T
he best hip hop you’ve never heard. That’s a good way to describe the masterful rhyming and progressively catchy music by Boston-area hip hop artist known as The WID. His mysterious moniker is a variation of the nickname he received as a teenager, when his friends bestowed upon him the name “Widdla.” Regardless of what the name means, it’s a name you should get to know.
The offspring of an anti-war hippie mother and a father who was a Marine, The WID became obsessed with hip hop in the early 1990s, where he spent much of his time lost within his headphones. His first music involved creating rhythms on the built-in percussion pads of his My First Sony tape player and from fourth grade on, he wrote notebooks full of rhymes and verses, occasionally performing songs for his classmates.
The future was wide open for The WID, until the universe stepped in to mess his world up a bit and leave his life hanging in the balance. At 12 years old, he was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system. A year of chemo, radiation and God-awful side-effects followed. Even though he was sick, The WID proved to be a fighter. Now, more than a decade later, he’s beaten cancer and has come through it smarter and stronger.
It’s been said that everything happens for a reason, and perhaps that childhood battle blessed him with the passion and introspection that permeates his music. He went from tapping out beats on his cassette player to drumming and rapping in various garage bands throughout junior high and high school. The WID began evolving as an MC and as a solo artist, and his reputation grew among friends for his rhyming ability. They encouraged him to enter a rap battle – out of 100 MCs, he came in second place and won some studio time.
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