ProTéGé

BIOGRAPHY OF ProTéGé-- It’s funny sometimes how life can make us wake up and realize that our time here is limited and that we aren’t here to stay forever. ProTéGé--, born Rodney Lee Banks on June 23rd, 1984 in Las Vegas, Nevada had his wake up call on the day of July 24th 2002. Prior to this life changing date, ProTéGé-- was always into music heavily, rhyming along side his brother (Rob a.k.a. Kid Finesse) at the tender age of four, he always wanted to make a career out of it, but never took his gift serious until he was presented with the chance to do so through the words of a long-time friend Jeffery back in November 2001. Jeffery suggested that ProTéGé-- take his rhyming to the next level and get into an actual studio to record material with hip-hop producer Moe-Deal of ThirdLeGGg Productions. ProTéGé-- took this advice and began going to the studio to record material weekly and began to really enjoy his new path. Although he was into his music, many outside things such as (money problems, drama with enemies, stress, police, death, and the need to succeed) began to side track ProTéGé-- from his path. While still recording, ProTéGé-- began to slip off to the point where he would only get a chance to go to the studio once a week, and sometimes not at all due to his aforementioned trials and tribulations. Things changed however on July 24th, 2002 when ProTéGé-- awoke from his bed leaned over in pain. Hardly unable to walk, he thought nothing of this, and wrote it off as a minor issue of indigestion. Proceeding through his day, the pain in his stomach became worse, which eventually had him slowing his walk pace, and becoming weaker by the minute. Eventually he suggested to his brother, Rob, that he needed to go to a UMC Quick Care to receive treatment. Taking heed to his younger brother’s advice Rob took ProTéGé-- to UMC. Once at the UMC offices, ProTéGé-- sat in the waiting room for 45 minutes before receiving a call-back to go visit the doctor. Happy to be in the dr.’s office once his chance came, ProTéGé--, explained to the doctor what was going on, and how much the pain made him weak. The doctor (whose name we won’t mention but needs to be stripped of his medical license) wrote the extreme pain off as nothing more than constipation, and suggested medicine to correct the problem. Rob took ProTéGé-- to the store, got the medication, came home, and administered the treatment…….to no avail. The medicine the “doctor” prescribed didn’t help at all, in fact it made the pain worse, because shortly after ProTéGé-- took it, his already hurt stomach went through more excruciating pain as the medicine found it’s way out of his stomach, and back out through his mouth. Hovering over a toilet, ProTéGé-- began to vomit numerous times, to the point the could barely stand. ProTéGé-- suggested to his family, that he just wanted to lay down and rest to see if the pain would pass……this was short-lived. Respecting his wishes, ProTeGe family let him rest but returned back to his room when they discovered him laying on the floor not-responding. Five minutes after his worried family left him to be alone, ProTéGé-- staggered from his bed, leaned over the sink, and vomited so hard that he blacked out and hit the floor. The impact from his body bouncing off of the cold tile floor was so loud that his family thought the house was crumbling and came rushing to his room to find him laying there motionless. Screaming his name out, and trying to help ProTéGé-- stand up, he eventually came around but was so weak he could hardly talk, but had enough energy to tell his family to take him to the hospital. Not thinking twice, his family piled into their vehicle, and rushed to the nearest hospital they could find. Once there, they demanded to see a doctor immediately in hopes to get their loved one corrected. Nurses rushed into the emergency room, put ProTéGé-- on a stretcher, and wheeled him into the observation room for a series of tests to find out the exact cause of the problem. After the last test had been ran, and ProTéGé-- was asleep from the medication the nurses gave him, the surgeon came into the waiting room to let ProTéGé-- family know that if they would’ve waited another 30 minutes to get him to the hospital……….he would’ve passed on tragically; but fortunately since that wasn’t the case, ProTéGé-- life could be saved, but emergency surgery had to be performed. Apparently that so-called case of indigestion the previous “doctor” suggested the pain stemmed from, turned out to be much more severe. One of ProTéGé-- intestines broke away from the rest of his stomach, and began to strangulate his smaller intestines to the point his body could get blood to the proper region of his body. The cause for this came from all of the previous things ProTéGé-- was experiencing, and eventually got the better of him, and nearly cost him his life. Once ProTéGé-- awoke from his drug-induced sleep state, his family gave him the news of how he was only minutes away from death, and what actions needed to be taken from that point on. This news hit ProTéGé-- so hard, that once the surgery had been performed, and the index finger sized scar from multiple scalpel incisions had been stitched up, ProTéGé-- sat in his hospital bed alone, and began to reflect on how quickly he could’ve not only lost everything he had been working for, but how he could’ve died in the blink of an eye with no hesitations what so ever. This was the dawning of his wake up call to take life by the reigns, and chase his dreams to the best of his ability. Having stayed in the hospital for 5 days, ProTéGé-- was released, and put on 2 months bed rest to fully recuperate from his surgery. Discouraged at first, ProTéGé-- felt like things were getting worse, but then a ray of sunshine hit him in least expecting moment. Fresh from the hospital the same day of his release ProTéGé-- sat on the edge of his bed, picked up a fresh notepad his brother Rob had bought him, and wrote his very first song post-surgery. Though he couldn’t use his voice, (due to the hospital tubes being placed in his nose & throat), he mumbled the words of his songs the best he could, in order to rehearse his material. ProTéGé-- got into a zone once that first song was written, and instead of sitting around complaining and moaning, he began to write more, and more material than he had ever thought possible. His family was concerned for his health, and suggested he just lay in bed, but ProTéGé-- didn’t listen,…….the only thing he was focused on was making quality material once he recovered fully, and that’s exactly what he did. As soon as it was ok for ProTéGé-- to return to his regular way of life, he was in the studio more than just one day a week, writing bits and pieces of verses at work, school, and even in his head whenever he had a chance to do so. This lead to ProTéGé-- forming his own recording company (G.F.M.M. Records---God-Family-Music-Money), releasing multiple mix-tapes in his city, entering local battles, and dropping the hottest 16 bar verses ears have ever heard of DVD projects with other labels. This garnered a huge buzz in the streets of Las Vegas for ProTéGé--, and put him in high demand as the marquee artist to look out for around the town. July 24th, 2002, not only made him wake up and get on his grind, but it also made him return to the gym and develop the chiseled physique you can see on his myspace page, and in his many other websites he’s attained through hard-work and determination. “What could’ve been a tragic situation turned out to be a blessing in disguise” says ProTéGé--. “I looked at the situation negatively when it first happened, but then I realized that at the rate I was going prior to this happening, I would’ve eventually ended up seriously hurting somebody, or getting myself hurt………..this was God’s way of slowing me down and, and making me focus on what’s important in my life…….since that has happened I’ve been changed. Of course like everyone else, I still have my moments of anger and what not, but I know things could’ve been worse…….that’s why I go so hard in my music, and you can feel me when I speak, because I know I’m not gonna be here forever, but my music will continue to live long after I’m gone, so it’s my job to treat every song like my last” (ProTéGé‘s-- MySpace Music Profile currently has over 200,000 total plays, and also has over 19,000 friends on his list.) *Check out PROSLOGIC.COM, PROTÉGÉ....COM, & http://www.arselect.com/mysongs/ProTéGé **ProTéGé-- a.k.a. "Tha Prince of Vegas".....a.k.a. "Mr. I Luv Haterz" is currently hard at work on three albums which include his solo debut, his new mixtape album, and his groups new mixtape album as well. His myspace page is killing the internet right now, and is a big hit with the ladies as well.