Growing up amid hardship in an Auckland suburb distant from South Central Los Angeles nevertheless produced striking parallels for Sydney Diamond, known professionally as Young Sid. He spent his early years sharing a mattress with siblings in an impoverished neighborhood, his father dealing drugs and his mother battling alcoholism. American hardcore hip-hop mirrored his reality, prompting an eleven-year-old Young Sid to decide his future after hearing N.W.A’s “Gangsta Gangsta” on his brother’s copy. He assembled his first group, Murder Squad, whose performances earned reprimands from community-school teachers for delivering Ice Cube-style rhymes while still children. By fifteen he had assembled the more seasoned Smashproof lineup with Tyree and Deach, reaching the finals of the Coke Gig Southside competition. The trio signed with Move the Crowd during Young Sid’s opening university semester; he promptly left studies to record The Truth for MTC alongside U.S. producer Cochise. Fellow Smashproof members contributed, as did Chamillionaire, whose appearance resulted from Tyree’s work on a remix of the hit “Ridin’.” The album found strong favor across New Zealand.
