Before he was Rikishi, Soloafa Fatu had a brief dalliance with hip-hop culture that gave birth to one of the most forgettable gimmicks of the mid-1990s. In 1995, vignettes began airing of Fatu discussing his actual experiences with growing up in the ghetto and being involved in a drive-by shooting that left him clinically dead for three minutes. Donning colorful hip-hop gear from the era, he was slated to begin a feud with his real life cousins Samu and Lloyd Anoa'i, aka ECW's Samoan Gangsta Party. However, by 1996, the "Make a DIfference" gimmick was dropped as Fatu became "The Sultan."