Mack Wilds 528

Tristan Paul Mack Wilds is best known for his acting roles as Michael Lee and Dixon Wilson on HBO’s “The Wire” and CW’s “90210” respectively, but before he hit Hollywood, Wilds dreamed of a career in music. “I don’t remember a time in my life when music wasn’t a factor in my life,” the Staten Island product says. “I was immersed in what music was in the ’90s. Everything we heard in hip-hop, I could look outside of my window in the projects and see it going on.”

Growing up, Mack saw his father sing in local bands. He looked to follow in his dad’s footsteps by practicing around their home in Stapleton housing projects, the same housing projects that produced numerous members of Wu-Tang Clan. Wilds’ earliest music influences were Stevie Wonder and Marvin Gaye, but he also took to hip-hop idolizing MCs like Jay-Z and Nas.

At around the age of 13, after puberty hit, Mack noticed his voice began to change and he then added rapping to his repertoire. “The music has always been my first love,” he says, even though his teenage years were spent acting on television and in films like 2008’s “The Secret Life of Bees” with Queen Latifah and Dakota Fanning and in 2012’s “Red Tails” alongside Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Terrence Howard.

“Even with all of the accomplishments, I still feel like I haven’t scratched the surface of where I’m supposed to be,” Mack says.

Mack hooked up with Grammy-nominated music producer Salaam Remi in 2012 and signed with his Sony-distributed Re Mi Fa record label. Together the two recorded New York: A Love Story, a 1990s hip-hop-centered, R&B-laced tale of love and loss.

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