Malcolm Michael Mays is a film producer, rapper

Rapping

Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...

, director, and musician. At the age of seventeen, Mays directed and produced his own motion picture, aided by producer Todd Black, Gary Martin of Sony Pictures and others.

Sony Pictures, Kodak Films, Todd Black, John Singleton, and Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington

Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. is an American actor, screenwriter, director, and film producer. He first rose to prominence when he joined the cast of the medical drama, St. Elsewhere, playing Dr...

, all have played an important role in Mr. Mays’ productions. His film entitled “ Trouble”, aimed to shed light on the African American and Latin American (Black vs. Brown) tension in South Central Los Angeles; the place where young Mays was reared. The New York Times found Mr. Mays’ story to be so compelling that they printed a front page article, “ Based on a true story,” detailing the accomplishments of this young man.

Cash Money Records

Cash Money Records

Cash Money Records is a record label founded by brothers Bryan "Birdman" Williams and Ronald "Slim" Williams. Today it operates as a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, and is distributed by Universal Republic Records as of 2011...

 artist Glasses Malone

Glasses Malone

Charles Phillipivory Penniman , better known by his stage name Glasses Malone, is an American rapper from Los Angeles, California.-Early life:Glasses Malone grew up in the Watts and Compton neighborhoods in Los Angeles County...

 will executive produce his first short film titled The Division, which will feature the rapper as a drug kingpin in Los Angeles

Los Ángeles

Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

. The Division, a Cash Money Records

Cash Money Records

Cash Money Records is a record label founded by brothers Bryan "Birdman" Williams and Ronald "Slim" Williams. Today it operates as a subsidiary of Universal Music Group, and is distributed by Universal Republic Records as of 2011...

 Film, was written by Charles Penniman and Malcolm Mays and will be directed by Max Albert

Max Albert

-Career:Max Albert is a Jewish American filmmaker from San Diego, CA. Albert attended the LA Film School, and began directing music videos in 2009 at the age of 22. His first video was for The Pack's Stunnaman and since has directed numerous videos for artists like Goldie from The Federation, Big...

, co-founder of Albert Mason Media. The film is set to enter production in January 2011 according to Boombox.com.

Music career

Malcolm Mays started playing piano at age eleven and is the self-proclaimed writer of music heavily influenced by 90's R&B and 18th century poetry. Mays cites broad influences from music, art and film. Influences cited by Mays as inspirations include music from Eric Dolphy

Eric Dolphy

Eric Allan Dolphy was an American jazz alto saxophonist, flutist, and bass clarinetist. On a few occasions he also played the clarinet and baritone saxophone. Dolphy was one of several multi-instrumentalists to gain prominence in the 1960s...

 and John Coltrane

John Coltrane

John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...

 to Rachmaninov and Beethoven, paintings of Caravaggio

Caravaggio

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio was an Italian artist active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1593 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on the Baroque...

 and Michaelangelo, performers such as Sinatra, Prince

Prince (musician)

Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...

, Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...

 and Quincy Jones

Quincy Jones

Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...

, and the poetry of John Keats

John Keats

John Keats was an English Romantic poet. Along with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, he was one of the key figures in the second generation of the Romantic movement, despite the fact that his work had been in publication for only four years before his death.Although his poems were not...

 & James Baldwin

James Baldwin

James Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist and civil rights activist.James Baldwin may also refer to:-Writers:*James Baldwin , American educator, writer and administrator...

. May's has also cited the voice of Nina Simone

Nina Simone

Eunice Kathleen Waymon , better known by her stage name Nina Simone , was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist widely associated with jazz music...

 and the readings of Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou

Maya Angelou is an American author and poet who has been called "America's most visible black female autobiographer" by scholar Joanne M. Braxton. She is best known for her series of six autobiographical volumes, which focus on her childhood and early adult experiences. The first and most highly...

 and acts such as The Yardbirds

The Yardbirds

- Current :* Chris Dreja - rhythm guitar, backing vocals * Jim McCarty - drums, backing vocals * Ben King - lead guitar * David Smale - bass, backing vocals...

, Cream

Cream (band)

Cream were a 1960s British rock supergroup consisting of bassist/vocalist Jack Bruce, guitarist/vocalist Eric Clapton, and drummer Ginger Baker...

 and Jimi Hendrix

Jimi Hendrix

James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...

 as major influences.

Mays has engaged The Gnosiis Media Company, an entertainment consulting firm that specializes in sponsorship and marketing in the music and entertainment industries, to manage and develop his music career. Mays linked up with producers like Skiii Team who is known to have worked with Hollywood Holt, Mikey Rocks of The Cool Kids

The Cool Kids

The Cool Kids is an American hip hop group. Consisting of rappers Antoine "Sir Michael Rocks" Reed and Evan "Chuck Inglish" Ingersoll , the group is based in Chicago, Illinois and Detroit, Michigan...

to produce the tracks for his initial release.