As if that wasn't enough, he had to share not only a room, but a single queen-sized mattress with his older brother and two younger siblings.  He and his family endured living that way for 5 years.  Even with all of that, Tommy as he prefers to be called was a vibrant, outgoing young boy.  Back in those days however, those traits didn't exactly earn him any student-of-the-year nominations as he would often times be sent home from school with "pink slips" for talking out of turn in class, or being the class clown.  But don't be deceived.  Just because he would get into a little mischief from time to time doesn't mean that he was a bad student.  In fact, he was quite the opposite.  Tommy grew up making A's and B's on his report cards for the most part, and he had a passion for reading that was unrivaled.  One story he likes to tell dates back to when he was in middle school.  He would pretend to be asleep in class just so that his Language Arts Teacher would call on him to pick up reading where she'd left off!  Since each student would only get one chance to read aloud, he'd burry his head in his arms, face-down on his desk giving the appearance that he was asleep.  All the while, he'd be following along with the teacher the whole time so that whenever his name was called, he'd raise his head and continue reading without skipping a beat!

     Anyways, you get the picture.  Tommy loved to read.  And as he grew older, his love for reading made the seamless transition to writing and by the time he graduated high school, his writing capabilities had developed into another one of his many talents.  Musically however, he hadn't linked the two together just yet.  Going back to his childhood, Tommy recalls the days when his dad would wake up early in the morning, open all the curtains in the house, and play music all day as some of his happiest moments growing up in the Tucker household.  He recalls his dad would start off playing "oldies-but-goodies" from his enormous vinyl collection and gradually mix in music that was more contemporary until hits of the day reverberated through the house.

     Tommy's earliest Hip Hop memory was listening to Frankle Smith's "Double Dutch Bus" when he was living with his grandmother during the mid-eighties.  While the up-tempo track was an attention grabber, he credits two songs for making him fall in love with the genre:  Run D.M.C's "Peter Piper" and Beastie Boys’ "Paul Revere".  After receiving Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill, and Run D.M.C.'s Raising Hell cassettes from his dad one Christmas, Tommy said he couldn't stop listening to those two songs.  He was mesmerized by the sound and flow each track had to offer and from then on, Hip Hop and R&B were his two favorite genres of music.

     In 1989, he and his family moved from his grandma's house in Emporia, Virginia to Barstow, California because his dad came up on military orders to serve at the National Training Center (NTC) in Fort Irwin, CA.  It was there where he was introduced to West Coast Hip Hop and acquired new hip-hop idols; namely Tupac, Snoop Dogg, and Dr. Dre.  After graduating from Barstow High School in 1997, he followed in his father's footsteps and joined the Army as a Tank Turret Mechanic.  It wasn't until two years later however, that he would discover his hidden talent of rapping. 

     While stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, Tommy and a few of his friends decided to take a trip to Dallas one weekend and while doing so, partook in several freestyle cypher sessions.  Once they concluded, one of his friends told him about a producer he was working with, whom he would later meet and freestyle for.  During that meeting, his buddy and new-found producer would go on to develop a group called the Upmost Click.  It was at that very moment when the light bulb illuminated in his head giving him the idea of pursuing a rap career.  Unfortunately, during the year or so they were together, none of their music ever left the house it was made in.  So when he left Texas to go to Friedberg, Germany, he was left to pursue his musical aspirations on his own.  Luckily for him, the two most popular genres of music being played in Germany at the time were Hip Hop/R&B, and House/Techno Music.  Additionally, rap contests were being held in hip-hop clubs all around him so he would get more than enough opportunities to put his rapping skills on display. 

     Tommy recalls the first rap contest he entered as being completely unintentional.  After hearing the club promoter announce that there would be a rap contest taking place later that night, Tommy said he bought and downed two Long Island Ice Tea's in quick succession to gain the courage to sign up for the contest.  As fate would have it, he was the first rapper called to the stage that night, which according to him, is the worst.  He said that as soon as he grabbed the mic and looked out into the crowd, all he could see was fingers gesturing him to get off stage.  He also remembers hearing a lot of boo's.  He noted that all of this was witnessed before a single word was uttered!  But once the DJ dropped the instrumental to Black Rob's hit single "Woah!" and he began rapping, he noticed that about half way through his verse, some of the hands that were gesturing him to leave had transitioned to covering their mouths in amazement, and by the end of his performance, boos could no longer be heard.  While he didn't win the contest, he walked away that night knowing that he had something.

