Encore

Hailing from Milpitas, California, underground rapper Encore first encountered hip-hop during his youth and experimented with several of its core practices, such as DJing, breaking and popping, plus graffing, before concluding that rhyming provided the most affordable yet powerfully expressive route into the culture.

Following high school and a stint in the army, Encore launched the Vinyl Miners alongside two longtime associates, DJ/producer Architect and emcee 50 Grand, though the latter soon moved to L.A. Architect and Encore maintained their partnership, fusing the DJ’s inventive beats and samples with Encore’s thoughtful rhymes, frequently shaped by Islam along with ancient African and Egyptian studies. The rapper issued singles on Certified Records and Stones Throw Records before guesting on Dan “The Automator” Nakamura and Prince Paul’s Handsome Boy Modeling School album So... How’s Your Girl?. The West Coast rapper’s debut album, Self-Preservation, surfaced in 2000 through 75 Ark Records.