Fashawn

Fashawn (born Santiago Leyva on October 19, 1988, in Fresno, California) is an American rapper who overcame a difficult childhood—including a period in a group home—to break into hip-hop, first drawing attention with his 2006 mixtape Grizzly City and a series of follow-up mixtapes that built his reputation in the Central California scene. His 2009 debut album Boy Meets World, produced entirely by Exile, earned critical acclaim and landed him on XXL Magazine’s 2010 Top 10 Freshmen cover alongside artists like J. Cole and Wiz Khalifa. He continued building his profile through the early 2010s with tours, festival appearances, a 2012 collaborative album with Murs (This Generation), and a memorable 2014 performance of the entrance theme for WBO champion Timothy Bradley’s rematch against Manny Pacquiao. That same year, he signed to Nas’ Mass Appeal Records, releasing his acclaimed major-label sophomore album The Ecology in 2015, which featured Nas, Aloe Blacc, and others and placed songs in major video game franchises like Madden NFL and WWE 2K. He has since continued releasing music and collaborating with artists including Black Thought and Del the Funky Homosapien.