[2] Based in Los Angeles[3] but raised in the Virgin Islands, he moved to the United States after high school and he formed the production duo the Jugganauts in the 1990s.
The duo has since co-written and produced tracks such as "Man Down" by Rihanna[4] and "Who Gon Stop Me" by Kanye West and Jay-Z, both of which charted prominently on Billboard.
[4] Around 2007, Simmonds began releasing his own solo material, and his 2011 single "Boo Thang" featuring Kelly Rowland on Def Jam peaked at No.
[5] He has also released a number of full-length mixtapes, rapping and singing over many of the tracks and also bringing in guest artists such as Young Jeezy, Akon, Snoop Dogg, and Travis Porter.
[6] Under his birth name or as Verse Simmonds he has co-written a number of charting R&B songs, such as "Confident" by Justin Bieber and Chance the Rapper, and "New Flame" by Chris Brown, Usher and Rick Ross.
[10] In 1996[3] in Fort Lauderdale Simmonds met and befriended the producer and songwriter Shama Joseph, and together they formed the production duo the Jugganauts.
Titled "Buy You a Round (Up and Down)," AllMusic called it "a cocky, percussion-heavy club single" that "enabled the upcoming singer, songwriter, and occasional MC to tour extensively.
[9] Simmonds' August 2011 mixtape The Sextape Chronicles 2 was released through Bu Vision, Konlive, and Carteblanche, and listed hosts such as Angela Yee.
[17] His April 2012 mixtape Sex Love & Hip Hop was hosted by DJ Drama,[18] with other guest artists such as Yo Gotti, Kelly Rowland,[19] Snoop Dogg and Akon.
"[20] In August 2012, he self-released A Sextape Chronicle, a six-track EP,[4] and his October 2012 mixtape Fuck Your Feelings featured guest artists such as Red Cafe, Gucci Mane, and Young Jeezy.
The review opined the fact that Simmonds "stayed true to the 1996 concept by using traditional R&B sounds and a throwback vocal delivery," and "made songs that should be able to keep the listeners' attention throughout.
[6] In 2013, he participated as a writer on a number of collaborations, for example co-writing the Justin Bieber song "Confident", which featured Chance the Rapper and had hip hop and reggae elements.
[23] The track featured co-production from Needlz and Donut, and the publication Complex wrote that with the lyrics "Simmonds goes in on different types of relationships that go against the grain.
[23] Simmonds has self-identified his vocal stylings as "R&B, hip-hop, reggae and calypso,"[32] and he has also described the genre of his original music as "island B," for being "a mixture of R&B, a little bit of Caribbean flavor and hip hop.