Staying true to his own passions has proven effective for one Moorpark College athlete. Most people manage to do well either academically, artistically or athletically. This isn’t the case for 21-year-old Kado Brown as he has managed to thrive in all three areas.

“Don’t try to follow someone else’s wave, I’ve always tried to stick to my own passions,” said Brown. “I’ve always known what I liked and I’ve wanted to stay true to myself.”

Brown is not your average college student. The division I bound football athlete and artist has been passionate about sports and music from a very young age. Beginning his athletic career in football at the age of 12 to later discovering his other true passion, music.

Brown grew up with a normal childhood going to school, playing sports and pursuing his hobbies. Although he always knew what he wanted, many doubted his abilities and tried to limit his possibilities for success.

He was born and raised in Ventura with his father, John Brown, who works professionally as a teacher. He always put tremendous emphasis on the importance of education and pushed his son to excel academically.

“Academically, like football, Kado has understood his strengths and areas of improvement,” said John Brown. “He has a clear understanding that we all have areas we can improve on and he works harder on those areas.”

His coaches at Moorpark College are confident in his ability to succeed.

“Kado can teach people a thing or two about reaching for the stars,” said coach Ian Shultis. “I’m a big believer in Kado Brown, it wouldn’t shock me in the least if someday people knew of him all around the world, this fella is special!”

In addition to excelling academically early on, Brown began playing football at the age of 12. After realizing that this was a passion he wanted to pursue, Brown trained and competed through high school and eventually received an appointment to attend the United States Military Academy, West Point.

At 18-years-old, Brown was willing to take the risk to play football at West Point and begin training at the preparatory school there.

“Since day one at the prep school I knew I didn’t want to be there, I knew I didn’t want to pursue this,” said Brown. “At that time, I wanted to pursue school and academics, I didn’t want to go into the military.”

Lying in the infirmary during his second year at the academy after his appendix burst, Brown had a major realization that he no longer wanted to pursue a military career and only wanted to focus on his academic and athletic career.

He decided the best route for him was to return home and continue his education at a junior college. Brown was confident in his own abilities to succeed and achieve his goals at Moorpark College. He said others in his life were more concerned about him leaving West Point than he was.

“The biggest thing that everyone would tell me was that I was going to be a failure and that I wasn’t going to be able to achieve the things that I wanted to because I was going to leave West Point,” said Brown. “But I didn’t believe that, I knew it was going to be a process.”

After leaving West Point, the biggest turning point in his life, Brown began to pursue his passion in music. As a child, he always enjoyed making rhymes and raps. After his return home, he used his life experiences to help him produce quality lyrics. Brown never really took the idea of becoming a rapper seriously until he put his music on SoundCloud and received positive feedback.

“It was the fact that when I played my music to people, the feedback was good,” said Brown. “When I did that I got some solid plays and some solid feedback so I decided to take it seriously.”

In the last year, Brown has played 10 shows and has generated a fan base locally. Brown hopes to continue his career in his music and to do a tour of his music around California by 2018 for his graduation year.

Brown has been able to produce his content and achieve his dreams with the help and support of his close friends. They say he is a motivated individual and won’t let anything or anybody get in his way of achieving his dreams.

“If he had something in his mind that he was going to do, he was going to do it his way, he always took advice well but he always knew what he wanted to do,” said Rico Bandz, his life-long friend and music partner.

After his return from the Academy, Brown continued his education at Moorpark College and worked hard academically, athletically and artistically. Two and a half years later, he received offers to play football at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, Morehouse College and the Georgia Southern University.

After putting in tremendous thought, Brown committed to the Georgia Southern University because he feels that the opportunities offered there are best suited for his needs.

“Georgia Southern is on the highest level of competition and I am going to be the oldest quarterback on the team so I am putting myself in the best position to play,” said Brown.