Consistently using soul-inflected hip-hop productions as his platform, alternative rapper SoulStice accumulated dozens of accolades from critics and underground hip-hop fans alike for his perceptive, highly literate, and concept-driven albums. Ashley Llorens was born in Southside Chicago, but his family eventually moved a little bit further south into the suburban neighborhood University Park, where Llorens grew up. He was initially inspired to rap in the seventh grade when a friend played a tape by Chicago native Twista (known then as Tung Twista). By 1993, he was writing his own rap lyrics, and by 1997, his freshmen year at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), he was an on-stage performer.