Bio

 Born to Lonnie Craig Sr. and Jeanette Holloway Craig in Hattiesburg, Mississippi on September 18, 1991 at Forrest General Hospital; Lonnie Craig Jr. “C.J”, artistically known as, “C.R.G” which is the acronym for Creativity-Refines-Genuity; would be birthed into the world to become an amazing entertainer with vast talent and passion for art and music. He is the youngest and only son out of 3 older siblings who are girls. Inspired by cartoons, anime, and video games, he at first had the aspiration of drawing art, sketching heroes and creating his own characters from his imagination. Underlying his interest in art, music has always been a factor in his life. At a young age, he would always be humming and singing melodies when playing with toys alone to himself. 

Whenever he was around his older sister and cousins, however; they would dance and reenact to music videos from different genres. Being the son of a gospel quartet singer and guitarist, he would watch and become captivated whenever his dad sung and played his guitar at home or at church programs. Also being exposed to other local gospel acts when traveling to his dad, Lonnie became fascinated with playing drums. Being that he was too young to play at his home church or anywhere else, he would put together boxes, pans, and miscellaneous things around the house that he could find to resemble a drum set for him bang on continuously! It was soon that his parents and love ones seen he had a niche for music.

They would buy and surprise him with toy instruments that occupied him for long periods of time, almost to the time when everybody in the household is winding down for bed. His imagination would always be restless, in spite of him having to go to sleep. When he was in grade school, Lonnie participated in many plays and programs that showed his outstanding showmanship and keen ability to portray his parts and singing vocals. He won a few talent shows and some awards for his performance. He knew something inside him was natural when it came to singing and acting parts in the plays he was in. Through out the years of his life, he battled with bullying and insults from other kids in his neighborhood or at school. Most incidents led to verbal and physical altercations that began to take a mental toll on him while trying to focus through grade school, having little friends to talk to or hang with. Despite those situations, his parents always taught the life lessons and the word of God to keep faith and hope in stilled in him. 

Although the love he got at home was merciful, the outside world was not so, leading Lonnie to embracing his anger and acting out of defense. But with majority of his personal time, he would channel it through drawing and eventually through music. In the 6th grade, he would listen to a lot of rap and hip-hop and would become intrigued by it while also still having a love for gospel and old school music. It was in this grade where Lonnie would write a verse for a little class project in the library. Though he couldn’t really rap during that time, followed by the discouragement of some of his classmates, he decided that this was fun and that it could be something therapeutic that could help him cope with his problems. By the summer of graduating to junior high, Lonnie would frequently write songs and hooks and record them on just a tape recorder! He eventually seen potential in his skill of putting words together and decided to really hone himself to make something of it.

In middle school, Lonnie began to take a piano class as an elective. He used to love the class so much till it was almost only class he was concerned about! When he figured out the custom record function of one of the keyboards, he would sneak and record melodies and songs he would hear early in the morning before school. He quickly discovered how to play by ear, playing the notes with the exact key and tone that he heard it. This led to him becoming interest in music production and audio engineering. His parents bought him a huge Casio keyboard for Christmas in 2005, which helped him come up with more ideas and melodies for songs. Sometime after, Lonnie would enter into a talent showcase he and his friends were told to participate in by his classmates to really see if he really had what it took. Unfortunately, Lonnie messed up on his verse and choked up. He felted that was the most embarrassing moment to ever happen to him. Ashamed and disgusted, he was clowned by his schoolmates upon being embarrassed that quickly led to a fighting someone on his school bus, because of how serious he felt about messing up with part in the song. Disappointed and upset, Lonnie wanted to give up writing music all together after the incident, but something inside him didn’t allow him to give up! It was a burning sensation that coursed through out his whole body and back to his heart.

In his years of high school, Lonnie would become even more serious about music. He was bought a laptop during the Christmas of 2008, which he discovered how to audio records with Adobe Audition and make beats with Fruity Loop Studios. He practiced day and night to get better and better with his craft. He became so proficient in it, that he started performing at local talent shows and club events to develop his performance. In his senior year, he performed at his high school’s talent show. With performing at different locations around the area, he knew the ultimate test would be to overcome his fear of embarrassment to prove to him that he has what it takes to make it as an awesome performer. He would go to take Hattiesburg and surrounding locations by storm. He performed for major events such as the Cocoa Cola Bottling Company and was featured on the local mix tape, “Pine Belt Hip Hop’s Finest Volume 2”, hosted by Babiboi of U2DK Produckionz. Upon his 2010 graduation, he was featured on a collaboration album, “JUICE”, featuring the legendary, underground Memphis hip hop artist, “Mr.Sche”. Within the years of 2011 and 2012, Lonnie would be very active in the local hip-hop scene as well as the local college open mic scene. Upon being apart of the Wild Out, it is where he would meet and become inspired by fellow artist and long time friend, Orlando S Jones Jr., who is artistically known as, “Jones”. From then on, the two would become a duo, creating diverse and heartfelt music. Jones released his entitled work, “The Nice To Meet You EP”, featuring a number of instrumental productions from C.R.G. One of the major hits of the project was, “Ready” featuring 4Recognition’s own, “Rico Sivad”, which got major spin on Wild 106.3 radio, Jackson radio, and in other national locations. Wednesday’s Around Fall 2013, C.R.G release his first solo mixtape entitled, “Amped Up”, which caused a major buzz around the Hattiesburg Pine Belt Area. Since then, he has travelled to many locations showing dynamic stage performances in places like Austin, Texas for the Coast 2 Coast Artist Showcase, North and South Carolina at Tremont Music Hall. Further more performances included opening up for major industry artist such as Twista, Twiztid, Blaze Ya Dead Homie Lil Wyte, Stevie Stone, Big Freedia, and many more. C.R.G continues to push the music envelope and boundaries that are set by the norm and unyielding seeks to become the one of the best there is.