Steven James thought moving to Prince George would cripple his budding music career. The Vancouver-based musician, singer and rapper was getting a buzz around his name in the Lower Mainland, doing regular gigs, opening for Karl Wolf, and getting signed to independent label Up In Your Basement Records.
He had to make a lifestyle change however. He was addicted to drugs, but fighting back. He was partying too much, and hurting from it.
He had already come a long way to climb out of that deep pit, which started years earlier, but he needed stronger roots. His mom lived in Prince George and had always been a positive influence on him in his music and his upbringing, so he turned to her.
That was in September.
"I thought I'd be screwed but to my surprise, the music opportunities were 10-fold up here," James told The Citizen only days away from his biggest break to date, opening for Eminem's backup group D12.
It isn't his first major performance since he arrived here. The first was a dance party at the Pine Centre Mall. He did two shows at the Rum Jungle, one of them an opening slot for Evil Ebenezer. He also got to warm the engines for visiting headliners Swollen Members and Belly.
All of this is under his stage name: Verbz In Tha Mix. If you go back to his darker days early on he called himself Verbal Murda but it wasn't a marketing move that caused him to drop that moniker.
"It was then that I started to get into drugs, and I put myself into a really bad scene," he said. "I wasn't healthy, it was a harsh lifestyle and I was in bad shape. I was doing bad things. I realized Verbal Murda was a dark side of me and I needed to change that because I am a positive person and I was trying to get through to that in myself. I transitioned, as a person, so I needed a name that better reflected who I really was. Verbs are action words, and that's my music: words in action."
He put out his first CD, called Origin.ill in 2007. He was living in Quesnel during that time, and was in the worst period of delinquency and health his young life.
"Back in Quesnel I was mean-minded person. I was using, I was selling drugs, I was with harsh people around me, my rap sounded mean," he said.
His mom intervened and sent him to live in Vancouver with his grandfather. He started to make his own first steps towards cleaning his life up, and turned to music to occupy himself. There he met a fellow rapper and beat producer named J True who mentored him on the music business and verbal skills.
He did his first live performance with his friend, and the momentum started to build.
Another album, Life As We Know It, followed. He was constantly doing online rap battles, to hone his vocaleeze. He started looking into obtaining original beats. Music was starting to get serious and the nasty life was getting less attractive.
After coming to Prince George, he hooked up with a local performer and new collaborator named Ace, and the Wrekneyes crew.
Verbz In Tha Mix took part in the Making It Happen Mix Tape project, a collection of Prince George rap talent. He was nesting well in the local rap scene. James is feeling strong about the development of his songwriting, his rap skills, and the beats his is laying down with the vocal lines he creates.
"There is a lot of talent in Prince George. Quesnel is doing big things too," he said.
He and Ace are planning some future activities around the region to build the fan base. He has a song available now - Unstoppable - that is getting a lot of positive attention from fans.
The best chance to hear it is Saturday night at CN Centre just before D12 takes the stage. Full information is available on Verbz In Tha Mix on Facebook, Twitter and the Reverb Nation website.
