Tha Realest  Jevon Jones (born October 11, 1973) is an American rapper better known by his stage name Tha Realest, and formerly Tenkamenin The Vigilante (or simply Tenkamenin). His debut album, "Witness Tha Realest", was released on July 14, 2009, following numerous delays. Tha Realest is also known, often in a negative light, for his strikingly similar voice to deceased rapper and former label-mate, Tupac Shakur. Tha Realest is also a member of The Regime. Jones was born in Dallas, Texas. His father worked as a preacher. As an Oak Cliff native, Jones started rapping in the early 1980s at the age of 10 and competed in rap battles on the local circuit. In the early 1990s, Jones and former Dallas Cowboys player, Kevin Smith, formed their first record label called Puppy Dog Unlimited Records. Tha Realest got married on July 7, 2011. Jones began his association with Death Row Records in March 1996 when he auditioned for Tupac Shakur in Las Vegas. Following Shakur's death in September 1996, Suge Knight offered Jones a contract with the label. He made his musical debut on the "Gang Related" soundtrack, appearing in two songs with rapper J-Flexx under the pseudonym Tenkamenin, sharing his name with an 11th-century African emperor of the Ghana Empire. In 1999 he performed several tracks on the Death Row collaboration "" alongside fellow Death Row artists Swoop G and Lil' C-Style. These songs had been written by Tha Realest for his solo project which was to be called "Inside Out". He would again collaborate with them on yet another Death Row compilation titled "Too Gangsta for Radio", appearing on the tracks "Fuck Dre" and "Fuck Hollywood". "Fuck Dre", seemingly a response to the Dr. Dre single "Forgot About Dre", insults many former Death Row artists and their affiliates, primarily Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Nate Dogg, N.W.A and Eminem, who is an artist on Dr. Dre's Aftermath Records. On October 17, 1999, while working on "Suge Knight Represents: Chronic 2000", Tha Realest sustained relatively serious injuries to the foot, having been shot in a drive-by shooting after leaving the studio in which he had just finished recording a song with Tha Dogg Pound (Kurupt and Daz Dillinger). Dwayne "Draws" Dupree, a security officer working in the area, was also shot, and died shortly after.