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A young Sonny Smith born in Cleveland, Ohio to a cosmetologist and full-time mother of six shifted living lifestyles from middle-class to the depths of East Cleveland. A city marked for its extreme poverty, high intensity of violence, overrunning gang activity, and infamous drug trafficking. As an escape from violent encounters Whis analyzed his environment and became a leader, at age 11 Whis wrote poetry and befriended "Trap" a young gang member of "Hilltop Hustlerz" that noticed his writing potential and they established the group "ARD" (Armageddon Rogue Disciples) along with a friend "Marty". Amidst the grimy streets of E.C. the group began writing and recording their music with the first song dedicated to Damon Bishop and his younger brother who was murdered by a disloyal close associate of ARD & Damon (Cepheus). With the demeaning streets of Cleveland playing as a backdrop they became the fore-front as Whis became a stead fast hustler. Looking for a change of gears Whis moved to the Mecca of hip hop music Brooklyn, New York to stay with family. While there a cousin (Aldo) introduced Sonn-Whis to some acquaintances from Cleveland who forms the group the "G.I. Joez" with additional members in Cleveland, Ohio.

From the summer of 1995 to 2001 as a founding member Sonn-Whis once known as Destro from the short-lived super group of 9 members the "G.I. Joez" Sonn-Whis felt the brunt of working cohesively as a group. In 2000, the group was the first in Ohio that appeared in the Source's "Unsigned Hype" section in the November issue while opening for Ja-Rule, Nas, Wu-Tang, The Murderers, GangStar, and others. In which, S-Dubb received the quoted verse on the song "Rock'em Like Jewelry" within the article. The group then garnered the attention of Sony Records and others, however, with improper management and egos a record deal was never secured. From that point the Joez begin to diminish and dismantle forcing Sonn-Whis to be the leader that he is deemed to be by retreating to the school of hard knocks to rise from a prince to a king.

In 2002 Whis released "Rise to Power" a highly charged, anticipated mixtape that gained attention from college radio, local media, and fans all over Ohio and sold an excess of 20,000 copies.

While maintaining hype and previous connections Sonn-Whis heads to New York again but this time to meet and befriend Layton "Squeeze" Hyatt who introduces him to Easy Mo Bee who instantly upon hearing Sonn-Whis's tremendous flow wants to begin working with him. In addition to Easy Mo Bee Whis also is introduced to Pete Rock and is offered the opportunity to align with a production company that Pete Rock was working on getting distribution for at the time. While on this voyage Whis also meets and befriends Big Dev who was Smif & Wesson's manager at the time who then played Steele some joints and working together was also discussed between Sonn-Whis & Smif & Wesson. However, due to a dissolve of the relationship between Squeeze and Sonn-Whis that occured over a financial misunderstanding the accumulated connections made by Squeeze on behalf of Sonn-Whis were never seen through.

A short time later Sonn-Whis's music landed in the hands of Larry Dee a executive music producer who has mega record sales from producing Master P and many top selling artists and legends was immediately captivated and began managing and shopping to secure a record deal for Sonn-Whis. With the new development of Da Oven Productions with Avery Storm (Bone Crusher "Never Scared" Producer) Sonn-Whis and Sharlotte Gibson (Jay-z "Black Album" Vocalist) were set to be the first two artist released through "Da Oven Productions venture between Larry Dee & Avery Storm. Conversely, as a result of differences of direction Sonn-Whis opted to be released.

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