Google A.I. Engineer/Rapper Wants Kids To Know It's Cool To Be A Genius Posted on : Jan 21 - 2019

Until last year, Brandon Tory, a senior software Artificial Intelligence engineer at Google and rapper, led a secret double life. Raised in Brockton, Massachusetts, a neighborhood known for crime and drugs, he lived with his family in a shelter as a teenager. Tory knew he wanted to be some kind of scientist, but also had a passion for music. He wanted to have a huge impact in both creativity and science.

At University of Massachusetts Amherst he studied computer engineering and then worked as a senior Apple engineer in Cupertino. He was also a rapper and songwriter but kept his secret life as a musician private. In 2014, Tory won the Microsoft and Lenovo Timbaland national song writing contest, beating out 6000 contestants. Still, his work colleagues knew nothing of his musical career. Last year, he went public in a music video, Seriously and was featured in The Wall Street Journal: "When Your Day Job Isn’t Enough; A Computer Nerd Who Raps.”  I caught up with the dual-careerist in LA:

When you were first introduced to a computer?

My church had a summer program. It was my first time getting my hands on one and I became obsessed with coding and the idea of hacking -- not in the criminal sense but just to understand everything about computer systems.

You had no mentor. How did you learn?

There was a popular online network called IRC. I asked questions and got really good at a young age. I was living in an apartment with no internet, but I wanted to get online and learn about Intel x86 assembly and operating systems. People were upgrading computers in the neighborhood and I’d find a spare part here and there. With whatever extra money I had, I ordered parts. I installed my own AMD chip into a motherboard I found in the garbage and installed the Linux Mandrake operating system. It became an obsession for me but it wasn't something that I talked about because I still wanted to be cool.

So in other words, being a genius isn't cool?

Not in high school.

You graduated from high school and you decided you wanted to be a rapper?

Yes, I moved to Atlanta in 2012, with the goal of breaking into the music industry. I was tired of coding. I'd been coding since I was 13 years old. I wanted to be a star.

And then you moved to LA. Why?

Pretty much to change my style. One of the first things that happened when I moved to LA was I won the Microsoft and Lenovo Timbaland national song-writing contest. I was sure there was no chance of winning, but I believed in my song and entered. I got a call from the advertising agency hosting the competition and they told me I was in the top five and needed to make one more song, and if Timbaland loved the song, I’d be the winner. Timbaland called that night and I was in complete shock. He was a legendary producer and defined music for me and my friends growing up;  it was so strange to even be on the phone with him. I made the next song and won, he put my song on his Instagram and I got my first big break. I started throwing big parties in LA. Timbaland was calling me week to week, pushing me to get better. View More