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November 15, 1978 in a suburb of Detroit a bouncing baby boy was born. At an early age, he was already ahead of his time by not learning to walk, but by standing up from his backward crawl to running without hesitation & not sitting down his rocking horse, instead standing up on top of it with arms stretched like wings. Once he learned to hold a pencil, he had an instant connection with his budding imagination & creativity.

Once he entered grammar school in 1984, there was a cultural movement-taking place in New York City. It reached all the way to the city in Florida he had moved from Detroit to. The revolution was Hip-Hop & he was in love at first sight & sound. At 5 or 6 years old, his mother was yelling at him for attempting head spins as he was mimicking moves he had seen in movies such as Wild Style, Breakin’ & Beat Street. He had become a baby B-boy. What intrigued him the most was a radical new style of painting letters & characters in vivid colors that was unique & stood out much like him.

Rep’s passion for art was already evident to his family & friends. God blessed him with gifts he had no clue about yet. From an early age he was constantly getting himself in trouble fro tagging on everything from his book bag to his bedroom walls .Since 5th grade, when he was already crossing genres by being a Hip-Hop head & his love for skateboarding, he had painted his very first shirt. It was a black shirt with the “SMA” logo (Santa Monica Airlines) on it, don in a neon pink, which was the style of the late 80’s. Since his inception into drawing & painting on clothing, his peers had looked at him strangely. From Junior High through High School he had achieved countless accolades for excelling in art, placed in all advanced classes with student’s grades above him. He was always quiet & kept to himself, sitting in his classes drawing all day, passing based solely on his test scores. People told him on numerous occasions growing up that he should plan a career in art somewhere. Hard head as he was, he took his gifts for granted.

Family issues that were always there now had shown themselves to him & pushed him into the arms of the streets where he had to learn quickly that he needed a second education in order to survive. Rep had become Mogli lost in the Jungle Book. Run ins with the law, association with gang members, violence & drugs had become his everyday scenery. He had lost all hope for anything positive to come in his future. Between going home to no electricity, personal belongings missing & no food in the fridge due to his mother’s addiction & roaming hungry in the streets, sleeping underneath loading docks & abandoned hotels, he had lost all hope & faith in the Lord. The Lord had not forgotten him though.

During his 20 something years, Rep has always managed to escape life’s harsh realities by backstroking in the bliss of art & its creative freedom. There is nothing other than being a father & husband he enjoys more than using the skills he been honing his whole life. Since his struggles with his family & the streets, an angel had seemingly touched him. With the rise in popularity of Hip-Hop apparel, Rep began drawing his own line. He was not very impressed with most of what started to flood the market. Unimaginative designs were being forced down his throat by labels taking advantage of the up & coming market. A wet behind the ears teenager he was, had a vision of one day introducing to the world his ideas of what Hip-Hop fashion should look like.

He had been doing for years what has become popular today. Ideas such as hand painting shirts, thought to be invented by someone in the last few years was already being done by him since the late 80’s early 90’s. In addition, Rep was doing the heat transfer shirts that are extremely popular in the hood back in 97’-98’ as a means for him to see his drawings on t-shirts & possibly sell. Not to discredit those responsible for bringing the ideas to the forefront & become successful doing so, but to quote Nas, “No idea is original, there’s nothing new under the sun”

Older, wiser & ready for success, Rep has re-emerged to take his place in this world as not only one of the top designers in his craft but one of the world’s renowned artists. With the brainchild, he has created in Color Skeemz & the team he has built around himself, his destiny will prevail & you will love him for creating some of the most detailed & exclusive designs to ever be witnessed.

Repertoire daVinci- Also known as "Rep1ne" or simply "Rep".


The Story Behind The Name

He began using the name Rep1ne while tagging up buses & anywhere else, his fancy would be tickled. He chose "Rep" for the obvious meaning of this root word. "Rep"resentative of Hip-Hop was the first intentional use; therefore, he was "Rep"resenting his culture. Later on, while studying Leonardo DaVinci he realized the two had very much in common in the fact they carried journals with them at all times & had the unique ability to view things from multiple perspectives. Intrigued by the similarities he had found within himself & this great artist in history, he adopted his last name & underwent the transition from mere tagger to a renowned artist. Rep lengthened his name to "Rep"ertoire, meaning "arsenal" because he is so well rounded in many art forms from drawing & painting, to writing & emceeing, excelling at each of them. Now his mission is to do the name adaptation a great honor by consistently displaying masterful works & innovative designs & styles..