Tommy Wright III was born in Memphis to deaf parents. In the home of Beale Street, Stax Records and the Reverend Al Green’s Full Gospel Tabernacle, Wright III’s earliest exposure to music was in his parents’ church, where parishioners sang in sign language. Fortuitously, one of Wright III’s childhood neighbors, the DJ and promoter Disco Hound, began sneaking him into nightclubs to see Spanish Fly and Ray the Jay spin records. He was 15 years old when he released his first album, _Memphis Massacre_, and, by the time he’d graduated high school, his label Street Smart Records was at the center of a burgeoning Memphis rap scene. Fueled by Wright III’s boundless work ethic and preternatural gift for marketing, Street Smart was a near-professional operation in a city of teenage amateurs. Alongside acts like Three 6 Mafia and DJ Squeeky, Wright III was primary in shaping the Memphis rap sound: Double-time violent raps over bass-heavy and sample-free beats.
