Smigg Dirtee was born Silas Pollard on Sept. 11th 1984 in San Diego, California to an African-American father and a Guamanian mother. Shortly thereafter, Smigg’s family would re-locate to the Florin Gardens neighborhood in South Sacramento. Florin Gardens or "The Garden Blocc" as it is referred to as in the streets is not unlike many other pre-dominantly black, working class neighborhoods of the late 70’s and early 80’s. Hard working, church going families that came to the Sacramento Valley from the Deep South in the 1940’s and 1950’s in search of better opportunity, would be awaken in the early 80’s to a horrible epidemic called "crack" cocaine which would take over those very same neighborhoods in Los Angeles, Oakland, Detroit, and all over the country and never let them go. Robbery, gangs, murder, and prostitution would come in the wake of this epidemic. Smigg Dirtee was a product of this environment and it would shape him as the man that he would become.

Smigg Dirtee started rapping at the age of 9 years old and would cut & paste his own album covers and make demo tapes on his home made karaoke and hand them out around his neighborhood. By the time he was 16 years old, Smigg Dirtee was recording in local studios around Sacramento and slowly making a name for himself on the underground circuit. Although music was Smigg Dirtee’s dream and his chance to get out of the hood, he had another love that was in direct conflict with his music…and that was gangbanging. Smigg Dirtee and his own 21street Gang that he called family also shared the neighborhood with Meadowview Bloods and this would consume Smigg for much of his teenage years. Divided by his love for his homies and his love for music, Smigg Dirtee's decision was made for him by his mother who moved them back to San Diego to keep Smigg out of trouble. Out of the frying pan and into the fire as they say. Smigg Dirtee found a way to stay gangbanging in Sacramento AND San Diego and as more of his friends and family were murdered or sent to prison he relized it was finally time to make a choice, and that choice was music. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.