Expect no gimmicks from San Francisco-bred emcee, DaVinci. Though his upbringing in the historic Fillmore District is a far cry from its jazz heyday, he represents a new generation of post-Reaganomic crack-era rap, whose often-unwitting participants had to hustle to survive past their adolescence. “My music has everything to do with my environment: from robbing, killing, pimpin’ to selling and abusing drugs...to family, gentrification, and shit, just havin’ fun,” he explains about his heavy content. “It’s a direct reflection of what my friends and family have been through and are still going through today, much like the urban poor of generations passed. Something is to be said about society if the struggles that my nephews are dealing with today are the same struggles that I had to deal with, and that my uncles and pops had to deal with, and so on. The cycle of poverty is cross-generational, so there will always need to be a voice for those stuck in the cycle.”

Since dropping his debut album The Day The Turf Stood Still last year, his rise has been meteoric, becoming one of the first SF emcees to be featured at A3C, CMJ, and SXSW Music Festivals with multiple showcases, earning himself a coveted spot on 106.1 KMEL’s Bay Area’s Freshman 10 of 2010, a stellar Pitchfork album review, and guest appearing on DJ Muggs’ Shade45 radio show ”Soul Assassins Radio: The West Wing." Soon to come is another SWTBRDS release this summer, the Feast or Famine EP, followed by his much-anticipated sophomore release, The Moena Lisa.