     During his two year stint in Germany, Tommy would continue to enter rap contests and increase his notoriety until he was consistently placing in the top-two spots during each outing.  This eventually led him to meeting people that would ultimately help him record his first demo.  As fast as things were moving for him in his professional life as a soldier and budding rapper, he was settling down in his personal life as he met, and later married the love of his life, Patricia.

     By the time he left Germany, Tommy - who was now going by the stage name Krydi-Cal, had a demo, a wife, and a baby on the way!  Things were moving quickly for the soldier-turned-rapper repping Barstow, CA.  But all of that momentum would come to a screeching halt upon his return to the states.  As Krydi-Cal settled into his new life as a husband and father in his Fort Knox, Kentucky residence, he quickly realized that the musical opportunities that were so prevalent for him in Germany were vastly scarce in Kentucky.  In Germany, he had a name - he had a buzz.  In Kentucky, he had a demo and nowhere to go with it.  There wasn't much of a hip-hop scene, and there definitely were no rap contests being held for him to enter.  Yet and still, as grim as things were, he still managed to make moves.  After one of his co-workers told him about a "battle of the bands" contest that was being held in Louisville, Krydi-Cal made the 40 mile trek from Fort Knox to try his luck.  Upon his arrival, he quickly realized he was a fish out of water as he was the only hip-hop act in the contest.  Interestingly enough however, after his performance, he was approached by a representative from the Insane Clown Posse with a proposition to make "horror music" to which he declined. 

     A few months later, he heard a talent scouting ad on the radio and auditioned for that as well.  In doing so, he was selected to go to Chicago where he got the opportunity to have his music heard by A&R Executives from some of the industry’s most notable record labels such as Def Jam, Capitol Records, and Slip-N-Slide Records.  To his disappointment, nothing came from the meetings.

     Shortly thereafter, Krydi-Cal made the decision to get out of the military and move back to Germany to pursue his dreams of making it big as a hip-hop artist.  When he went back, he linked up with a prominent DJ and producer who went by the name of DJ Bass.  At the time, DJ Bass was in the process of starting up his own record label called BottomLine Music.  Krydi-Cal was immediately accepted into DJ Bass' growing line of artists.  Picking right back up from where he left off, Krydi-Cal got back in the studio and started recording new music.  Likewise, he and his label mates starting performing shows all throughout Germany.  Over the course of the next two years, he was performing in night clubs from Wiesbaden to Mainz Kastel on a regular basis.  That is, until he got sick one day and was later diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.  

     His ailment hit him hard and fast.  It made him re-evaluate his life and shortly thereafter, he decided to leave Germany to go back to the states and get a "real job".  Once back in the states, he stopped pursuing a hip-hop career and focused on providing for his family.  Over the next 10 years or so, he would work in the Defense Contracting Industry which earned him and his family a comfortable middle-class lifestyle.

     Now, it can be said that even though he was no longer writing songs or doing shows, his musical aspirations didn't escape him entirely.  That's because he took up the art of making beats as his hobby.  In 2007, he downloaded the popular music making software called FL Studio and began honing his skills as a beat maker.  Over the years, as he puts it, his beat making skills got better while the industry's got worse.  At one point, it got so bad that the once aspiring hip-hop artist could no longer listen to hip-hop!  Coming to that realization brought back his desire to make music.  He dropped the "Cal" from his stage name (which is where "Krydi" comes from), started his own record label, and is now putting out music on his own.  Incredible right! 

    Now that you're all caught up, you get to decide how this story ends!  You made it this far.  Now all you have to do is show your support by liking, subscribing, streaming, or purchasing the music that brought you here in the first place! 

 

And with that said, Krydi and the rest of the Krydi-Cal Team would like to extend their sincerest gratitude by saying, “Thank you for your time and support!”