Hopsin

Hopsin
Hopsin with his usual white contacts Hopsin with his usual white contacts
Background information
Birth name	Marcus Hopson
Born	(1985-07-17) July 17, 1985
Origin	Panorama City, Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres	Alternative hip hop, horrorcore, hardcore hip hop, gangsta rap
Occupation(s)	Rapper, producer, director, actor, singer
Years active	2003 – Present
Labels	Funk Volume, Ruthless Records
Website	www.myfunkvolume.com

Marcus Hopson (born July 17, 1985), better known by his stage name Hopsin, is an American rapper, music video director, hip hop producer, singer and actor from Los Angeles, California. Hopsin has gained moderate to high popularity on YouTube, where many of his songs accompanied with music videos are uploaded, most remarkably "Sag My Pants", uploaded in October 2010, which as of March 2012 has over ten million views. In 2007, he was signed to deceased rapper Eazy-E's record label Ruthless Records, and has since founded his own record label Funk Volume in 2009. Hopsin currently has released two studio albums along with a mixtape; the debut album Gazing At The Moonlight through Ruthless Records, Raw and Haywire (with SwizZz) through Funk Volume. He has been called a somewhat horrorcore-alternative hip hop by fans and has approved of it in his music.

Biography

Marcus Hopson was born on July 17, 1985 in Los Angeles, California, and was raised in the Panorama City neighborhood of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, where he attended James Monroe High School (Los Angeles). He later dropped out of high school during his senior year to pursue a career in music.

Music career

Hopsin received acclamations in hip hop magazines and Internet publications, and was described as the new face of West Coast hip hop. He has spoken out against mainstream rap's positive portrayal of alcohol and drugs and often takes shots at mainstream rappers in his songs. He is widely known for his vicious diss tracks.

His debut album Gazing at the Mooonlight was released October 26, 2009. His second album Raw (a reference to the Saw series) was released as a digital download on iTunes and as physical CD on his label's website on November 19, 2010. On October 8, 2010, Hopsin released a music video for "Sag My Pants" on YouTube mocking Lil Wayne, Drake, and Rick Ross.As of 24 March 2012, the video has received over 10,000,000 views on YouTube. Hopsin has worked with multi-platinum recording artist B.o.B, and Tech N9ne.

The appearance sparked rumors of a deal with Tech N9ne's Strange Music imprint. However, when a deal wasn't announced, rumors pointed to Tech turning Hopsin down. He's since addressed the rumor, revealing that a deal was, in fact, offered, but he chose to continue growing his own Funk Volume label. Still, he says the rap peers are on good terms. "The way people put it online, it's not how it comes off," Hopsin told BallerStatus.com. "Me and Tech N9ne are cool, so the deal was on the table, you know? We met up a few times and all that, but just for what I'm trying to do with my career and life in general, I just kinda wanna build my own path, build my own road and go that way... He didn't turn me down, like 'We don't want you', and I didn't turn him down, like 'I don't wanna f*** with you guys.' It was just more of I just feel more comfortable doing it this way. I like challenges as well. I like starting from scratch and seeing how far I can really go."

After his guest appearance alongside Tech, he released the fourth installment of his "Ill Mind of Hopsin" video series, which received over 10,000,000 views on YouTube. It heavily dissed Tyler the Creator and had some shots of a parody of his Yonkers video. He will also be featured on R.A. The Rugged Man's new album and will be on the next Twiztid album. On October 31, 2011, Hopsin was featured in a mobile battle rap game, Battle Rap Stars by Jump Shot Media. On January 22, 2012, Hopsin landed a spot on MTV2's "Sucker Free Sunday" by being featured in Tech N9ne's music video for "Am I a Psycho". Hip Hop superstar B.o.B was also featured in the video. Knock Madness, Hopsin's upcoming album due for a mid 2012 release, is backed by his lead single "Hop Madness", due for release within the first two weeks of March 2012. The official music video for "Hop Madness" was released March 15, 2012. Hopsin then collaborated with Young Noble of the Outlawz, on a track called The End, also featuring British rapper Lowkey.

In 2012 Hopsin was featured on the cover of XXL as part of their annual "Top 10 Freshmen list" along with fellow rappers French Montana, Machine Gun Kelly, Danny Brown, Roscoe Dash, and Kid Ink. Hopsin was later featured on GrewSum's track "Following Me", alongside the rapper Gravity.

Struggle with Ruthless Records

Hopsin left Ruthless Records, owned by Eazy-E's widow, Tomica Wright, after lack of support and financial compensation. Hopsin expressed anger, saying Wright didn't know what she was doing, did not take advice and had terrible marketing schemes. Hopsin talked about his first album Gazing at the Moonlight stating it was released without his consent and that he was not even able to listen to the mastered version of his album before release. Hopsin finally left the label as Tomica said "We don't promote faggots at this label".

Hopsin later founded the independent label Funk Volume with Dame Ritter. SwizZz, who is Ritter's brother, was the first artist to be signed to Funk Volume.

Acting career

After making a guest appearance in the film Fame starring Kelsey Grammer, Hopsin's had a starring role in the independent musical film entitled Bomb The World in which he plays a rapper named Face. These were his first major acting appearances since he played a minor role in an episode of That's so Raven in 2002.

Discography

Studio albums

• 2009: Gazing at the Moonlight
• 2010: Raw
• 2012: Knock Madness

Mixtapes

• 2009: Haywire (With SwizZz)

Film Roles

Television Roles

Title	Year	Role	Other notes
Fame	2009	Senior Rapper	Supporting Role
Bomb The World	2010	Face	Starring Role
Max Keeble's Big Move	2001	Pizza Parlor Guy	Cameo

Title	Year	Role	Other notes
That's So Raven	2002	Guy #2	Cameo Role 1 Episode To See or Not to See

Video Games

• 2011: Battle Rap Stars for iPhone and Android

References

External links

• Hopsin on YouTube
• Hopsin on Twitter
• Hopsin on Facebook