Born in Los Angeles, CA, on July 1, 1981, the multi-talented spent most of her life in Orlando, FL, where she took various dance, music, and acting lessons. As a teenager she appeared onscreen (including in Nickelodeon's short-lived My Brother and Me), but she still decided to study theater at a university, settling on SUNY-Purchase. It was in college, upon the suggestion of a friend, that she first began to write her own spoken word work, and by 2002 she had appeared on ' Def Poetry Jam. In 2004 her debut mixtape, It's Bigger Than Hip-Hop, Vol. 1, a combination of her rhymed and sung material, hit the streets, and soon , who was calling herself , had lined up a gig on MTV2 and Sirius Radio (where she hosted the daily Hip-Hop Nation show), joined the //DJ Sense-helmed Aphilliates crew, and published a book of poetry, as well as obtained her master's degree in African-American studies from Columbia University. In 2007 she took over for the departed in 's tour, put out the Mick Boogie mixtape Still Sucka Free, Vol. 1, and in December of that same year, released Life Experience, the first of a planned EP trilogy, with Love Experience and Live Experience set to follow. ~ Marisa Brown

Amanda Diva

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