Early life Born to a
Cuban mother and a Colombian father in
Newport News, Virginia, Tonedeff first began writing songs at the age of nine.
Career beginnings Tonedeff formed a group named "The RBM Crew" in 1989 with three schoolmates shortly after relocating to Miami, Florida from Chicago and began recording and performing locally at talent shows and showcases. In 1993, The RBM Crew was offered a development deal by
Warner Black Music and began recording the ultimately uncompleted
Calligraphy. They disbanded when the label folded in 1995. In 1993, at the age of sixteen, Tonedeff appeared on
The Arsenio Hall Show as a performer, taking the grand prize of the show's national talent search called "Flava of the Future". He alludes to this event in his song "Morethanthis". After fielding offers from several major labels, Tonedeff decided instead to pursue a college degree in illustration and
multimedia – taking a break from his music career until taking up recording of his debut solo project
The Monotone EP during his time at
Full Sail Center for the Recording Arts in
Orlando, Florida.
2000–2003: QN5 Music, Asterisk, Hyphen and The Monotone EP QN5 was first officially founded by Tonedeff in 1997, though releases were scarce for a few years. In 2000, Tonedeff once again, and this time permanently, started up the record label QN5 Music, which became a hip hop specialty imprint in 2001 by recruiting artists such as
CunninLynguists and
PackFM, and production teams which boasted the talents of hip hop producers Domingo & Elite. In 2002, the record label The first official QN5 mixtape,
Asterisk: One, was released in 2002 in order to promote the label during the Rocksteady Crew's 25th Anniversary in New York City. In 2003, the QN5 record label released a second album of the best of the artists,
Asterisk: Two, and the following year
Asterisk: Three was released, strengthening the respect and legitimacy of the record label and the collaborative efforts between the label mates. The early 2000s also saw a number of Tonedeff releases and collaborations on the QN5 label. In 2001 he released
Hyphen, a collection of previously recorded tracks, and the first release since
The Monotone EP. The next album,
Underscore (2003), featured a collection of rarities and B-sides. This album served as another primer for his official debut album, Archetype.
2003–2006: Archetype and Lollapalooza While Tonedeff kept the fan base satiated with consistent releases, everything was leading up to his studio album, which was delayed a few times. On November 18, 2003, Tonedeff featured on
Immortal Technique's song "Peruvian Cocaine". On April 5, 2005, Tonedeff released his first official full-length album,
Archetype. The long-awaited album was met with acclaim from fans and reviewers alike. HipHop DX gave
Archetype an 8/10, praising Tonedeff's versatility and calling him "among the finest this genre has to offer." In a review for IGN, Jim During seconded those sentiments, concluding "With one of the best flows in hip hop, Tondeff puts out a well-rounded debut." In support of Archetype, Tonedeff embarked on international tours for the next years, including the QN5 Spring Cleaning National Tour and a Scandinavian tour in 2006, and performing at Rock The Bells among many other festivals. Tonedeff received more national recognition when selected to perform at the August 2006
Lollapalooza festival in Chicago. He earned his nomination by garnering some of the highest vote totals throughout the "Last Band Standing" competition and finally selected as the winner after four rounds of celebrity-panel judging (which included Lollapalooza founder
Perry Farrell of
Jane's Addiction) and a live-performance round. Other performers at the event were
Common,
Kanye West, and
Gnarls Barkley. Music journalist
Jon Pareles of
The New York Times wrote about Tonedeff's performance at Lollapalooza, noting that Tonedeff "has so many variations of rhythm and tone that his songs are enjoyable even without a rewind button to find out what they meant."
2007–2011: Solo hiatus and Cold.Killed.Collected After Archetype, Tonedeff began to focus on the QN5 record label and less on his solo career. Nevertheless, he managed to maintain a countless number of collaborations and appearances with members of the QN5 roster and beyond. In 2007, Tonedeff was featured on the QN5 released
Asterisk: Four, and in 2008 the EP
Baby Blue for Pink. During this time he also released two instrumental compilations of beats he produced, Deffinitions Vol. 1 and 2. He also executive produced many QN5 albums, including two critically acclaimed 2010 QN5 records,
I F*cking Hate Rappers by PackFM and
Robots & Dinosaurs by Kokayi. In the summer of 2011, Tonedeff began another resurgence. Similar to his release of the compilation record
Underscore, Tonedeff released
Cold.Killed.Collected in order to re-ignite the fan base and hype. The album included 46 total tracks, including interview snippets, some of his most popular collaborations since
Archetype, unreleased tracks, and even some new material. Later that summer, Tonedeff and the rest of the QN5 record label participated in the 2011 QN5 Megashow.
2011–present Polymer and Demon During 2012, Tonedeff incrementally released information on his next album,
Polymer. On August 17 during a Livestream Q&A with fans, Tonedeff officially revealed his plans for the new album.
Polymer will be "a best-part composite" of four individually released EPs, with the final EP only being available with the fully mixed Polymer record. This unique approach to releasing his album was influenced by his desire to showcase his versatility in styles and subject matter. The first EP was announced to be titled Glutton, which was to be released in late 2012/early 2013. Tonedeff officially released his first of four EPs that make up Polymer, titled
Glutton, on February 26, 2013. The album is a very introspective look at parts of Tonedeff's own psyche. These lyrics are partnered with electronic/house/dubstep influenced beats, with production done by Tonedeff and featured production from NumberNin6 and
Chew Fu.
Becky Cloonan created the cover art for the album. On December 10 of the same year, the second EP of
Polymer,
Demon, was released. It featured artwork by Becky Cloonan like Glutton. This 5-track EP focused on struggles with concepts like time and anxiety. According to the official description, "deals with the pressures and side-effects of anxiety, mortality and time-management over self-produced mid-tempo bounce tracks.
Demon tackles an overwhelmed life a dazzling variety of tempos, flows genre-nods, such as the endurance-challenging title-track “Demon" in which Tonedeff attacks every 16th note for nearly 2 minutes straight in -time, tipping his hat at the trappings of modern Trap on "Use Me" and most notably, fans of Tonedeff's infamous triple-time flow will be delighted as Demon contains the long-awaited recorded version of "Crispy" where he essentially puts Fast Rap in a body-bag for everyone's benefit. The third piece of
Polymer, titled
Hunter, was released on September 23, 2014. This EP featured the most introspective tracks to date. A DVD documentary about the recording process of the four EPs will be released with the
Polymer album.
Polymer was officially released on July 8, 2016. ==Collaborations==