ZEUS graduated from James Pace High School where his earliest memory of creating music was skipping class to record freestyles on a friend’s karaoke machine with beats they downloaded on Napster. Instantly hooked, he took to every open mic and freestyle battle he could find, gaining the attention of zero fans with the exception of other artists in Rio Grande Valley whom he'd later recruit to open the doors of his own recording studio. He failed miserably, joined the military, and gave up music forever.. or at least that's what he thought.

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He served four years active duty U.S. Air Force in the field of Military Intelligence at NSA. Like Johnny Cash, ZEUS began his military service as a morse code operator and later picked up a variety of opportunities that never fully fulfilled his passion like music. During his enlistment he collaborated with a tight group of friends, recording songs to play at parties - only acknowledging it was them on the song if nobody said "Who is that? Turn that sh*t off". Near the end of his enlistment, ZEUS' made a promise to one of his closest collaborators and friend SSgt Jarrod Vallejos that he would finish his enlistment and pursue music. He tragically lost his friend weeks later.

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ZEUS continued to honor his promise, successfully releasing two albums as Carlton Zeus and working with fellow veterans to produce BaseFEST music festivals on military bases across the country for troops & families.

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