Shawn Rainey, later to be known as Duce I Rae, wasborn Jan. 7th 1979 in the Bay area of California on a rainy morning.Shawn was the 2nd child to his parents Stan and Brenda; his olderbrother died in a still birth. So he grew up as the oldest of 3 boys inhis family. At the age of 8 or so his father Stan left the family for aperiod of 4 years. Thus, at a very young age, Shawn took up the role ofman of the house, looking after his brother in the evening while hismom worked to try to pay the bills.
Staying active in sports early on provided apositive distraction for him, but things started to change in theteenage years. At the age of 13, Shawns family moved to WA State andthey found a place in Vancouver. As Shawn grew older, his own thoughtsand choices did not reflect his parents ideals, resulting in dailyconflict. It progressively got worse, exploding into screaming andregular physical confrontation. As the family fell into turmoil, Shawnfelt that it was tearing the bonds between him and his family.
After high school he met his future daughtersmother April, fell in love with her, and soon they were livingtogether. In 2001 they welcomed into the world a beautiful daughter,whom they named Kyleigh. This grew to be too much stress on therelationship over the next 6 months, and it wasn't long before Aprilwas caught cheating by a close friend of Shawns. Soon after that, sheleft him and disappeared with his daughter.
Devastated that his baby and love was gone,Shawn was left torn and miserable as this was his entire family at thetime. During the same year he went through a major legal problem thatstill haunts him today. Shawn was caught racing his car on city streetsand was pulled over. In the process of doing so, he smashed his frontend of the car on a curb. He sat and waited for the officer to catch upto him, and when he finally arrived at the scene, he got out and beatShawn with the butt of his gun. He was arrested for attempting to eludethe police and was forced to sign paperwork admitting to this crime. Asthe court process continued he was told by his lawyer that his bestcourse of action would be to plead guilty as he was looking at morethan two years in county lockup. So now at 22 with his first felony,Shawn was really starting to make a name for himself.
Depressed from the circumstances that hadcompounded to chang his life, he was often found partying with hisfriends. Before they passed out from the drinking, they started tofreestyle about their problems. This was a way to vent for Shawn, andafter a while he came to the realization along with his friends that hecould record some of the things that he was rapping. He researchedonline and started downloading software for this new-found talent. Soonhe was recording his own songs and making his own beats.
In early 2003 he went to Canada near NiagaraFalls to be with his new girl Kim. Unbeknownst to Shawn, there werewarrants out for his arrest all over the west coast for evading court.It turned out that the courts failed to notify Shawn of his court datesregarding his case; however, in late 2004, all the warrants weredropped due to help from lawyers in California. Shawn was able toreturn in late 2004 to Vancouver WA.
While in Canada, he continued with his music,making new friends that were from the same genre of music. He was ableto share with them what knowledge he had gained though the years ofexperience and other people as well. Shawn spent any spare time he hadrecording, learning the arts of mixing and mastering, and making dowith less than the best audio equipment. He has had to work harder tolearn more efficient ways of achieving quality work. Since thebeginning of his underground career, he has been putting his musiconline for people to listen to. Currently he is one of the most playedunderground artists on the internet with a ever extending globalfanbase. Shawn is striving to sign for a record deal with a major labelto put him in a position where he can, in the future, help othersachieve their dreams of success in the music industry.
