DAVID RUSH Meet David RUSH. Every day of his life is another step in his dream of bringing the David RUSH sound to the world. Of course, we all have aspirations to dream big… but the only difference between us and David RUSH is that, according to the odds, he shouldn’t be here right now. With the recent release of his mixtape Feel The Rush Pt 1: Signing Season, the hot single “Shooting Star” featuring Kevin Rudolf and Pitbull, and a new partnership with Universal Republic via Pitbull’s Mr. 305 imprint, David RUSH is feeling more than positive, and he’s taking everything in life very personal. More than an artist, David RUSH is a dynamic example of making every moment count. As a native of Highland Park, New Jersey, David RUSH began writing music at just eight-years-old. He tagged along with his older cousin, freestyling rhymes and practicing ways to record music with limited resources. Eventually David took up with the boys at school, participating in traditional lunchroom sessions of beating on the tables and rapping. Inspired by the a variety of artists like Tupac, Notorious B.I.G., Busta Rhymes, Outkast, Goodie Mob, Wu-Tang and LL Cool J, he enjoyed the thrill of the MC battles. Despite his passion for the music, David had a solid plan to pursue his education at the same time. He made a big move to attend the Art Institute of Atlanta for video production. During his time there, he learned how to finesse Pro-Tools, and began mixing his own music on the side. The young lyricist, then known as Young Boss, got involved in the local Atlanta scene, and earned his reputation as a multi-faceted artist. Although he had been putting out homemade mixtapes with his friends since 1997, it wasn’t until 2000 that he stepped foot into a real recording studio. David began working with Atlanta producer Soundz, and stayed in touch as he moved back to Jersey to decide his future after college. Upon revisiting Atlanta, David and Soundz came up with the song “Go Girl,” a sexy anthem that sent ladies to the dance floor in droves. He took the track back to New Jersey’s club circuit, and the reaction was undeniable. It wasn’t long before the song spread throughout the East Coast, eventually landing on the desk of Miami Hip Hop star Pitbull, who quickly signed Young Boss to his Mr. 305 label. “Pitbull hit my management up and wanted to make ‘Go Girl’ a song on his album,” says David. “It went from being just another song on his record to one of his most downloaded songs from all of his albums. It’s the first music that you hear on the new Boatlift album, it’s an intro with acapella and the first beat you hear is ‘Go Girl.’ He kept my verse on the second verse, added Trina on the third verse, and to date, when that song plays people know it.” Everything seemed to be moving along perfectly for the now-worldly Jersey Boy, but in a scary twist of fate, his entire universe changed. On March 16, 2007, during a seemingly normal day, he woke up in the hospital, heavily monitored and attached to machines. The doctors found that David had Focal Glomerulosclerosis (FGS), which is scarring in the kidneys, and gave him only a year to live. Determined to stay put, David has worked tirelessly with his doctors to maintain a good life despite his very serious condition. Fortunately, modern technologies in dialysis currently allow David to do self-treatment at home. “My kidneys are failed,” he says. “They don’t operate and do the normal acts of a kidney, which is to take out the wastes in your body. Dialysis is basically a replacement of your kidneys, and it does it for you by drawing your blood out into a machine, putting it through the filter and returning it back to your body in a four hour process. Six days a week, four hours a day. It cleans your body out of the toxins you intake with any food or drink, there are two needles that go into your arm. You draw out the blood, clean it and put it back in your body.” With renewed passion and focus, the rapper once known as Young Boss unleashed the older, wiser David RUSH. “The name is more universal,” he says. “You can’t put a label on it. The music definitely changed with the times and I just felt that there was a need to up my game and the status of the music.” In 2008, with the support of his XB Music Group team, David RUSH stepped into the studio to record the bright club track “Shooting Star” featuring Kevin Rudolf (Lil Wayne’s Cash Money rock artist) and Pitbull. The labels in New York started taking notice, and Universal Republic signed David up to release the single nationally. He immediately put together the original music he’d been working on over the course of the year to create Feel The Rush Volume 1: Signing Season. With production from Trav, DJ Noodles, Lynx, AYB, DJ Wonder, AG, Pointblank Pro and old friend Soundz, David RUSH brought his own brand of “Moon Music” to the masses. “I didn’t want to do a normal mixtape with other people’s beats because I feel like it takes away from the excellence, and I wanted to make timeless music. I had changed my name from Young Boss to David RUSH, so I wanted to give people a new name and sound other than ‘Go Girl’. I try to keep it as Jersey as possible and still represent myself. It is about where you’re from and what you rep and all that, but to me, it’s about the music. I make ‘Moon Music’ - I’m out of here. It’s on a different level and a different plane, and it’s something that’s futuristic. I try to hold myself to that at every time.” With a personal commitment to forge ahead, denouncing any labels or restrictions life might bring about, David RUSH knows exactly who he is now. “I want people to think of me as a true artist and a person who really breathes and loves this. The rush for me is the rush of the game; the rush when I record and do shows; the rush of wanting to get on and help my family, help my mother’s situation financially; help myself and the people around me who have rolled with me through this whole experience. It’s the rush that I’m in to get everything going, because of the health issue that I have that lessens my time here on earth. To make sure I was on my grind harder than everybody else, to get where I’m at quicker than everybody else. When they think of David RUSH, I want them to think of somebody who took it there because he had to.” # # #