ARTICLE CAN BE READ HERE ALSO:
http://www.chicagosrock.com/chicagosrock_launch_issue_007.htm
Born and raised in Chicago, Raven has been in the music business since 1991. At the time he went by the name Infer-red, mainly dealing with rap and hip hop. In 1992, he recorded his first single that was given away around his old neighborhood. Back in '89 he did radio for WKKC, called the young people's network. The show was for kids ages 10-16 and was done on Saturday mornings. Raven did that for about a year before having to leave because his grades were slipping. In 1993 he dropped out of Highschool and started doing part time jobs at retail stores. It wasnt until 1997 that he changed his name to 'Tha Raven' after reading Edgar Allen Poe's tale of the raven. "It was dark, grim and I got so much out of it", he said. The same year, he signed to a local independent record label called Products Of The Streets Entertainment. He didn't get paid for the work done, as he was just happy at the time to be with a label. He was the main producer and done most of the music for the albums released. The CEO of the label knew his style of music and everything went forward from there. He established publishing through BMI and copyrights on his music. In 2001, Raven departed from the label and took time away from music to concentrate on his education because the part time jobs just weren't paying the bills. So in 2002, he went back and got his High School Diploma, and as he says, "You're never to old to learn". In 2003, Raven decided to get back into music and at that time the record label he was with previously was up in the air, so he decided to start his own record label called Eye Of The Storm Records or EOTS Records for short. Raven then went from analog to digital when it came to making music and the label has been around ever since. In late 2005 he decided to stop putting out rap or hiphop albums because of egos and problems with talent, so he reformatted the record label to only deal with Dance music, metal and various styles of music. The only rap group that's still with him after the reformation of the label is a group called The Wackos. In late 2005, he met a metal band called Drudge Puppet, around the same time he was helping the Red Cross raise money for the Katrina Victims. He also met Cystic and Kastasyde through MySpace and those bands were nice enough to donate their time for the benefit. In mid 2006, he started the weekly updated internet radio show Raven Interviews on New Artist Radio which support local and indie music in Chicago and worldwide. There he also interviewed people and bands to help them with exposure. Since regular radio doesn't really support the local and indie scene, he felt it was time to show people that there's real talent in the world. Raven then added the name Eggs & Kegs to the show because he comes on in the mornings. In the same year, the band Drudge Puppet signed to his record label putting out the album Liver Killer. Later that year some things happened with the band, so they agreed to part ways, but still remained very good friends and support each other. Also in 2006, he established the non profit Eye Of The Storm, Inc. which is a non profit organization based in the state of Illinois. Their mission is to help victims affected from disasters, under privileged families and the homeless community. He put on various fund raiser events to raise money in the event an emergency happened, the funds would be there. That same year, Raven focused on writing original music for independent film makers or anyone that needed background music for anything. Toward the end of the 2006, he started doing Rap Radio on AM 1470 and did that for a while until he decided a change in his life was needed. So he then relocated to Colorado. In 2007 an internet radio station called World Rock Radio heard about his show through one of the DJ's who is also a Chicago native who goes by the name Brat Prince. From there, the rest is history. Raven is very happy where his life is going this year and hopes to achieve his goal of establishing his non-profit ventures in the states of Colorado, Florida, Boston and Australia.
In closing, Raven states: "...I just want to let everyone know that I return all messages, I love to network and anything I can do to help out local bands no matter where they are in the world, just write and it's done. If bands wanna submit me music for my shows on New Artist Radio and World Rock Radio, please email the music or write me via myspace: www.myspace.com/raveninterviews
Raven Interviews Eggs & Kegs Show on New Artist Radio: www.raveninterviews.com or www.newartistradio.net
Raven's Eggs & Kegs Show on World Rock Radio: www.worldrockradio.com
Mondays: 6pm - 8pm Eastern time & Midnight - 2am Eastern
Thursday: 10pm - Midnight Eastern
