Question 1

WHO?

Accepted Answer

The section you’ve found yourself in offers the captivating story of a driven hip-hop artist and producer hailing from the modest town of Tyler, Texas. This talented lyricist and beatmaker's journey is an inspiring tale of resilience and unwavering dedication to her craft.

Question 2

EARLY YEARS:

Accepted Answer

Born Erin Emily Wheeler, Erinem's roots run deep in Tyler. Her parents left the town when she was just a toddler, moving her to the city of Dallas, but fate would one day bring her back to the very house she was born in, where she now lives. 
Growing up on the outskirts of Dallas, Erinem faced a multitude of challenges. From kindergarten to high school, she confronted adversity and rejection, being expelled from multiple schools in a single semester, all in her 9th grade year.

Question 3

EDUCATION:

Accepted Answer

Erinem’s educational journey was anything but traditional.

At 15, she made the bold decision to legally emancipate herself from her parents, and while the reasons behind that remain private, the move set her on an independent path early in life. After being expelled from nearly every high school she attended, she decided to take a different route. Instead of returning to school, she found a job, got her own apartment, and earned her GED.

By 16, Erinem had already proven herself academically, crushing the SATs and earning a merit scholarship to an Ivy League school. She spent the next five years living in East Harlem, New York City, studying poetry - which she grew to find less and less interesting with every passing day. Erinem recalls often remarking that it felt like a "mute art" which even she didn't fully understand. Erinem was not aware of it at the time, but it was the music that was missing from the rhymes she read and wrote in poetry class.

While living in East Harlem - an entirely new and different environment from the one she grew up in - Erinem became deeply entrenched in the rap scene. She spent many days over at the nearby projects, where she would practice freestyle rapping and battling. She would come to a point where most her free time was spent there, building friendships and learning about the music she had missed out on growing up.

With her already-developed aptitude for rhyming and poetry, and a newfound talent in musical production, Erinem fell hard for hip hop.

Within the time she lived in New York, her entire life's trajectory would change for the better. She was in love with rhymes and rhythm, with the culture, and with the genre. For her, there would be no turning back.

Despite earning her graduate degree in writing from a renowned private school, she was uninterested in anything the degree had to offer her. Soon after graduate school, Erinem became a member of American MENSA, which is a society for those in the top 2% of intellectual elites. While there were many paths her life could have taken, given these accolades, none of them were especially meaningful to her. Only one pursuit mattered, and she could not be detoured. Erinem knew deep down that her heart belonged to writing and rapping rhymes, and not to academics.

Music was her real calling, and nothing was going to stop her from pursuing it fully.

Question 4

MUSIC CAREER BEGINS:

Accepted Answer

Knowing that a full-time job would hinder her artistic aspirations, she made the bold decision to finally leave the Harlem block she loved, and return to her hometown of Tyler, Texas. There, she agreed to move into her parents' old duplex, tasked with managing the property in exchange for the opportunity to occupy one side of the home rent-free. For the most formative years of Erinem's career, she operated as a landlord for the adjoined side on her parent’s behalf, all while spending her days making music in her tiny home studio.

This was a difficult change, but it would turn out or be critical for her growth as an artist. Leaving Harlem, which she loved, was strategically the only option she had, as moving back to her parent's rundown duplex would allow her the freedom to give all her time, attention, and what little money she had, back into her music.

In the small, rundown town of Tyler, Erinem has found focus and inspiration. She's transformed her living space into a home studio, where she tirelessly hones her skills and crafts her unique sound. Moving from Harlem back to Texas after so many years was at first an isolating experience for Erinem, being physically separated from the hip-hop community she had in New York.

But, the people of Tyler kept to themselves, perhaps seeing her an outsider, as her values and pursuits were noticeably different from the other residents of the small Texas town. Living a low-key life, this hardly mattered to the reclusive young artist. Erinem has remained fully committed to her music, likely due to the lack of distractions or interruptions.