Xtortion Tha Don is an American rapper. Born Gabriel Owusu in 1980 in Gary Indiana. Owusu was raised in Gary, Indiana until the age of 13, when his his parents moved him to Springfield, Illinois to avoid the gangs and violence of impoverished Gary, Indiana. At a young age, Xtortion had a love for hip hop, noting some of his early influences in hip hop as: N.W.A., Ice Cube, Spice 1, The Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac to name a few. Through his high school years Xtortion was an accomplished freestyle artist, dazzling friends and schoolmates with his uncanny ability to freestyle rap lyrics on command or to just about any instrumental. “It was then that I decided that music was something I wanted to get into” says Xtortion. Upon graduation Xtortion joined the United States Marine Corps, serving seven years in the Armed Forces. “I used to freestyle on base and a lot of my fellow service men thought i should actually pursue a career in music, but at that time it was only fun for me, just something I could do really good, I never took it seriously” explains Xtortion. Upon his discharge from the Armed Forces in 2005, Xtortion teamed up with a childhood friend who owned a record label, it was at this time that Xtortion Tha Don was born