Michael Troy Knedel

Michael Troy Knedel (born January 30, 1977), is the author of the book Almanecer. Michael Troy started out his career as a producer/song writer. One of the first songs produced to be credited on a commercial album was on the Ras Kass "RE-UP" released in 2003. Michael Troy received some acclaim for his song Skitzo Psycho which had the Kurupt's brother Tri-Star as well as Pasadena star and childhood friend Scipio, who now goes by the name X.O., currently signed to the Game's label Black Wall Street.
Born and raised in Altadena, California, Michael Troy attended Eliot Middle School and John Muir High School where he left school at 16 years of age and moved to Merida, Yucatan Mexico upon turning 17. Michael spent the next few years in Mexico both as a student of Archeology at the Autonomo University of Yucatan, and later as an amateur boxer traveling throughout the Republic of Mexico. Returning home in his early 20's, Michael began to focus on music, particularly the hip-hop genre along with producer Tommy Brown who had produced along side the Platinum selling R&B artist Jon B, who Michael Troy and Tommy Brown had both grown up with throughout childhood.
The first album to be released would be the Crushed Grapes Album, Pray for Pasadena in 1998, followed up by the Crushed Grapes, Planet of the Grapes in 1999. The Planet of the Grapes album had songs used by both Road Rules and Undressed, as well as the HBO film Micro Mini Kids, which continues to be broadcast worldwide. Promoting the album upon completion would prove difficult however, when the third member of the group Joseph Walker "[http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Free-LOCO/172691372769322 Lil' Loco]" became incarcerated shortly after the completion of the album. This forced the members of the group to go their own way as solo artists.
After the placement on Ras Kass's Re-UP album, Michael Troy decided to focus his talents more on the art of song writing. After a few years hiatus, Michael began writing primarily in the Genre of Reggaeton, under the pen name Don Chell, which would eventually catch the eye of a publishing company under the Spanish division of Sony BMG Ariola. Michael Troy successfully wrote as a ghost writer for several up and coming Reggaeton artists but would be lifted into another caliber when a song co-wrote in Puerto Rico would be selected as a possible track on the 2007 Daddy Yankee album. Although the song would not make the final cut, being recognized as a possible candidate helped propel Michael Troy into many other Reggaeton projects. Back home, Michael Troy still collaborated with fellow Crushed Grape member Kaleo Futuristo signed under Mercury/Universal Music Group to record a song featuring Jon B entitled "Live it up"], as well as "My Lady", released on Kaleo's "The Future Is Now" album. Michael Troy collaborated with the artist XL Middleton on the song "Every time I Ride By", which was released on the album Middle Class Blues released under ROTS Records in 2008. A major commercial placement for the department store El Corte Ingles, first airing in Spain, then syndicated throughout Chile and Argentina was the first major payday for the song writer, which would be the source of capital to fund his work on Almanecer.
Making the leap from Song Writer to Author would not prove to be a hard one. Michael Troy's publishing company Merlot Publishing, used in the past for his music endeavors, was now reconstructed to become the vehicle of his first book release. Almanecer is currently set for release August 13, 2011. Michael Troy's Almanecer was recently chosen to showcase its first few chapters on the publication outlet Organics, and has been featured on HarperCollins' Authonomy, Red Room, Booksie, AuthorsDen, as well as several other author profile and review web sites.

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