Born as Jamel Taishan Pope Jr raised in South Bronx, influenced by artists such as Nas, Joey Bada$$ and the late Capital Steez. His older brother Luis (who was also a rapper who called himself LamboLou) was the one who introduced him to Hip Hop when he played him 'My Name Is' by Eminem . Upon discovering Wu-Tang clan and being fascinated with the Japanese culture he decided to don the name Shogun (after he decided Samurai Tai was too cheesy) after hearing Inspectah Deck use it in a verse. "Battle-scarred Shogun/Explosion when my pen hits..." The Grandmaster part of his name came from Mortal Kombat (Grandmaster Hanzo Hasashi was his name before dying and becoming Scorpion) as well as nod to his Hip-Hop forefathers who hold the title. After graduating high school, Grandmaster was arrested for robbery and petty larceny, and was sentenced to 5 years probation. Within that 5 years he met Blayne The MellowKing (previously known as The Wanderer) and began working on music together. Shogun's music is often described as nostalgic, old-school, and heavily boom-bap influenced. Often times laced with razor sharp, relatable, multi-syllable lyrics like when he tells you "....the flow is always lethal" on '121' or something as simple as "when I was a teen my mission really was the honor roll/instead I was in the back of the class tryna be comical". Old school or not, the Grandmaster makes it his business to deliver.