Nord1kone grew up just south of San Francisco and received a thorough indoctrination in Hip Hop from his two older brothers - he was a fixture at local record stores at the tender age of five. He continued to explore music through high school, studying various waves and schools of hip-hop as his own creativity simmered. Collecting cutty Bay-area rap tapes put the finishing touches on his own range of influences, and music from Hiero (Oakland), Bored Stiff (San Francisco), Jedi Knight Circle (Santa Cruz), Constylations (San Jose), and Araknophobix (Half Moon Bay) made it clear just what kind of music he wanted to make, hardcore underground Hip Hop, with flavor from the Bay but influence from both east and west coasts. Soon after he was connecting with some of the very same artists he had been listening to, and his own sound began to take shape. A few years later, he connected with LMT Break and The IMF and together they transformed his constantly-evolving record label idea into a crew, the Outsiders Syndicate.