Soopa

This is the official MySpace.com page of Soopa -- Vice President/in-house producer and one-sixth of Truenoke Music Group which consists of Poe Mack aka Poseidun MC, the founder and CEO, artist/producer and one-half of Mack Jones, Case Jones, President, artist and one-half of Mack Jones, Mr. Dynamite aka Dyno, artist and in-house producer, Harmonic, artist/assistant engineer and DJ Samson, in-house DJ and official soundman. Hailing from the city of Roanoke in Virginia, as his counterparts, Soopa (given name Michael Gaither), began his musical prowess at the age of 11, embracing and immersing himself in the evolving culture of Breakdancing and DJ'ing, as well as the 3 other essential elements of Hip Hop. Making small waves locally, placing in talent shows and dropping original mixtapes as his DJ skills evolved, brought Soopa (then known as Soopafly Mike) to the attention of Mike Bonilla, a good friend, huge rap icon in the Roanoke local hip hop scene and founder of the P.O.W's, where Soopa first began the path to beatmaking and producing. Bonilla was so impressed with Soopa's skills and willingness to learn with little or no experience in beatmaking, that he gave Soopa his first tools and made him an official member of the P.O.W's, which lead to much live and internet exposure. Fast forward one year after the demise of the P.O.W's, Soopa became fascinated with the powerful and expanding rise of internet music and networking, where he first joined Rapmusic.com, posting regularly in forums and entering beat battles, giving and receiving much needed criticism to elevate and hone his skills. He then began to make noise via the old mp3.com and was introduced to the world of selling quality beats to mostly unknown and unsigned artists, like himself, hungry to get the music out to the masses with no major label backing. Prosperity and a few small label production offers suddenly had Soopa ready to take his music to a whole new level. But mp3.com folded shortly after, and Soopa had become weary of the direction his music was taking, so he left the internet and Rapmusic.com for many months, rethinking his goals and what he truly wanted from a game that he loved with all of his heart. He came back to the net shortly, dropping instrumentals here and there on Soundclick.com and other small, lesser-known mp3 hosting sites, gaining lots of fanfare and more sales and doing collabs with artists on occasion. While working his night time job one late night in 2005, Soopa was approached by Mr. Dynamite, a co-worker, about the possiblility of joining the Truenoke fold, which was already a major force in the Roanoke hip hop scene. History was made and it has been magic ever since!!