BOOKIE

Bookie is the alias of Bryan Mathews, a native of Arizona and a Southwest Hip-Hop legend.Music has been a huge part of his life since he was a teenager growing up on the eastside of Phoenix in the 90’s. His talent for rapping eventually caught the attention of another Arizona artist, MC Magic. In 1997 he recruited Bookie to help write and perform on the debut Nastyboy Klick album, “The First Chapter,” which was released on The Island of Def Jam the same year. The success of the project, and the infamous “Bookie Freestyle” track featured on it, earned him a lot of respect and attention in the region which led to him signing to “Fo Life Records” in 1998. In 1999 his own debut album, “Stressin,” was released under the label. The entire project was produced by legendary west coast producer, Battlekat, and featured E-40, Kurupt, Lil KeKe and other prolific west coast and southwest Hip-Hop acts at the time. It sold over 50,000 copies independently and is considered a G-Funk classic today. Following the success of “Stressin,” Bookie formed a rap group called “The Survivalists” the following year. Their single, “Bounce,” hit the Hip-Hop/R&B Billboard chart for 11 weeks and peaked at #5 in September of 2001. In 2007 the group disbanded and Bookie left “Fo Life” to start his own label. Bookie is currently working on several solo and collaborative projects as well as developing and producing artists off of his label “Grind Mode Entertainment”.