Biography
Bernard
Terrell Howard (born November 23, 1981) known by his fans as Lyrical Storm is
an independent Hip Hop musician and entertainer. Although revered for his live
performances Lyrical Storm’s poetic storytelling truly makes him unique among
the multitude of rappers in the music industry. Adding his love for playing
instruments into his shows Lyrical Storm often plays the trombone and acoustic
guitar with a band or throughout his solo performances. His first mainstream
Hip Hop performance took place at the 2008 City of Dreamz artist showcase from
the club formerly known as Club Ritz in Cincinnati, OH. Hosted by 101.1 FM The
Wiz this showcase included Kevin Lies, A&R representatives from Jive
Records, and representatives from ByStorm Entertainment.
Although very early in his career Lyrical
Storm is focused on making strides to become a recognized name in Hip Hop music
history. Pushing his entertainment career further Lyrical Storm has created two
Hip Hop albums and two books under his independent business Lyrical Storm®
which became registered by the USPTO in 2008. In a way to keep pace with
technology and the Hip Hop fans of today Lyrical Storm has built a personal
website where he sells his independent music and books digitally to his
continually growing fan-base. In 2012 Lyrical Storm also created his own
web-series ‘Behind the Lyrics’ that has generated over 10,000 hits in under 6
months. He is currently in the works of making an uncut version of this
web-series for subscribing fans on his website LyricalStorm.com.
Early
Life
Lyrical Storm was born in Fort Wayne, IN
to Bernice and Frederick McGhee. Fairly raised in a single parent household
Storm was the third oldest of four siblings living with his mother. Storm was
rumored to be one of the worst kids to baby-sit as a child until video games
came into existence. Growing up his interest as a youth were only video games
and sports. It wouldn’t be until 6th grade that Storm decided to
join a school band and play the trombone. Getting a love for playing music
would eventually come later as Storm took to playing after school sport
programs to stay out of trouble. It wasn’t until the age of 16 that Storm would
join his first Hip-Hop group named the Black Italians. Splitting time between
sports and music Storm grew into his writing craft even more raising his
English class test scores from below average to a 3.0 GPA his senior year.
Around that time Storm was close to completing his first poetry book. By his
first year of college Storm planned to publish his poetry books to help pay for
his tuition. Storm performed his love poetry around nightclubs in the
Indianapolis, IN area and quickly turned his interest into making music as a
full time reality. It was after a live serenade where Storm recited his love
poetry and passed roses out to women that he conjured the stage name Lyrical
Storm. Financial hardships forced Storm to prematurely exit college with only
two years of studies in marketing management. It wouldn’t be until relocating
to Cincinnati, OH in 2006 that he would start his professional music career.
There Lyrical Storm began working two jobs and building his 2007 website
business for the future. Working with other local rap artist in the area
Lyrical Storm decided to trademark his name and work on composing his own music
with instruments. Using his on and off years of trombone playing helped him learn
the keyboard with ease. Then looking for a way to freshen his love poetry Storm
quickly added an acoustic guitar to his instrument resume. Still early in his
music career Lyrical Storm is working on changing his Hip-Hop music into a
style that older fans of live music will love, and also one that the youth will
respect and grow with. Although revered for his live performances Lyrical
Storm’s poetic storytelling truly makes him unique among the multitude of
rappers in the music industry.
Career
There are very few Hip-Hop artists who
pursue several fields of entertainment and become successful in every one, but
Lyrical Storm is determined that his writing ability can exist in every form of
entertainment worldwide. Recognizing the changes within the major record labels
with contracts and digital overtake Lyrical Storm chose to go the independent
route. Lyrical Storm gains over 150,000 hits annually selling his merchandise
on his personal website and other online markets throughout his product
campaigns. His website LyricalStorm.com has been running for more than 5 years
successfully with much more room for growth. With so much early success Lyrical
Storm plans on entertaining his fans for at least 35 years or more through
music, books, and motion pictures. Lyrical Storm has a hidden interest in
cinematography and has been working with video production equipment since his
early teens. His most professional creations have been formed into Hip-Hop
music videos and an online web-series.
Music
In 2009
Lyrical Storm released his first full album ‘The Box Theory LP’ in physical and digital formats. Singles like Abandoned, Copy Paste Click, Hate Me, and
Polytone Wimp helped to promote the album over the internet for great
reviews. This album received reviews from Billboard Discoveries, A&R
Select, and many other media sources. Releasing a half album in 2012 Lyrical
Storm’s ‘Lottery Ticket EP’ album
features five singles only available in digital format from his website
LyricalStorm.com. The album’s headline single ‘Lottery Ticket’ takes justified jabs at the music industry’s
manipulation of radio station playlists and repetitive cycles to brainwashing
listeners.
Books
In 2007 Lyrical Storm independently
published his first softcover book ‘Finding
Love 101’ as the first volume of three ‘Finding
Love 102 and Uncharted Vaults volume three’ in the poetry series ‘Uncharted Vaults volume 1-3’. Evolving
his writing talents to another level in 2011 Lyrical Storm completed his first
114,621 word romance novel ‘A Cheater’s
Lies’ in 6 months. Building his online consumer fan-base strong Lyrical
Storm was able to achieve over 1,000 download samples / views of ‘A Cheater’s Lies PDF sample’ in less
than three months. Lyrical Storm plans on releasing the last two volumes of his
first poetry series and a sequel romance novel ‘Love & Lyrics’ in the upcoming years as eBooks.
Video
Productions
Lyrical Storm’s 2010 debut music video was
‘Reality … What Does It Mean?’ a
music video created in Cincinnati, OH. This music video features another
emerging rapper in the Midwest while exposing Lyrical Storm’s aptitude to
create low budget music videos. His second music video in 2011 ‘Lottery Ticket’ actually featured him
performing while fans participated in scratching off lottery tickets throughout
the music video. Moving on from music videos Lyrical Storm has started to
record his own web-series ‘Behind the
Lyrics’ that has eight 30 minute episodes for its first season. It is
planned that another season is already in the works with an uncut version
available for fans to purchase on his website.
Personal
Life
Lyrical Storm has two half-brothers and
four half-sisters. One of which has Autism. In a way to give back Lyrical Storm
focuses his concerns on the research and cure for Autism. Searching for his
family origins Lyrical Storm also supports charities that help poor African
civilizations hoping to one day connect with his lost African heritage. Lyrical
Storm enjoys occasional dating, but currently remains single and has no
children.
Read the PDF version of my 2012 Biography