Born Marvin Watson, he grew up in the Eddy Street housing projects in the Fillmore District of San Francisco. As a teenager he made his commercial recording debut in 1996 with the full-length album Messy Situationz. A couple years later he released the West Coast underground classic Explosive Mode (1998), a collaboration with his cousin, rapper San Quinn, with guest features from some of the Bay Area's most prominent rap artists of the time: rappers E-40, Rappin' 4-Tay, and Celly Cel along with producers Mike Mosley and Tone Capone. A steady stream of albums followed -- Death on a Bitch (1999), Still Explosive (2001), Turf Politics (2002), Turf Thuggin' (2002), Bonnie & Clyde (2003) -- though none was particularly popular or as well received as Explosive Mode had been. Moreover, Messy Marv struggled with personal issues during this period; for instance, he was confined to a wheelchair for half a year after breaking both of his legs in a fall from a fourth-floor window in 2001. He reached the Billboard charts for the first time with Disobayish (2004), a mainstream breakthrough featuring guest features by West Coast superstars E-40, Keak da Sneak, Too Short, and Nate Dogg. The follow-up album Bandannas, Tattoos & Tongue Rings (2005) was similarly popular, reaching the Billboard charts and spawning the regional hit "Get on My Hype." A subsequent prison stint didn't affect Messy Marv's musical output much. He continued releasing several albums a year, a mix of solo efforts, collaborations, and mixtapes. In 2006 he had a big hit with "So Hood," a collaboration with Guce from the Bullys wit Fullys album The Infrastructure. ~ Jason Birchmeier