THE ARTIST

ABOUT
BAKES

Most artists can tell you the moment music chose them. Bakes' version starts before memory: a toddler in front of the television, rehearsing songs, playing toy instruments, performing entire concerts for the living room and walking out of the hallway for the encore. The oldest of four kids raised in San Ramon, in the East Bay, he grew up watching rappers the way other kids watched astronauts. To him they were superheroes: the vocabulary, the rhythm, the poetry, the intelligence, and the fashion and edge that came with it.

College at San Diego State was supposed to answer the practical questions: a career, a path, a place in the workforce. Music kept interrupting. He started writing and recording, and taught himself the business one moving part at a time, and the pull he had felt since childhood turned into conviction: he had something to say to the world, and something to prove.

He has run it himself ever since. Self-managed and self-funded, Bakes built his career from the ground up, bringing in the right people for production, visuals, and marketing while keeping the direction his own. What came out of it is a catalog audiences describe as modern hip-hop purism: intricate, message-driven records from a rapper's rapper. The fanbase runs wide because the music gives everyone a door in: kids look up to him, peers respect him, and older generations appreciate the craftsmanship.