hil, Chip Tha Ripper and Raheem Devaughn.

In 2011, Delicious Vinyl helped with digital distribution of Casey Veggies’ independently released full-length debut album, Sleeping In Class, which he followed up a year later with his latest mixtape, Customized Greatly Vol. 3, released on April 9, 2012. Next, the prolific young rapper who supported Big K.R.I.T. on summer 2012’s Live From the Underground Tour has a new mixtape called Life Changes in the works. “I’m moving a little away from the volumes,” says Veggies. “I want to prove to people that I can put together a full package.” As with all of his releases, Veggies’ forthcoming projects are sure to be ripened to perfection.

Veggies are good for you and so is his music. Live and grow.

At only 20 years old, Travi$ Scott’s music has already taken him
quite a few places, even if he isn’t famous enough to be recognized in
any of them yet. He’s lived on the east and west coasts, as well as the
“third coast” of his native Houston, Texas, but has seen exotic locales
while traveling with the most famous of his early fans, Kanye West.
Since meeting early last year, the two have spent countless hours in
the studio, the fruits of which can be heard on “Sin City,” Scott’s
standout contribution to the G.O.O.D. Music compilation album, Cruel
Summer. In his verse, Scott paints a vivid picture of a girl caught up in
the allure of the fast life: She stepped into hell, cause when it got
cold/Don’t look in her eyes, you might see straight to her soul/Don’t
say yes to that good cause you’ll never know/Cause we lost in the city,
where sin is no biggie! he raps. The charge is something Scott himself
can identify with, his music career having taken flight at an
astronomical speed over the course of just a few short years.
Travi$ Scott grew up in Houston the son of a drummer and
grandson of a music scholar, bitten himself by the music bug after
witnessing the showmanship of late 90’s rap videos from Mase and
Diddy and then later on, experiencing the revolutionary production of
Kanye West and Pharrell Williams. Scott began making beats when he
was just 17 and sought out the tutelage of the local names he had
access to, who just so happened to be dirty south hip-hop legends N.O.
Joe and Mike Dean. It wasn’t long after that he would venture out to
New York to see what he was actually made of. “I’m really into
depicting what’s in my life,” Scott says. “Anything I say in these
verses, that’s who I am. Those are real stories.” Things didn’t quite
take off the way he imagined in New York, Scott having to couch surf
when money got low, so he bounced to Los Angeles for another fresh
start. The leap of faith paid off with Scott catching the ear of the “King
of the South” himself, T.I., who signed him immediately through his
GrandHustle/Epic imprint. With Scott working with T.I., it wasn’t long
before Kanye West got wind of him, both superstars still utilizing the
young prodigy whenever possible.
And though he continues to work on music with his mentors,
Travi$ Scott’s own Owl Pharaoh EP is soon to set the world ablaze,
Scott using everything he’s learned from his forefathers to make the
project he’s sure will satisfy a rapidly growing fanbase. “People are
gonna feel the imagery, what my life consists of, what the world of
Travi$ Scott is,” he says. “What is this kid thinking? Who is this kid?
What is he trying to tell us? That’s what they gone feel through these
songs.” So far they’ve had only morsels to chew on, but the demand
grows with each leak like “Blocka,” the song he co-produced with
Young Chop and raps on with Pusha T, or the super-stylized “Quintana”
video or the riot-inducing, Mike Will-produced, “Pus$$y,” which
features Chuck Inglish, Fredo Santana and Gunplay. Travi$ Scott has
collaborated with some of the biggest names in rap and he hasn’t even
released his EP yet. “It’s like becoming friends,” Scott says of his
music. “Once people get to hang around you more and more, they’ll
start to understand you. They’ll either catch on or they’ll get left
behind.” And soon enough, the world will know what so many of our
favorite rappers already do: That Travi$ Scott is the future.