Coming up in the rough region of Durham, North Carolina was not an easy feat. Raised in a single-parent household, Money Over Sex (born Leander Pickett) was your average rambunctious inner city black youth. But as he entered his teens, the bleak realities of the urban inner city experience began to set in, drastically altering his outlook on his future. "I never thought about college, I thought I was going to be in the dope game," he recalls. At the age of 16, he reached a pivotal crossroads in his young life. He was expelled from Durham's public school system in the 11th grade for participating in a rather risqué act in the school bathroom with a female student.

After a stint in the pen, M.O.S. acted on his new lease on life and went full steam ahead with a new vision. He began frequent trips to New York City to visit a close friend and subsequently found himself in the middle of impromptu ciphers and battles with local M.C.s. "New York looks at rap a little bit different than everybody else," remarks M.O.S. "They don't care where you from, they just wanna know one thing: Can you spit?" With that said, he quickly garnered a strong reputation for his uniquely tenacious pit bull flow and hard-hitting lyrics. "I've been up in the projects in Queens and the South Bronx battling the best of the best and I always got love from them." And though he returned to Durham and kept grinding with his rap hustle the best way he knew how, M.O.S. wasn't sure where else to steer his B.E.A.M Team ship. Enter Ski Beats, and the rest is current history.