What Makes Him DX Next Worthy?: The combination of a dope emcee and a solid singer combined with the intrinsic ability to captivate a sold-out crowd (as witnessed by DX at a recent concert) will be GemStones’ recipe for success. And although it’s still early in his career, GemStones prides himself on constant elevation and change. Newly transformed, GemStones (who just recently lost a considerable amount of weight and cut off his trademark braids) has had more than just a physical makeover. He tells DX, “Gemini is dead. Don’t even call me that no more. My name change came at the perfect time. Gemini died with the weight; I was real heavy [back then]. Gemini died with the braids. I quit smoking and drinking. Gemini died and he took that gangsta leading niggas astray…putting words together just because they match. Gemini died with all that. It’s like how Jay-Z said ‘back to Shawn Carter the hustler, Jay-Z is dead.’”

With his resolution to use his talents to make quality music that moves beyond trite verses of drug pushing and bravado, GemStones’ highly anticipated debut Troubles of the World will be preceded by a double mix tape introducing the newly improved man and explaining the cause of his revelations. “The double mix tape [is called] The Evolution/ My Testimony,” he says, “The Evolution will show that I’ve grown as a person and as an artist. Then Testimony is gonna be raw uncut truth. Things that went on with [my label] 1st & 15th that even die hard fans don’t know about.”

With GemStones’ candor we can already tell that his testimony will be a story worth telling. In an industry cluttered with rappers as fake as Canal Street cubic zirconias, GemStones is truly shining.

Check out the music on his Myspace page: www.myspace.com/geministreetteam