Early Life
He was raised in Chicago’s South Side neighborhood known as the “Wild 100’s” and is a former member of the widespread Islamic street gang The Blackstone Rangers. In his youth he became friendly with rapper Common. He was self-diagnosed with Dyslexia as a teenager but overcame his learning disability and word-impairment, earning himself a place among the urban intelligentsia. He has evolved over the years from a street hustler into a street poet. His name means "King Joseph" (Malik and Yusuf respectively) in the Arabic language, the liturgical language of Islam.
Read more about this topic: Malik Yusef
Famous quotes related to early life:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)