History
Through his childhood, Shimura lived in Tokyo, Japan, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Berkeley, California. He is the son of Japanese author, Takao Shimura, and an Italian/Jewish-American union organizer, Charlotte Arzio-Shimura. Shimura's parents were divorced by age 2, at which point he moved with his mother from Tokyo to Salt Lake City, Utah, and then finally to Berkeley California.
Shimura attended Berkeley public schools from the time he was 6 yrs old, often excelling in creative writing. "I think I got my gift from my father. Not only the talent, but the work ethic and lifestyle. Being an author and all, I saw how hard he worked, the hours he kept, and how much focus it required." He began dabbling in Hip-Hop and rapping when he entered Berkeley High School. He left after one year, and entered Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland. He left again after his sophomore year, and graduated from St. Mary's High School, located in Berkeley, California in 1990. Shimura began his hip hop career while at college at University of California, Davis, where he was a DJ at the college station KDVS. He is a founding member of the seminal, independent record label, Quannum Projects. He came up with fellow Bay Area and UC Davis companions Gift of Gab, and Chief Xcel of Blackalicious, Lateef the Truthspeaker, DJ Shadow, Joseph Patel, and Jeff Chang (formerly known as DJ Zen).
He changed his stage name from Asia Born to Lyrics Born in 1995 citing the desire to have his career based on his merits as opposed to his ethnicity.
Read more about this topic: Lyrics Born
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“What would we not give for some great poem to read now, which would be in harmony with the scenery,—for if men read aright, methinks they would never read anything but poems. No history nor philosophy can supply their place.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In nature, all is useful, all is beautiful. It is therefore beautiful, because it is alive, moving, reproductive; it is therefore useful, because it is symmetrical and fair. Beauty will not come at the call of a legislature, nor will it repeat in England or America its history in Greece. It will come, as always, unannounced, and spring up between the feet of brave and earnest men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)