Dumile was born in 1971, in
London, England, the son of a
Trinidadian mother and a
Zimbabwean father with an older brother Markham Temple whom he often gives much credit for many of his accomplishments.
[1] He moved with his family to New York and was raised in
Long Beach, New York. As
Zev Love X, he formed the group
KMD in 1988 with his younger brother
DJ Subroc and another MC called Rodan. When Rodan left the group, Zev found another MC to replace Rodan named Onyx the Birthstone Kid.
[1] A&R rep Dante Ross learned of KMD through the hip hop group
3rd Bass, and signed the group to
Elektra Records.
[2] Dumile and KMD's recorded debut came on 3rd Bass's song "The Gas Face" from
The Cactus Album,
[1] followed in 1991 with KMD's album
Mr. Hood, which became a minor hit through its singles "Peachfuzz", "Who Me?" and heavy video play on cable TV's
Yo! MTV Raps and
Rap City.
Subroc was struck and killed by a car in 1993 while attempting to cross the
Nassau Expressway before the release of a second KMD album, titled
Black b*stards.
[1] The group was subsequently dropped from Elektra Records that same week. Before the release of the album, it was shelved due to controversy over its
cover art,
[2] which featured a cartoon of a stereotypical
pickaninny or
sambo character being hung from the
gallows. After the death of his brother, Dumile retreated from the hip hop scene from 1994 to 1997, living "damn near homeless, walking the streets of
Manhattan, sleeping on benches.
[1][3] "
In the late 1990s, he left New York City and settled in Atlanta. According to interviews with Dumile, he was also "recovering from his wounds" and swearing revenge "against the industry that so badly deformed him".[1] Black b*stards had become bootlegged at the time, leading to DOOM's rise in the underground hip hop scene.
shyt literally sounds like a comic book origin story 
to
