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Phillip D. Brent Jr. (born April 13, 1983) is an American born MC/Producer from New Orleans, La. who goes by the stage name "DaiN". Although he's an artist, DaiN never took rapping as a thing to do until he was nearly 21 years of age.

Early Life
Growing up in New Orleans, he was helped raised by Victoria Collier & Delmar Garner (also known as Mama Vicki and Uncle Bud) in a yellow house on Lapeyrouse St. located in the 7th Ward. His mother didn't want him in that enviorment but since no one else would watch him, she had no choice. During that time a lot was exposed to him, from alcohol to cocaine and other sorts narcotics. Always taught right from wrong, he never got caught up with the mischief that took place, but was still surrounded by it everyday since he had no other place to go.

When he turned 7 his mother moved to the other side of New Orleans, also known as the West Bank where she re-married and had her 2nd/youngest son. DaiN still spent most of his time in the 7th Ward but his mother said it was too dangerous.

At age 12 DaiN moved to Houston, Texas to live with his father and attended one of the best schools in the state, The High School for Performing and Visual Arts or "HSPVA" where he studied as an actor.

Career
DaiN became a fan of local hip-hop music and its culture in his early years. In 2004, at the age of 21, DaiN began to pursue his rap career. He soon joined the local Portland, Oregon based group "Soundgodz". Though it was a short stint, it helped DaiN get to know others in the Portland community as well as the North West.

The next summer is when DaiN met a fellow musician by the name of Dialekt and started to learn how to actually record in his kitchen built studio. By the end of the summer, an EP was recorded and titled "Rock of Ages" which included various beats from online producers DaiN had met with no guest appearances. It wasn't much, but it was the beginning of a promising career.

The fall of 2005 is when DaiN decided to take up beat making as a means to not having to pay for over priced production. He purchased an MPC 1000 and collected various instrumentals from different producers and began to practice/study.

In early 2006 he met up with local friend and DJ, DJ FlipFlop (Kenny Vanderburg) and Devonwho (Devon H. Fox) to discuss the possibility of them producing his next album "Listen, Learn & Live". After recording the lead single "Next Sh*t", anticipation for the album had grown a little amongst locals. The album was finished by the beginning of 2007 but bad deals and even worse business held the record from seeing the light of day.

After many failed attempts to get the album out, DaiN met a guy (Story) from Vinyl Fluid Records who agreed to give the album a release after listening to the album just once. In December 2009 the album was finally released and received great reviews.

While waiting for an outlet to have his album released, DaiN recorded the Triple L EP to take with him on his first multi city tour with Portland, Oregon based group Sandpeople. This is the first time DaiN had written to his own beats. He used the EP as free music and promotion for the release of his album "Listen Learn & Live". Triple L was short for his album Listen, Learn & Live.

In 2010 another EP was released for free titled "Nothing Fancy". His reasoning behind the name was simple, "I just made some beats and wrote some songs, its nothing fancy" were his words. The 4 song EP included his often internet radio played single "REPresent" where he speaks about his experience on being from New Orleans.

2011 brought some light to DaiN's then cloudy career. He was discovered by a Vancouver, Canada label owner Rodney Davidson and Hayden Baptiste. Even though it was just a verse, they had heard more than enough and approached him on what his goals were and how he planned to achieve them. After some months of talk, he signed with the label and is scheduled to release his label debut "A Product of My Inspires" in the fall (2011).

Personal Life
DaiN has only 1 sibling, his younger brother Henry Smith III.

DaiN became a connoisseur of gospel, jazz, soul, funk and the blues music as a small child. But that's not without the upbringing and influence brought from his mother, Melanie Pichon-Smith, who is an author, a teacher, an world renown evangelist, and more so impressive - served as an active solider in Iraq. With determination, the gift of gab, writing, and faith in the family blood, she placed the building blocks and laid the foundation to make DaiN the individual and music artist he is today. With heavy influences from the late-great Jay-Dee (Slum Village) and the soulful sounds of Kev Brown and artists such as Mos Def, Black Thought, Redman etc. DaiN received the blueprint to making music that means so much more than beats & rhymes.

Discography

 * 2004: Rock of Ages EP
 * 2009: Triple L EP
 * 2009: Listen, Learn & Live
 * 2010: Nothing Fancy EP