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At the tender age of seventeen he reigns supreme in the still underground artform of local freestyle rap. The ‘talk’ is that he is so lyrically gifted he can put to rhyme any object or situation thrown in front of him – not only with class and finesse, but with flawless diction and an effortless wit beyond his years. Its enough to make you stand up and toast his talent, whether or not you are a fan of hiphop. Lately his face, still bearing mommy’s milk as they say, is popping up all over the internet, enjoying favourable reviews. The young St Mary’s College student has also been featured on Synergy TV and CCM channel 3, and if the response of the media is anything to go by, may very well be the first son of the soil to take local rap to mainstream listenership.
Born July 1st 1991, this ‘swift-spitter’ whose real name is Ronald Verasammy, has been rapping since the age of six when a deejay cousin of his had him imbibing the likes of Tupac, Biggie Smalls, Nas and others day in day out. His stage name is a modification made on his middle name, Max, by a cousin on his wedding day many years ago. And he has an additional sobriquet – one bestowed upon him recently by an awestruck audience at a private going away party – Young god. “Tupac has Machiavelli, Nas is the God Son, and Jay Z is literally “J-Hova” … “the Pope John Paul of Y’all.” “They put me right up there with the gods of the rap game. They give me that name because they say I better than ‘Weezy’.” Better – or quickly getting there! For as he says in one of his songs “Weezy couldn’t rap like me at sixteen!!!”
At fifteen VMax took the Synergy Face Off Friday competition hands down, his craft carefully honed from thousands of practice hours, searching for right words, challenging himself to find lines for the most arbitrary things under the sun. Hailing from Santa Cruz, he remembers his little stint living in New York, being the young upstart other inner city rhymers would battle at Castle Hill Projects in the Bronx – the same place Fat Joe grew up. Explaining his freestyle rap as “essentially extempore put in fastforward,” connosieurs of the artform will be elated to know that Vmax has taken his ability to the next professional level – and is no longer doing it merely “off the top of the dome.” Dreaming” produced by Beebo, a track about rising in the face of glaring obstacles, and The Need, articulating the artist’s impressions on modern day materialism, and produced by DLL – will give the eager hip-hop starved listeners out there a dose of what this young poet has to offer.