BEFORE THE STAGE, THERE WERE THE SIXERS The Savannah Sixers—and coaches Big Mark, Alameen, and Bobby—hold a place in Mikey Turner’s CRUSH story. Ask George “Mikey” Ransom Turner III

BEFORE THE STAGE, THERE WERE THE SIXERS

The Savannah Sixers—and coaches Big Mark, Alameen, and Bobby—hold a place in Mikey Turner’s CRUSH story.

Ask George “Mikey” Ransom Turner III where his story begins, and the conversation reaches back beyond his music.

It reaches youth basketball. It reaches Savannah. And when he names the people who belong in those early years, he includes three Savannah Sixers coaches: Big Mark, Alameen, and Bobby.

For readers meeting him as Mr CRUSH, PartyPlugMikey, or Plug Not A Rapper, those names open a part of his life that a stage introduction cannot explain. Before he had an audience, he had teams. Before listeners learned his hooks, there were adults who knew him as a young player.

The Sixers belong to that history.

Giving the coaches their names

In telling his upbringing, Mikey has been specific about recognizing individual coaches. “Youth basketball” is too broad to hold everyone he remembers.

The Savannah Sixers entry has names attached: Big Mark, Alameen, and Bobby. So do the other teams in his account of growing up. That specificity matters. It gives readers people to follow and gives those who shared the experience a chance to recognize their own community in the story.

It also sets a standard for how CRUSH Magazine will approach his early life. Each coach deserves attention as an individual. Each team deserves its own setting, relationships, and memories.

The Sixers are a place to begin that work.

Big Mark’s name reaches the music

One connection between Mikey’s basketball upbringing and his songwriting is already visible in his lyrics.

In a draft for “Boston Georges Swallowerz,” he writes:

“Trademark,
Learned from Big Mark,
How to swim with big sharks…”

The passage places a childhood coach inside the artist’s present creative language. Big Mark’s name becomes part of a statement about learning to navigate competition and ambition.

The lyric does not tell the whole coaching story. It does show that the name has stayed with him.

For someone hearing the song without that background, “Big Mark” might pass as a quick reference. Knowing the Savannah Sixers connection gives the line another layer: a person from Mikey’s upbringing still has a place in how he expresses himself today.

Before the public knew Mikey

An artist profile often begins at the point of public recognition—a release, a performance, a name people remember.

Mikey wants his legacy coverage to spend time earlier.

That means allowing his childhood basketball experiences to matter on their own. The Sixers years deserve more than a sentence on the way to high school or music. They belong to the life he lived before anyone could know what his adult identity would become.

Big Mark, Alameen, and Bobby are part of that beginning. Their names establish where the next, deeper stories must look: toward firsthand memories, particular interactions, and the details only the people who were there can supply.

A place in the CRUSH record

CRUSH Magazine’s treatment of Savannah begins with this act of recognition.

The artist’s name may lead the feature, but the history includes other people. In the Savannah Sixers story, three of those people are Big Mark, Alameen, and Bobby.

Mikey remembers them by name. The record should, too.