His main influence was his family. His third cousins are Johnny Cash and June Carter. His second cousin, Eddy Mullins, was a Funk music guitarist, and played with We Funk Allstars and Ohio Players. And his father Mike Mullins and Uncle Buddy Mullins were in a local band called Justice Law. He claims "It's my turn to lead the new generation." His cousin William Tidswell was his main family influence in rap music. His main radio influences are 50 Cent and Eminem. Also Dr. Dre and Lil Jon. He started off listening to Bone Thugs and Harmony and does sometimes unleash fast lyrics on the microphone.
Changing the image of rap artist’s nationwide is eighteen year old Youngstown rap artist, CeeNiAL. From the time he has started making music he has put forward total dedication and believes that music really just runs in his blood. The distant relative of country singing legends such as Johnny Cash and the Carters believes that he will likely follow in his family’s foot steps. He is currently releasing a series of mixtapes underground until his first album debut hits Best Buy at the end of the year.
Chris Mullins, the oldest son of Michael Mullins and Paula Mullins, was born on May 1, 1990 in St. Elizabeth’s hospital in Youngstown, Ohio. Growing young on the city’s South Side he remembers listening to his father and uncle’s band Justice Law. “ I used to ride with my dad everyday out to practice. He would grab his Pepsi and his guitar and we’d be gone.” His love for music has been around for as long as he can remember. Older cousins are the main influences on his genre of choice, though. He began recording his own songs by the age of eleven. By the age of sixteen he was opening up for a platinum artist with three Grammy Awards at the time named Ludacris. The release of his last album titled “ Tha Son of the Stars” is what helped him get the gig. Selling hundreds of copies throughout the Youngstown area at the age of sixteen proved to him that this wasn’t only a hobby for him. The popular graduate of 2008 from Boardman High School is planning on building his business up from the bottom. He believes because he went to such a big school it helped him gain a larger fan base than most independent artist’s in the area. With over 40,000 plays on myspace alone, CeeNiAL is ranked one of the top five independent artist’s in Youngstown, Ohio on myspace charts.
He now is releasing a series of mixtapes called “Famous”. There are going to be at least three volumes to this series before his album release at the end of the year. His plan is to rebuild his fan base and expand into larger areas before his album is selling in Best Buy. Famous volume 1 is a 16 track mixtape with music produced by Chip Banks and Mark Parker Beats. There are features on it such as K-Shaw, Yung E and Young Boy and it really gives a mainstream sound to Youngstown Hip Hop. CeeNiAL will be working out his distribution between Official Entertainment and J Distributions and will have his album selling in at least two regional Best Buys to begin with at the end of the year. As a young business owner he can expand nationwide into more stores as he builds his fan base.
Online Now!
