Schoolboy Q is an American rapper and a songwriter who was born in Germany but raised in Los Angeles. He was nominated for the Grammy Award in 2014.
Early years
Schoolboy Q was born on October 26, 1986 as Quincy Matthew Hanley in Wiesbaden in Germany.
His father was a military person and a part of an American Army situated in Germany so his parents had to live there for a while.
They had a lot of marrital issues and problems so they got divorced during his mother’s pregnancy.
His mother took him back to the USA, to Hanley in Texas, and they lived there for a few years. They relocated to L.A. a little while later because his mother was in search of a better workplace.
He attended John Muir Middle School in San Jose and he was always a good student.
He was great in sports from his early age and that continued all through the elementary school. After he enrolled Crenshaw High School he turned his interest into American football and he was very good at it.
He changed four colleges during his studies: Los Angeles City College, Glendale Community College, L.A. Southwest College an West Los Angeles College which were all situated in the Los Angeles District.
While he was attending West Los Angeles College he played for their football team called “West Los Angeles Oilers”. He was very versatile in football so he played as a wide receiver, cornerback and a halfback.
Growing up in Los Angeles has its perks but gangs weren’t one of them. Quincy joined the “52 Hoover Crips” gang which eventually led him to become a drug dealer. He reselled crack, marijuana and oxy. His life involved running away from the police, watchimg out not to be robbed and to sleep during the day and work mostly at night.
He was arrested several times and today he says it was just the way of life then. You were either a user or a dealer and he wasn’t using it. He said that he knew it was a mistake to get in the business, but he didn’t really have a choice.
Quincy was arrested and charged more seriously after his gang and him invated somebody’s home in 2007.
He was three months in jail and three more in house arrest. This was a hard period for him and he tried to overcome this as best as he could.
As a teenager he discovered hip hop and started to show interest in music. Since he was already a member of a gang he hasn’t taken music very seriously.
At the age of 21 he was forced to make a decision: either to leave the gang and turn to music or the same way arround. The decision was hard to make and not because he liked comitting crimes but for the fact that he must leave his friends.
Career Development
Quincy started taking rapping seriously and he became a very good rapper. After Top Dawg Entertainment from Carson heard his tapes they invited him to do some songs in their studio.
He did some recordings with Jay Rock and Ab-Soul who were also hip hop artists.
Schoolboy signed a contract with Top Dawg and released his debut mixtape in 2008. It was called “Schoolboy Turned Hustla”.
This resulted in forming a hip-hop group called “Black Hippy”. After a while they found the fourth member in Kendrick Lamar.
“Gangsta & Soul” was the name of his second mixtape which was published in 2009. It contained a track in which he dissed a known rapper called “40 Glocc”.
His first album was released under the name “Setbacks” and it gained huge attention from critics and the public. It came to the Top 100 US Billboard chart of albums.
This caused a lot of attention in the social media and brought him a lot of followers on Instagram and other sociap media.
In 2011 he was arrested again, but ut wasn’t a gang thing or a serious crime any more. He was arrested at the Southwest festival because he had marijuana on him.
In 2012 he released his whole new album “Habits and Contradictions” on iTunes. The album climbed to the first ten albums on iTunes chart.
Top Dawg, his independent record label signed a contract with Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. This meant that his albums are no longer released by an independent house.
He went on a tour across the USA and had guest appearances of many rappers such as Wiz Kalifa and his friend Kendrick Lamar. The tour was called “Under the Influence”. This brought him closer to his fans.
He was called next year to perform at BET Awards and it was for him the confirmation of his success.
He performed one of his songs on 2013 “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” which was his first TV gig.
In 2013 he aldo performed at “BET Hip Hop Awards”.
In 2014 he got his first nomination for Album of the Year on the famous Grammy Awards.
2016 brought his new project, a second LP called “Blank Face LP” where he featured Jadakiss, Kanye West, Whiz Kalifa and more.
He says that his biggest influence in music was a Queens rapper called Nas. He is a hip hop legend in Queens and New York.
His third album, “Oxymoron” brought him a new collaboration with Pharrell Williams. Mike Will Made It was also featured on this album.
“Man of the year” is a single he made as a soundtrack for a video game “NBA Live” and it brought him a large amount of money.
He had another Grammy nominated single and it was the one made with Kanye West and it was called “That Part”.
Personal life
How did he get his nickname? He wore glasses in school so he was sometimes teased about it. He never felt as if it was something bad and he decided to embrace it to show them he isn’t ashamed of who he is.
He isn’t married but he has a daughter that he adores. Her name is Joyce and he often calls her just joy. She was born in 2010 and he often mentions her in his songs and she was featured on the cover of his album “Oxymoron”.
He tries to keep his love life private because he knows that everything he does affects Joy. That’s why he hides himself and especially his locations from the world. He just wants to provide his small daughter a proper childhood far away from scandals and camera’s.
Quick summary:
Full name: Quincy Matthew Hanley
Date of birth: October 26, 1986
Birth place: Wiesbaden, Hesse, Germany
Age: 31
Occupation: hip hop artist
Height: 175 cm
Weight: 86 kg
Net worth: $2,5 million
