When J-Kwon leaps on stage to accept his first major music award, he'll have lots of people to thank. But his speech won't be a litany of memories about friends and family who believed in him and fueled him with the positive encouragement he needed to succeed. Instead, he'll thank the passersby - known and unknown - who left him, at the age of 13, to fight for his dream on the lonely streets of south side St. Louis. It was their inability to see his vision that made his dream bigger and stronger and it was their disbelief that forced him to show and prove.

"When I was 12, 13, I was a real good student," J-Kwon recalls, "but I was like 'Mama, I wanna di this (rap) thing.' I used to watch TV and see them on there. I was like, 'THat's all they doing? I can do that.' I was like 'All I need is some girls and a little jewelry, Mama and keep myself clean, Mama. And I can do it, Mama.' Mama was like 'Yeah, right. If that's what you gonna do, get out my house. You wanna do that, go continue to the J-Kwon Biography...