Unlisted Artist was raised in Teaneck, New Jersey into a family that has extensive musical tastes and knowledge. Having a brother 7 years older, was the ideal situation growing up to be schooled in the genre of music that would later become Unlisted Artist's passion. With Hip-Hop filling the house, as well as great Motown artists, Doo Wop artists, Jazz Artists, and many others, Unlisted Artist musical knowledge was known as "beyond his years" to many older people he associated with. The first rhyme ever written came as part of a school project in 8th grade, and after much praise, became a major hobby that consumed all his free time. In Teaneck at that time, if you rhymed, you could find someone to rhyme with. Unlisted Artist (then known as Distress) was starting to take freestyle and written rhyme "Battles" very seriously and joined an unofficial group of solo artists. Unlisted Artist was "discovered" during an impromptu performance at a college party he was invited to in his late teens. After rhyming over multiple instrumentals thrown on by a DJ he had never met before, a completely unrehearsed performance got everyone's attention. That next Monday Unlisted recieved a phone call from an in-house producer at Gee Street Records who had gotten his number through a long line of people. Within weeks, they had a production deal in place, which eventually led to a contract. After the leak of a few songs set to come out on his album, there were two songs that got a lot of underground attention that took his efforts to Japan and also the UK. However, the label he had been working with had started to be dismantled after being bought by a much larger label. Since then, Distress changed his name to Unlisted Artist because he feels that Unlisted is the perfect word to describe the kind of artist he will always want to be, unclassified, and uncomparable. Unlisted was inspired by Original School artists like LL Cool J, Slick Rick, and Run DMC the most, then later he found himself influenced by the likes of Wu-Tang Clan, Onyx, and Black Moon.