Shameik Moore

30058 is the ZIP Code I grew up in in Atlanta, so the music represents where I'm from, and the mindset of '30058.' It's got a touch of reggae and a hip-hop feel. It's soothing, I think.

In middle school, I saw Chris Brown live, and I thought, 'I can do that.' And these girls are screaming for him.

I'm from a neighborhood that isn't amazing - it's not the worst, either - and I was happy. But Atlanta is just one area of a country. There's a world out there I wanna touch.

Although I write to entertain, and try to keep my work free of didacticism, I do have a rather passionate belief in our need to be connected to - and to learn from - history.

I love '90s grunge and punk.

In early 1993, when I was 12, I was separated from my family as the Sierra Leone civil war, which began two years earlier, came into my life.