Graham “Collective” Kirby is a rap artist and producer based out of Regina, Saskatchewan. He started out rapping by making World of Warcraft parodies under the YouTube channel CollectiveFreedom. Some of his first songs featured artists such as CryKoda, Sharm, and Shirgrimm, all of which were group-mates from Azeroth United. Collective also paired with Shirgrimm early on to create the rap duo, Virus. Collective’s first song, “Conformity”, was publicly released on April 28, 2009.

Around April 18, 2011, Collective teamed up with CryKoda to form the League of Legends rap duo known as PlayerPOV. PlayerPOV was initially a group of people, but none of them contributed to the channel. This was Collective and CryKoda’s first real claim to fame, with most of their songs reaching hundreds of thousands of views with every release. PlayerPOV was seemingly one of the first viral channels to make League of Legends parody raps, alongside Visix (Badministrator).

In 2013, Collective took a momentary absence from PlayerPOV to focus on his individual career, while also taking up the style of conscious rap to vent his emotions and life issues under the name of Collective. His first song released under this style was “Who I Was, Am, and Will Be” on December 11, 2012.