If you tuned into BET’s Being Mary Jane this week, you may have noticed the drama between Gabrielle Union’s character Mary Jane and Patrick. Those dramatic incidences were encapsulated in episode 3′s soundtrack. If you peeped the I Get It single, you tapped into the musical creation of songwriter, producer, rapper and singer Brandon Rossi.

Signed to Jay-Z’s RocNation label last year, the Decatur, Georgia music wiz is no stranger to the music scene. Raised in a Christian household, most of his family were either preachers or musicians. “I’ve got cousins who grew up playing for Frankie Beverly and Maze,” Rossi told The Source by phone.

“So I kind of just grew up around music.”

Growing up, Rossi listened to hip-hop with his older brother who was ten years older than him. “I heard everything and everybody,” he said. “Any artist you could imagine rapping, I was influenced by them at an early age.” Being from the ATL, it’s of no surprise that he idolized Atlanta’s very own Outkast. “My favorite group to this day is Outkast and Andre 3000 is one of the best MC’s.”

Rossi, began to take his musical career seriously in 1999 as a freshman in high school. He credits Quincy Jones, John Mayer, Stevie Wonder, Jay-Z, Nas and Biggie as his musical influences. Being a rapper from Atlanta during that time period was a new phenomena. With Outkast already on the scene and Ludacris and TI building their brand in the A, Rossi saw that he fit into that circle. A renaissance man, he and his Southwest Dekalb High School marching band were one of the bands featured in the Charles Stone III’s 2002 Drumline movie starring Nick Cannon, Zoe Saldana and Orlando Jones. “I got a chance to hang around a lot of stars and famous people and producers,” said Rossi. “After spending two or three months on set filming that movie, I decided that I wanted to be a full-fledged rap artist.”

Upon completing high school in 2003, Rossi attended Florida A&M in Tallahassee, Florida. While enrolled at FAMU, Rossi says that he met Edward Long, son of Bishop Eddie Long, pastor of the 10,000 member New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Georgia. Edward Long was a popular figure on the FAMU campus as a radio personality. Long introduced Rossi to producer Rico Love. You may recognize Love’s producing skills in Usher’s 2010 hit There Goes My Baby.

After persuading Rico Love to give him studio time, Rossi would fly back and forth from Florida to Atlanta to record music. He dropped the single What They Do, a song spun in heavy rotation at local Atlanta radio stations. “I won all kind of contests and that kind of built my fan base as far as being taken seriously as an artist,” said Rossi.

With the wheels spinning positively in his early career, Rossi did not return to FAMU after his junior year due to financial hardship. He returned home to Atlanta and focused his time and energy into his music career. While home, he recalls Rico Love taking him to church in 2006 and introducing him to on and off again rapper Mase who is now pastor of El Elyon International Church in Atlanta. Mase ended up coming to the studio after church and recorded a track with Rossi. “That was like my first big break,” said Rossi.

After recording with Mase, Rossi’s confidence was at an all time high. Being friends with Rico Love also had it’s perks. Love had a ton of beats that were shipped to him from producers Just Blaze and Mario Winans that were unused. Another man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Looking to get signed by a major label, Rossi would hit the studio, using those unused beats. He ended up recording Party Girl, a song that he would later get Lloyd to appear on. That song got into the right hands of a Universal Records executive

Early experiences in his young career helped shape Rossi. He had a buzz by producing and performing on his own merit. But no major label would sign him. Frustrated, he stopped recording music for a year and later returned to the scene writing music for other artists. The biggest advice that he received was from Mase years ago when he told Rossi to ‘stay ready.’ Rossi’s hard work would pay off when a producer named Low Down (wrote Mario Winans’ lyrics for I Need a Girl 1 and 2 featuring Diddy, Loon, Ginuwine and Usher) introduced Rossi to producer Bink Dog.

No stranger to the rap and r&b game, anything that was hot in the hip hop’s golden age he probably produced it. He produced Blackstreet’s 1996 Don’t Leave Me single, Mr. Cheeks’ Lights Camera Action and Jay-Z’s 1-900-Hustler, You, Me, Him and Her, The Ruler’s Back, All I Need, and Blueprint (Momma Loves Me). Rossi went out to Virginia and spent time studying under Bink Dog’s tutelage. “He gave me my first big shot,” said Rossi. “He took me under his wing and let me record.”

Rossi used his studio time with Bink Dog as leverage with record labels and got significant interest from Jay-Z’s RocNation after his manager who was then his producer got him signed.

Whew! That’s a lot to digest.

Paying his dues and getting serious about rap in 1999 as a freshman in high school, his life has come full circle.That’s crazy to think that in ’99 Rossi was probably in his bedroom listening to Jay-Z’s Vol. 3… Life and Times of S. Carter album while doing his math homework. According to Rossi, a friend once asked him what label he’d sign with if he had the opportunity to choose one. He told him in an ideal and perfect world, he’d only rock out with Jay-Z or Kanye West. His dreams would come true in January 2013 when he signed to Jay-Z’s RocNation. “You can do anything in life as long as you truly believe in yourself,” said Rossi.

“Everybody including my mom—and it’s nothing against my mom—but everyone in the world told me to quit music at one point because they just had seen me struggle with it. Not because they didn’t believe in me, but they’d just seen me go through so many ups and downs, they didn’t think it was healthy for me to do it.”

Keeping company with Jay-Z these days is nothing to sneeze at. He is the most nominated artist at tonight’s Grammy Awards, with nine nominations. He and wife Beyonce are due to perform at Sunday’s show at the Staples Center. Rossi is in LA and will be in attendance tonight at the star-studded event. Last year he signed to the label and this year he’s sitting in the crowd. He credits a good foundation, perseverance and faith for seeing him through. “I just feel like believing in yourself and putting that extra faith in God—you can’t lose!”