Lyrics Born (a.k.a. Asia Born) is Tom Shimura (b. 1972), originally from Berkeley, California, though through his childhood he lived in Tokyo, Japan, and Salt Lake City, Utah. He began his hip hop career while at college at UC Davis, where he was a DJ at the college station KDVS. He is a founding member of the group of artists known as Quannum Projects. He is also one half of the group Latyrx with fellow MC Lateef the Truth Speaker. Lyrics Born has worked with many artists including KRS-One, Jean Grae, Dilated Peoples, Z-Trip, DJ Shadow, Diverse, Tommy Guerrero, Blackalicious and his wife, Joyo Velarde. Lyrics Born released his first solo LP in October of 2003, called Later That Day.