What Happened to Hip Hop Artist Rainman?
All artists who make it in the music world do so first and foremost because they love making music. There may be plenty of other factors that get incorporated into the ultimate scheme of who gets the breaks and who has the hits, but at the heart of every single musical success story is a deep-rooted passion for music. This is mostly because the music business is difficult to enter; the people who eventually make it have all struggled with the ups and downs of trying to launch a career in a competitive industry. It requires a stick-to-itiveness which can be hard to maintain in the face of dealing with real life. Hip hop artist Rainman seemed for awhile like he was going to be one of the ones that made it but things about him have been quiet for a couple of years so maybe it wasn’t meant to be after all.
Rainman did manage to persevere in music through the toughest of times, sticking to it even when the going got rough and success in the industry seemed a long way off. Although he had some early breaks along the way, his life was one which included hustling on the streets as often as it included making his music. When things got difficult in his Jackson, Mississippi home, Rainman would turn to where the money could be made. But he never abandoned his love for music.
He says that he began to get serious about making music when he was about sixteen. But by then, he’d already been dealing drugs for a couple of years, and it would be the theme of his young life to alternate between the two lifestyles. In the mid-90’s, when he was known as Rated X, Rainman had some success getting his first underground single played by local DJs. This led to an opportunity to work as the lead rapper for a group called Wildliffe Society which released an album, Jack Town 601, with TVT’s Blunt Recordings.
However, Wildliffe Society eventually dispersed, and although Rainman released several more singles under the name Xtiano, he quickly found that success in the music industry can disappear in a flash. Needing cash, Rainman turned back to the streets, getting some money and some life experience while pursuing his music as much as he could. The persistence paid off. In 2003, he finally got his next break when his friend Robin gave him the chance to perform at an NBA All Star show. One thing led to another and his demo ended up in the hands of Marc Tanner, head of Chime Entertainment.
Rainman’s EP, Bigga Than Life, was released in 2007. I t was a testimony to the success that an artist can have when the love of making music leads to the persistence that keeps someone playing even when the rest of life is trying to get into the way. In other words, the rap album serves as inspiration to those kids who are on the streets today, trying to figure out how they’re going to get out of hustling and on to doing more lucrative things with their lives. With street-wise lyrics, which resonated in the hearts of those who have known the harder side of hustling, Bigga Than Life had rap that could reach the ears of kids with a message about being bigger than the life that currently surround them.
It’s still possible to find that EP online for download but I haven’t been able to locate any information about what happened to Rainman after the initial success of the EP died down and then faded away. I’m curious … what happened to Rainman?
