Portland, Oregon (August 10, 2006)---Soul P.s life has come full circle this year. He and his wife, Caras son, Matteo is three-years- old. The age Soul P. was when his single mother went to a penitentiary, and he went to live with his foster father in the notorious Yesler Terrace neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. Soul P.s childhood years were extremely tough and produced a seemingly endless cycle of struggles.

He started smoking marijuana when he was 11 and selling it to make extra money. This progressed to selling crack, which was rife in the area at the time. His drug habits led to him being kicked out of school and spending many days in row never leaving his room. He became rebellious and started taking it out on the neighborhood and getting into fights with his friends.

When he was 13, Soul P. ran away from home - after his foster fathers right-hand-man beat him up real bad - and he began stealing drugs and money. One of these robberies led to him being arrested when he was 14 and sent to jail for seven-and-a-half-months.

When he got out, now 15-years-old, Soul P. got straight on a bus to Portland, Oregon, where his mother, who was out of jail, was living. Soul P. thought if he got away from Seattle, he wouldnt get back into drugs and breaking the law. But his mother was living in the drug and gang infested northeast Portland.

He got shot while hanging out on a street corner in one of the many drive-by shootings in the area when he was 16, and was regularly in and out of jail. I still didnt learn, he says. I was still packing drugs. The whole nine. The next year he got caught with drugs and was sent to a group home for five-and-a-half months.

The 17-year-old Soul P. was only out for a month before he got caught again and was given a seven-year sentence. Fortunately due to good behavior and because his crime was not a serious offense, he was sent to Oregon Youth Authority for four months after one month in jail, and then to Oregon Juvenile Boot Camp for four months. In November 1998, two days after getting out of boot camp, Soul P.s mother took him to church.

I was surprised to discover that there was rapping in the church, he says. It was the rap that kept him coming back and eventually getting involved. "It was tough when I became a believer," shares Soul P.. "It was tough because there were still things I wanted to do. However, in the end, faith was more rewarding when I won those battles with the strength of Christ. My spiritual journey has been a constant uprising, but everything became so much better when I understood God's grace and mercy."

Soul P. independently released two critically acclaimed albums, which led to Todd Collins of Beatmart Recordings contacting him in 2005. I was upfront with Todd and explained everything that had gone on in my life. We talked for a year before signing a deal.

Soul P. could not have asked for better timing for his debut Beatmart Recordings album, The Premiere, to be released on December 26 this year. Soul P.s life has come full circle and can only go up from here.