Like the late Brooklyn heavyweight that long clenched his hands around the throats of hip-hop’s would-be elite, Xavier Vasquez is forever linked to a date. The aspiring heir apparent to the throne vacated by Christopher Wallace on March 9, Vasquez is the self-proclaimed Prince of New York. March 9 – and a barrage of bullets – prematurely removed one of hip-hop’s brightest from this world at the height of his success. But the date also gave birth to the Prince. As a youngster he would become very well acquainted with gunfire, losing his closest friend after a bullet collided with his head at 15. But Vasquez would soon learn to turn pain to prosperity.

An imposing figure, he walks with a steady gait, as if dragged down by the weight of his own thoughts. But from those thoughts come poetry – a poetry that can infuse new life into a genre currently dominated by industry-driven gimmickry. Vasquez began rapping after taking cues from his emcee mother as a child. With an obvious talent for wordplay – he got accepted to college without so much as a GED despite dropping out of school in the eighth grade – Vasquez gained notoriety around his Spanish Harlem neighborhood before graduating to the mix tape scene, where his Riot Resume garnered a nomination for Mix Tape Artist of the Year in 2003. Although G Unit’s Lloyd Banks eventually took home the honor, Vasquez’ status as the only nominee without major label clout forced the industry to take notice.

He would receive – and turn down – deals from Jive and its subsidiary imprint, Purple Leopard. But the enigmatic emcee chose to preserve his identity in favor of submitting to a corporate makeover. For Vasquez, “artist development” meant a return to the studio where he penned memorable lines as a ghostwriter for XXXX. But to confine Vasquez to a single musical category is to underscore his talents. Musician is a title the CheckWriterz Favorite finds more suitable, more definitive. Merging hip-hop with rock, jazz, blues and XXXX, Vasquez is always looking for – and capable of – more than one way to entice a crowd. And therein lies his greatest asset: Versatility. Add to that the perspective and renewed sense of purpose that becoming a new father brings (thank you, Yessenia), and the 24-year-old Vasquez appears set to etch his own chapter into the history books.