I, Malik "Dwayne" Smith, being of sound mind and body, have taken an oath to create entertaining music and products. Sworn in the game at the tender age of 15 in the year 1985, my first professional experience came that same year. I was taken under the wing of Robert "Bobby" Wright who had produced that summers banger "I'm Never Gonna Let You Go" by Chandra Simmons, a diva from Brooklyn, NY signed to Sleeping Bag Records. During this period of my life I created featured rap lyrics for specified songs while learning to maneuver around the studio and learning the professional recording process.

At this age of 15 years old I had just moved back to New York after living in Orlando, FL for the last five and a half years. In the 10 grade I attended Springfield High School in Queens, NY, where I met Marcus Hardy and we formed a group called RIP & TEAR. After experimenting with many personas RIP actually became a part of me as I visualized ripping my competition to shreds in a lyrical battle. My years of staying in Orlando helped me groom my musical tastes into a mixture of southern and northern styles. From my view of the hip-hop culture it was sort of like the best of both worlds. Florida has a club, dance or more gangsta (bassy) type sound, and up north New York has more drums, snare and lyrical appeal. In Rosedale, Queens I met Wayne Willis now of Corte’ Media/Life Or Death Entertainment. We were about 15,16 years old and he had just moved from the Bronx and became our beatbox. In the spring of my 11th grade year I was transferred to Newtown High school in East Elmhurst Queens. Here is where I met Corey Hilliard, who later on gave me my first radio interview and radio play when he was working at 105.9 FM in Manhattan, NY. Corey is presently employed by Life Or Death Entertainment.

I graduated from Newtown High school in January 1989.After high school I moved to Far Rockaway, NY with my grandmother where I met Percy Chapman aka Tragedy aka imam Khadafi founder of 25 to Life Entertainment. I was part of Tragedy’s crew and he was under the close watch and veteran eye of Marley Marl, a founder of the world renound Juice Crew. At this time Tragedy had a record deal with A&M records and he released his first solo album which resulted in my first video cameo. "Black and Proud" was the first single off of that album "The intelligent Hoodlum". I gave Percy moral and musical support and input for the next year and a half.

In 1989-91, I continued to gain industry experience through my endeavors with Tragedy. Soon after, we parted ways. For the next 3-4 years, I worked as an apprentice barber in a barbershop in South Jamaica Queens while attending York college, majoring in biology.

In 1994 I started promoting Life or Death Entertainment with the help of Carlton Preston the co-founder. The following year June 1995 we released my first independent single and mixtape. The single was side A "Player Till I Die" and side B was "NYC The Money and the Murder" by RIP featuring Stick N Move a group from Rosedale, Queens. The mixtape had strictly unsigned artists from almost every part of Queens. Quite a few artists from the mixtape went on to run with well known artist. We started promoting logo and tee-shirt design to expand the notoriety of our company. Getting work with Puffy's Daddy's house (a social program), Cool-G Rap (wise guy management), Tragedy (25 to life entertainment), NORE (Thugged Out Entertainment), Leota Blacknor, formerly of Ruff Ryders and now of Virgin Records, just to name a few.

In 1996-2001 I was taken under the wing of Levi Little, an original member of Blackstreet. I opened up shows for him, did roae manager work, assisted with the routine performance for shows, hired and fired musicians, engineered recording sessions, and wrote songs and hooks. I gained a close up view on live instruments and the art of live music performances, as well as video appearances.

2001-2003 I went into a joint venture with Aarron Phillips producer of Pink (the pop artist) for an artist we were developing named Wes Kraven out of Orlando, Fl. I wrote and produced songs for Wes Kraven while recording in SONY studios.

2002-PRESENT We have signed and are developing a group called the ILLSPITTAZ out of Winston Salem, NC and Str8 Business, a solo artist out of Far Rockaway, NY. The ILLSPITTAZ consists of 2 black males and a white male. Currently I am focused on marketing, production, and artist development, as well as internet support.