Born on March 13 in Highgate, St. Mary. Maxine's life travels put her in touch with core messages, people and places.
She left Jamaica with her family when she was 11years old for New York City and entered High School. It was there that she was radicalized by the debate regarding the genetic inferiority of black people and the literature of various Black Panther Party participants, most notably Soul On Ice by Elderidge Cleaver.

Her initial college studies was Political Science, which she studied at Barnard College in New York. She began to identify music as a vehicle to promote political ideals and conferences. The core issue at the time was the Independence movement of the South African continent and the developing connection to a core of Caribbean activists in Rosie Douglas, Walter Rodney and Trevor Munroe. The assasination of Walter Rodney added to the marginalization of many of the Black Panther personalities deeply impacted her and she withdrew into the Rast