The question on every avid hip hop follower’s lips is why hasVerb – as he is affectionately called by himself and the masses  - been M.I.A for so long? “Man,” he starts, “With this particular album, everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong.”  This is no exaggeration. Imagine having your album pushed back, rejected, experiencing sampling problems and dealing with a record company where everyone you once dealt with is gone.

Well Proverb did not have to imagine. First the rapper jumped ship from Outrageous Records after releasing his acclaimed debut, The Book Of Proverb. Then he released his sophomore, Manuscript, under the suspect “Three Kings” concept alongside ProKid and Selwyn. Like that album, his new offering, Write Of Passage is released through Gallo Record Company. Even with his natural skill and the talent, drama has not escaped him.

It seems luck has not been on the rapper’s side.  Even the way he wanted to present his mixtape did not go according to plan. “We had struck a deal with a particular network,” he shares, “and we were gonna do an entire campaign to release it, put it up for download, ringtone and what have you….”

But…“Eish and even that fell through, my luck sometimes…” he says as he shakes his head with a smirk as he takes a sip from his Stoney. He has had a dark cloud over his head yet one must commend him and his team on the damage control. All the rejected songs that were put on the mixtape were then put up on his website. He says: “We had the biggest hits on the website on that day that we put it [the mixtape] up.”

Most artists are quick to say that their websites are platforms for them to connect with fans. Is this the case the case for Proverb?  “NO!” he says, almost going across the table to slap me for even thinking that. For him, the site is more for networking purposes  - the fans are a bonus.

What with all the bad luck, it’s a good thing that Proverb’s hustle is nothing to be slept on. He is on TV, radio he even lectures on sound at Damelin. He is a bread winner of note. “Being a father intensified everything about me,” he says. He explains that fatherhood has made him an intense husband, an intense worker, and it has made him more ambitious.

Even when he writes he thinks if he “will be embarrassed at his lyrics if his children were to hear them in the future.” No lie, he is a soppy and dad, and he puts this in his music too. But do not get it twisted he is no emo-rapper. However, although he dismisses the thought of him being “emo” one can notice traces of it on the album….

Write of Passage is probably his most personal albums to date. It seems Proverb the rapper, the father and the husband have all been meshed into one to bring us this quite the mature album. He does admit to writing from personal experiences yet if one were to compare and contrast this to his debut The Book of Proverb (where one got more of Proverb the rapper) , one can see the traces of growth. “Write of Passage is like my transition to manhood” he states.  Proverb said in his raps that this is a new era. And we’re glad to go through the write of passage with him.