Hailing from the South Side of Chicago, Illinois is a beat-maker who excels at moody boom-bap soundscapes that drip with dusty soul, ominous jazz and cracklin’ percussion.
Relating his start in this game he said “once I heard The Low End Theory by Tribe I was hooked. I started digging to find out what samples they used on that album and was rockin’ vinyl heavy as a listener. “
However it was his interactions with a famous emcee from his hood that put the battery in his back. “I actually grew up around Common and his crew. They’re older than me but my neighbor went to high school with Common so he’d come over to hang out and play demos for us young cats from their cars.”
Getting his production jones on, he eventually received some mentoring from No ID, who was starting a label at that point. As Onaje recalls “I was producing for one of the groups that he was looking at for his label. He put me onto mad game and then introduced me to Boogz Da Beast (who now produces platinum hits for G.O.O.D Music) who put me onto a lot of game.”
With an impressive resume under his belt, he has produced tracks featuring the likes of Benny The Butcher, Dave East, Kool Keith, Prince Po, Asun Eastwood, Daniel Son, Jamal Gasol, Recognize Ali and Bugzy Nino.
As a member of the Hometeam crew he frequently collaborates with squad-mates Lupus Dei, GeneralBackPain, Killy Shoot and Deuce Hennessy.