Many musicians will tell you that their passion for creating and preserving the art of music started at a young age. For Ryan Dixon, professionally known as Haph Breed, it was no different. In fact, he will proudly tell you he received his first record at the tender age of 4, Disney’s “Peter Pan.” Born September 23rd to a Black, Irish and Indian father and a Black mother, his ethnicity is as diverse as his taste and exploration in music. He has the unique privilege of saying he was born on the same day as musical icons John Coltrane, Ray Charles and Walter Scott of The Whispers.

Haph Breed was raised and influenced by immensely, creative minds who always had records playing in the background. His father, a former marine and, once a talented painter, even assembled and managed a gospel group in the 1980s named Daughters of Faith. His mother absorbed, practiced and appreciated art in all its forms. Haph Breed fondly describes her as a singer, bibliophile, artist, aficionado of black-and-white films and a gifted cook. Naturally, he inherited his father’s discipline and mother’s indiscriminate love of all art forms. These attributes shaped him into the artist he is today.

Specific albums and tracks have come to represent pivotal moments in his life, which highlight how the threads of music and life intertwine. Take, for example, the second record he ever received: Sly & The Family Stone’s “Stand!” It’s the one record that can forever burn into your brain; so much so Haph Breed will tell you, “I wore the grooves off of that record.” Years later, he discovered another musical group that would forever change his life. This group’s groundbreaking debut ultimately lead him on the path to becoming a hip-hop artist. A Tribe Called Quest’s 1990 album “People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm” ignited a creative spark in him to start writing lyrics. Released a year later, Gang Starr’s “Step in the Arena” would further fuel Haph Breed’s growing desire to produce music of his own.