"I've always been a lyrics man," rapper Prophit says when asked about his approach to hip-hop. As the Queens-born and -bred rapper gets ready to release his first mix tape, "Cause When You Stop Dreaming It's Time To Die...", it's obvious that he pours his life into his lyrics – and years listening to music, writing rhymes and working in the record industry have provided Prophit with insights rarely found in a 21-year-old artist. Of course, it helps that Prophit has had one foot in the game as far back as he could remember – his dad toured the world in the 70's as well as his uncle who is still till this day a touring musician. "I was always surrounded by music," Prophit says. "I just lived it." At age 8, he heard Wu-Tang Clan's classic debut Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers), the record that would open his eyes to hip-hop and ignite his own passion to make music. By age 13, he’d started rapping and making tracks with neighborhood friends. In 1997, he saw Snoop Dogg share the stage with Korn and Tool at Lollapalooza, which sparked an interest in other genres of music -- soon he was spending long afternoons reading music magazines at the bookstore, scribbling down band names and going home to check them out online. It was also around this time that he began realizing his strengths as a writer. "English was my specialty – particularly writing," Prophit says of his school days. "I always put much thought and took great pride in every word that I would put down from pen to paper." He also began to expand musically, starting Three Steps Through Silence, a metal band that was part of an underground scene in Brooklyn. His work with the band helped him approach his song writing in a new way and even redefined his rapping. "Those are my roots," he says of metal. "That's where I come from." Prophit left college to pursue work in the music business, and quickly lined up jobs at Columbia and Mercury Records. "It was eye-opening to see the inner workings of the music biz and how fragile an artist’s career can be," he says. It was at this time that Prophit strategically decided not to tell anyone he was an artist, preferring instead to wait until the time was right. "I knew how cutthroat the music game can be at times and I didn’t want anyone messing with my art," he says. "I wanted to wait until I felt I was ready, so I kept my tracks to myself." He soon followed his label stints working in artist management, where he convinced himself that it was finally time to let it be known. "I can be pretty hard on myself at times, but when I finally opened up to people about my art, the response I got was extremely positive . . . everyone was like, ‘Why didn’t you tell me you rapped?’" Of course, now he's more than ready to tell people about his work. Far from keeping his music a secret, these days Prophit is busy putting the finishing touches on his debut mix tape, working on songs for a full-length and constantly playing shows in NYC and beyond. Looking back at a lifetime listening to music, Prophit isn't shy about name checking the artists he's learned from over the years. Coming up in New York – where you can hit a hardcore show in the afternoon and then listen to the latest hip hop on Hot 97 all night -- these influences are understandably varied. Prophit cites Daryl Palumbo from Long Island hardcore band Glassjaw as his major inspiration. "His band saved my life," he says. “He taught me how to write music, how to express yourself, how to say what you feel." Not ignoring his hip hop ideology, Prophit talks about the emcees that have influenced him the most. Nas, a rapper he particularly identifies with, taught him "how to paint a picture with your words," while Outkast's Andre 3000 taught him the importance of being yourself. Big Pun records showed Prophit about the technical side of rhyming, while he learned the art of wordplay from Ghostface. He even looked to Jay-Z for tips on how to be both an artist and a businessman. And like most music fans, Prophit is finding new influences all the time. "I take influences as they come," he says, which means getting into Jeff Buckley, Sade and old-school punk one day, Phil Collins the next. But despite being able to rattle off numerous influences, Prophit's music doesn't sounds derivative of any of his favorite rappers. The laidback flow, intricate wordplay and infectious choruses on tracks like "Make Love" and "Get Lifted" genuinely sound like a new voice, rather than a new version of something that's already been done. To this end, Prophit has been slowly amassing tracks for his first full-length, titled The D.R.E.A.M.E.R., a record he describes as "10 years in the making." Why labor on the album for a decade? "My goal is for it to be a classic album," he says, "a timeless piece of music." But anxious to get something out for the people who can't wait, he's finishing up his first mixtape,"Cause When You Stop Dreaming it’s time to Die...". "It's a chance to give people a taste and really come out swinging," Prophit says. In addition to dropping his first mix tape, Prophit is playing plenty of dates in the coming months, including a high-profile set this summer at Lollapalooza 2009 in Chicago. "The show is the most important part of the equation," Prophit says. He relishes the emotional connection with the audience, a holdover from those hardcore shows where the audience acted like another member of the group. "I try to keep things centered on the crowd, so they don't forget that they're as much a part of the show as I am," he says. For someone who's been working hard in all aspects of the music game for a while, things seem to be aligning for Prophit in 2009. After years of making music and working with other artists, this current success is not lost on the young rapper. "I'm here at the perfect time," he says.