Raised in adjacent Queens, he started to learn the piano at age six and wrote his first song, spurred by hearing Brian McKnight's "Anytime," roughly seven years later. He developed his talent at the Juilliard School and Five Towns College. He signed to M USA Entertainment and debuted in 2008 with "Let's Ride," a single that sampled Donald Byrd's mid-'70s jazz-funk classic "Wind Parade" and featured a guest verse from Jadakiss. Additional singles were scattered throughout 2009 and 2010, but X-an-tus was relatively inactive for a few years. He resumed later in the 2010s with more singles, including "Smokin' and Drinkin'" (2013), "Watch You Workin'" (2014), and "All for Love" (2014), the last of which reunited him with Jadakiss. ~ Andy Kellman