Don Cipher who's real name is Don Pruitt came to Memphis with a pedigree as a performer. It was also his uncle who helped Cipher, originally known as Don P, come up with a more suitable handle. "It had a nice ring to it, and I looked up the definition and liked it -- a secret writing that only the writer or author has the key to unlocking it," he says of Cipher. "In my writing I use that type of technique. When I write, instead of straight poetic scheme, I try to make them into some kind of puzzle that ends up getting solved in the end." Cipher's performing debut came in junior high school. He was asked to write a rhyme as part of an English assignment and ended up performing it in front of the entire student body. He was immediately addicted to the attention. Early on Cipher's parents split, and he moved to Memphis with his father. As a student at Westside High School, Cipher began to forge his own sound, a more lyrical approach that stood out from the city's usual crunk. "My style is a poetic style, for lack of a better term," he says. "If you were to take away the beat, you could still feel my songs and the meaning of my songs without it. I try to make them as potent without the beat as with it because early on I didn't have access to beats." "Whoever takes the time out to come see what I'm doing, to come see me perform, they'll appreciate it," he says. "I have a strong belief they'll be attached to what I've got going because I have such a genuine love for the music."