“Persistence beats resistance” is the motto that Danny Gomez lives by and has exemplified throughout his life. Born in Los Angeles and raised in South Gate, CA to Guatemalan immigrants, Danny grew up with the duality of Latin and American culture. The sounds of his father playing guitar, piano, and singing classic Spanish tunes filled the home. His father’s love of music created an atmosphere for Danny’s love of music to develop. He was drawn to the melodies he heard and would often go to sleep with them in his head. But as soon as he stepped outside, the grimy sounds of the emerging West Coast hip-hop scene took hold of his ears and attention.

Growing up in South Gate, Danny’s next door neighbor always had parties going on with, who would later become, the legendary hip-hop group Cypress Hill in attendance. One of his earliest music memories is of Cypress Hill’s Sen Dog handing him some of the group’s cassette tapes to listen to. Danny’s parents tried to guard him from the negative aspects of his environment, and raised him in a strict Jehovah’s Witness home. He had an older friend whose family were also Jehovah’s Witnesses, and he and Danny spent a lot of time together. Unbeknown to their parents, they would leave the house and go to nearby Compton to hang out. Being in the middle of the emerging rap scene, as a kid running into artists like DJ Quik and MC Eiht around the neighborhood was a regular thing. It was during this time that Danny discovered his talents.

At the young age of 13, Danny started to write his own songs and perform them at backyard parties. His writing process at this time was to think of clever ways to talk about growing up and his aspirations of having money and cars. He would fill notebooks and post-its with lyrics, and would then record himself rapping over instruments on a dual cassette karaoke machine. At 16, he caught a gun charge that forced him to stop attending high school, which changed the trajectory of his life. Being catapulted into the workforce early helped Danny to stay out of trouble. Music became a sort of therapy for him during this time. He started to take it more seriously when he met a man that owned a recording studio. One day he went over to record and ended up coming up with a hook and lyrics for a song that he titled “Sexy Girl,” over an MC Eiht instrumental. After record