G-Eazy

G-Eazy was born on May 24, 1989, in Oakland, California, United States, to Edward Gillum and Suzanne Olmsted. His father is an associate professor of art at CSU Fresno. His parents separated when he was in the first grade, following which he started living with his grandparents in Berkeley, California.

His mother, an artist, worked as a part-time teacher at two different schools to run the family, which included his two younger brothers James and Noah. The family later moved to North Oakland, but he continued to attend school in Berkeley.

It was his mother who first introduced him to a life of music and fame, showing him the Beatles film 'A Hard Days Night' during his early years. G-Eazy, who had already decided to have a career in music, did odd jobs at the age of 14 to earn money to pursue his dreams.

His mother started dating a woman named Melissa Mills when he was about 12 years old. While he became confused and embarrassed at first, he later accepted Mills as a family member; however, Mills suffered from depression and died of drug overdose when he was still very young. He would later express his experience through the song 'Everything Will Be OK' from his third album.

G-Eazy started rapping while he was still in middle school in Oakley, California. At the age of 15, he and his friends put together a band named 'The Bay Boyz' and began releasing their songs through their MySpace page.

He soon began producing his own mixtapes and sold them for five bucks each. He would often try to make the CDs look official with his self-made cover art and logo. He moved to New Orleans after graduating from school and enrolled in Loyola University's Music Industry Studies program.

In 2008, the song 'Candy Girl' became widely popular, and was included in 'The Epidemic LP' in 2009. As he started to attract fans, following the example of a band from his high school, he decided to begin touring to build up a fan base.

His manager roped in Christoph Andersson, a DJ and a fellow student at the Loyola University, to open for his shows during his tours. This created a longtime partnership between the two, with Andersson touring with him for two years straight and later producing and co-writing songs for his albums.

By this time, G-Eazy had become the new hip-hop sensation in the East Bay Area, joining the ranks of Lil B, Crohn and The Cataracs. In 2010, his popularity exploded as he started to open for established artists like Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg.

G-Eazy gained a foothold in the music industry with the release of the mixtape 'The Endless Summer' in August 2011. The song 'Runaround Sue', which was sampled from the original 1961 No.1 song by Dion DiMucci, became a runaway hit and earned over 4 million views on YouTube.

In 2011, while still at the University, he toured with Drake for some time, but had to cancel it as the professors threatened to fail him if he missed more classes. In November that year, following his graduation, he went on a nationwide tour with Shwayze.

He continued to tour around America in 2012, performing on the annual 'Vans Warped Tour' in June and on the 'Excellent Adventure Tour' in July, appearing alongside Hoodie Allen. In September that year, he made it to the 3rd place on the 'iTunes Hip-Hop Chart' with his self-released first full-length album, 'Must Be Nice'.

On July 9, 2013, he joined Lil Wayne and T.I., performing on 'America’s Most Wanted Tour'. During this tour, he performed songs from his next album, 'These Things Happen', which was his first album to be released by RCA Records the next year.

Following the success of his latest album, he embarked on his first overseas tour, 'From the Bay to the Universe'. He appeared on national television for the first time in 2014 on 'Late Night With Seth Meyers', where he performed the song 'I Mean It' live.