Birth name Samuel Scott Young Instruments Vocalist, Producer Name Samuel Young | Genres Hip hop Years active 1992-Present | |
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Born September 16, 1975 (age 48) Jasper, Alabama ( 1975-09-16 ) Origin Jacksonville, Florida, United States Labels Sacred Society Battle League, Axe Music | ||
Samuel Scott Young (born Sept 16, 1975) professionally known as Axe co-founded and pioneered the first battle rap leagues along with Fam Nice who is referred to as the "godfather of modern battle rap".
Contents
- Sacred Society Battle League
- Discography
- Singles
- Collaborative albums
- Veterans charity organization
- References
Axe is the co-founder of Sacred Society Battle League, which includes Ultimate rap league host Mickey Factz and Rawkus Records artist Novel Stevenson. Between 1998 and 2002 Axe also created several of the internets first battle rap websites which greatly increased the popularity of the rap battle scene. Battle leagues such as Ell Oh Crew, New Jerusalem, Sacred Society, Ground Zero, and The Chamber were extremely popular among rookie and veteran battlers in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Axe retired with an impressive 44-1 record in 2008. While no longer a battle rapper he still continues to manage the production of Sacred Society albums and mixtapes. Besides creating the artwork for Sacred Society albums several Sacred artists also feature his artwork on their covers including 13adluck's Snortfolio Volume 2 and Franky Goya's Suck My Style.
In August 2105, Axe released the first tracks to the tribute album Random Price to honor the passing of Duck Down records artist Sean Price who is a member of the rap trio Random Axe. The hardcore lyrics of Axe along with carefully selected Sean Price instrumentals will undoubtedly make it a favorite among Axe and Sean Price fans who have been waiting several years for new music from the artist.
Sacred Society Battle League
In 1999, battlers Fam Nice and Axe who were members of Ell Oh Crew, branched out to create the forum style version of battle rap that is currently used today with their leagues Sacred Society (formerly known as New Jerusalem). Those sites conducted battle rap in both audio and text. The design of Sacred Society resulted in what was the best looking graphic based hip hop website of the 1990s and one of the first online hip hop news sites. However, it was first and foremost a battle league. Sacred Society had interviews, hip hop news, tournaments with rookie and pro levels known as the Boot Camp and the Gravel Pit and big yearly tournaments were known as Pay-Per-View. There was a cash pot and the winner took all. PPV 8 was the last of these tournaments. Battlers were also ranked and competed for the top position known as the "Supreme Lyricist" on a monthly basis. The "Esco Award" was given on a monthly basis as well for the emcee with the grimiest, darkest content and style.
Sacred Society was the most respected and well know battle league of its time and its format has been copied by almost every known battle league to date, including URL which today is purported to be the most popular battle league. From the late 90s until 2008 Sacred Society was without a doubt the premier battle league and a notable part of Hip hop history as it pertains to being at the forefront of the new age internet boom. Much like Steve Jobs did with Apple computers; the modernization, competition format, and design contributions of Sacred Society sent a giant ripple through the battle rap universe. When online video technology advanced battle leagues such as Grind Time, King of the Dot, and Don't Flop essentially took over as the upmost mainstream battle rap leagues, but Sacred Society will always be remembered as the battle league which brought modernization and mass media popularity to the lyrical sport of battle rap.
Discography
Singles
Collaborative albums
Veterans charity organization
Young who is also a veteran of the Iraq War founded the non-profit organization OTH Veterans Services which is the only veterans support organization in the U.S. that totally specializes in assisting the 1.2 million veterans with an Other Than Hononorable discharge.
According to the organizations website, Young started the project due to wide spread misinformation about OTH discharges and lack of support from the VA and other veterans organizations for OTH discharged veterans. Many of these veterans suffer from Posttraumatic stress disorder and combat injuries for which they receive no support or VA disability compensation.
As of November 2015, the organization claims to have helped return nearly $106 million worth of benefits to veterans and their families and won a 2014 Marquis Who's Who Award for Outstanding Veterans Services.