Cesar Comanche

by Marisa Brown Born in Jacksonville, NC, Cesar Comanche was introduced to hip-hop by his sister in 1979, and immediately fell in love with it. In 1996, while a student at NC State, Comanche met classmate Pat Douthit, who would later be known as producer 9th Wonder, and soon began working with him. In 1999 the two founded the Justus League Crew, an association of other rappers and producers from NC State and neighboring North Carolina Central University who often collaborated on each other's projects. Comanche left school during his senior year to concentrate more fully on his music, issuing 2000's Wooden Nickels and 2002's Paper Gods on his own Defenders of the Free World label. 2005 saw the release of Squirrel and the Aces (which was taken from the name of his father's band in the '60s and '70s) on ABB Records, also home to underground rap stars Dilated Peoples and Defari.