Bio Continued…
Around the late nineties, having always been a fan of music, Raspy and his music partners, which included the local heavy weight DJ, Big Rich, started “free-styling” over 12 inch instrumentals in their hometown projects. Although their town started to embrace them, their music venture would only last about 6 months. Unfortunately, the drug trade would once again ensnare him within its grip.
Seeking a way out of the drug life, in 2002 he accepted a job working offshore where he became a captain of the second largest offshore boat company in the world. However, once again he would throw it all away for the allure of DRUGS!! Eventually, his risky behavior caught up with him and he was charged with the possession of cocaine with the intent to distribute. As a result, Harold was handed a prison sentence of 10 years and suspend eight. Subsequently, in his favor, he ended up actually only serving 11 months plus five years of probation. If you ask him now about that period of his life, he will quickly tell you that,
“I was Young, Dumb, and Greedy!! I caused a lot of hurt to my family, others, and myself. I played the game, got caught, and I must pay the cost for that. Should’ve used my intelligence for other things. I don’t blame anyone for my situation though. Not my Dad not being there, and not society. Made my bed, so I must lay in it”.
Owning up to his mistakes to face them head on is a characteristic that he says he works on a daily basis.
In Fall of 2009, fresh from serving his jail sentence, a family owned barbershop/studio would give birth to who the world now knows as RASPY RAWLS!! He had volunteered to drop a verse on a compilation that was in the works. Raspy’s request garnered laughs from everyone in the room, even his nephew. However, Raspy paid no mind to their heckling, and stepped away for about 30 minutes to write his verse. When he came back to the recording booth, mysteriously all the equipment would not work. Everyone decided to leave the studio except Raspy.
A few hours later, fellow artist and close friend, J. Frank, showed up at the studio. Raspy knew that J. Frank had experience with recording equipment, and eventually he was able to lay down his verse. However, he saved it until the next day when everyone was back at the studio. Upon hearing the verse, AJ, who is the barbershop/studio owner, demanded that Raspy put that rare voice and lyricism to good use.
In January 2010, Raspy recorded his first song, ‘Start A Fight’ ft. Kid’Oh and Hometown Legend B-Dub of IBG. It was recorded at the big brother studio, All Work No Play Recordings in Lafayette, Louisiana. By June 2010, he released his first project entitled, Voice Recognition. However, four months later is when life took a turn of events for Raspy and he just couldn’t catch a break. Everything was going wrong in his life. Raspy ended up breaking down crying and called on the only one who could help him out, THE MOST HIGH!! He asked the Lord for forgiveness in all his wrong doings, and it was granted along with a mission, which was: TO USE THAT VOICE AND LYRICISM TO TEACH AND LEAD THE WORLD!! Immediately, Raspy got back in the lab to pin a new project. Before the end of the following month, ‘The Feast PreMixtape’ was released. A six-track mixtape that gloriously told of his new mission given from the Most High, along with all the knowledge he had been attaining. Raspy Rawls was now awakened, and there was and has been no turning back ever since.
Excited about his new mission, Raspy began to seek more knowledge and promote unity and change to all who would listen. He went on to release two more projects, Bait, A Fisherman of Men in 2011, and Politics in 2012. Countless radio interviews and blog features followed. During this process, Raspy teamed up with fellow artist Jetpack and his entire movement. Taking a back seat to his own music career to help push the entire movement, allowed him more time to read and research. Being vocal about the atrocities going on around the world would lead him to having a major following in the conscious community. In turn, Raspy created an information forum with a group of conscious people that he met online. He named it SCBIA (pronounced skuh-bee-uh) CENTRAL, after his slogan SHYTX CRAZY BUT I AIN’T!! The mission was to allow like minds a place to interact and share knowledge with no restrictions.
