Azad (rapper)

Infobox musical artist
Name = Azad


Img_capt = Azad at a 2004 concert in Berlin
Img_size = 220
Landscape = No
Background = solo_singer
Birth_name = Azad Azadpour
Alias =
Born = birth date and age|1974|01|1
Sanandaj, Iran
Origin = Frankfurt, Germany
Voice_type =
Genre = German hip hop
Occupation =
Years_active = 1988–present
Label = Bozz-Music
Associated_acts = Asiatic Warriors, Kool Savas
URL = [http://www.azad.de www.azad.de]

Azad Azadpour (born January 1, 1974 in Sanandaj,Iran), better known as Azad, is a German rapper. Azad is a Persian and Kurdish given name meaning "Freedom". [ [http://www.babynamesworld.com/meaning_of_Azad.html Babynamesworld.com] – Meaning of the name Azad]

Biography

Azad came as a Kurdish refugee child to Germany. In 1984 he came for the first time in contact with hip-hop, first with Break Dance. This was followed developments in the Graffiti area, in cents, in Beatboxing, Cutten and producing.

Together with A-Bomb, Combad and D-Flame, 1988, the Group-N-Cold Locco founded in 1990 in the Asiatic Warriors renamed. The conditions for German unusually harsh mix of German, English and street rap, the group will first locally, 1994 by the label Ruff'n'Raw published EP "Told Ya!" Nationally known. Over the years, however, internal differences between the artists, broke up the group. 1999 Azad signs a contract with the label Pelham Power Productions.

Features on mixtapes and albums on the label of Azad colleagues ran back into the focus of the scene. Together with his years of success since rolling turntablism team "Transformers" (with DJ Dragon, Twister and release), he won the 1998 "Because Swing DJ Battle".

Career

With the publication of the Single napalm / Heart Core (2000) confirmed his return to the scene. In 2001 Azad published his first solo album life. The album was produced entirely by Azad and enjoys by minimalist beats, hard choice of words, sophisticated Raptechniken and a large list of guest rapper today to cult status among fans.

2003, the album Fist of the North-West. Recovery by hard battle rap but also by profound melancholy songs Azad consolidate its reputation in the scene.His young daughter he dedicated a song called My light, but also mentioned in other songs, including current album Game Over. In addition, he performs on Bushido's album Electro Ghetto with fire tower and eternal night in appearance.

2004 leaves Azad 3p and founded his own label Bozz-Music under Urban, to Universal Music. These are the group Warheit (Sezai, Lunafrow, Jeyz, Chaker and Azad itself) and the rapper Jonesmann and Sti under contract. In the same year it's a scandal in the Hip-Hop Open in Stuttgart. After a brawl between members of Bozz-Music and Aggro Berlin, including Sido slightly injured. The trigger for the bawl was, that Sido said live on TV: "If we had a bed here now, I gonna bang Azad's mom realley hard!".
This comment mades Azad very angry and at the Hip-Hop Open, he attacked him. This brought with it a host restrictions on the appearance of Azad at Splash! A short time later Sido apologize on MTV to Azad for his slander.

2004, but also an enormous media attention with it. On 2 August 2004, finally appeared the third album from The Bozz Azad, which was originally only under the name Phoenix as EP in optics Records appear. Despite the most recent season of less than 42 minutes, the album sold very well and climbed into the Top 10 album charts. It offers a varied mix of hard street-rap and deep songs. The solo album was later indicated that the original version since the December 31, 2005 at young people no longer be sold. Since only the "light version of the album acquired in trade promotion. The index was based on passages of the songs blackout and Judgement Day, in the BPJM as "minors". At the end of 2004 is the Bozz-Music Sampler Vol 1 published on the Azad presented his own label.

A major success through the joint album with Kool Savas, ONE, on 29 March 2005 on Sony BMG Music Entertainment appeared to celebrate. The latest solo album Azad Game Over appeared on 31 März 2006 über das Label Urban. March 2006 on the label Urban. It polarized his fans: Many see it as his best album yet, but other fans miss the hardcorerap, which is still on his first CD to hear it. Game Over, reached on 8 in the album charts. The second single of the album made it one day at least in the top 30 of the German charts.

In November 2006, Azad in the first international video clip of the russian rapper Seryoga Kollabo as partners. The single of the Russians, who in his homeland is a star and already MTV Awards, gold and platinum plates has received means 2 Emperos and appeared on 24 November 2006. On 8 Dezember 2006 released Bozz-Music the remix Album Der Bozz. The album includes remixes produced by Sti of songs from The Bozz. As a replacement for the indexed tracks is the Shok Muzik-Dissident A.Z. Pitbull vs. Shmok Muzik and Frankfurt featuring Warheit on the CD.

In 2007 Azad recorded the hip-hop collaboration song "Prison Break Anthem (Ich glaub an dich)" with German singer Adel Tawil for his yet-to-be-released studio album "Blockschrift". The song debuted at #3 on the German Singles Charts and managed to reach #1 in its fourth week, making it Azad's highest-charting single to date and the first hip-hop song by a German artist to reach number one on the German Singles Charts since 1997's "Du Liebst Mich Nicht" by female rapper Sabrina Setlur. It serves as the opening theme for the American hit television series "Prison Break" which currently airs Thursdays on German television channel RTL. In November Azad's latest single "Zeit zu verstehen" featuring Gentleman premiered on MTV Germany's show "Total Request Live".

Prison Break Anthem

In Azad's most successful song, the Prison Break Album (Ich glaub an dich), (I believe in you) was released, it showed the vastly different cultural influences that have transformed German hip-hop. Gone are the SNAP days of having the power, only to be replaced with a combination of Kurdish and mostly American influences. In Timothy Brown's article, 'Keeping it Real' In a Different Hood, he points out the importance of American culture on German youth, "makes no bones about the influence on youth culture in Kreuzberg. 'Everything has to do with American movies," [Brown, Timothy. 'Keeping it Real' In a Different Hood: (African) Americanization and Hip-Hop in Germany." In the Vinyl Ain't Final, 137-150] This devotion and respect of American culture proves how important this song is for Azad, as a musician, and how advanced hip-hop has become as a musical genre in Germany. Azad's style owes immensely to American rap culture, Azad uses the rapper, r & b singer formula to perfection, as he raps over the beat, while Adel Tawil hits the chorus, reminiscent of Snoop Dogg and Akon, or Notorious BIG and R.Kelly. In his music video, Azad is seen rapping outside in a beautiful setting, baggy pants, tattoed arms, contrasting the lack of freedom inside the prison, but also paying homage, in the form of mimicry, to American hip-hop. [Azad's personal MySpace, http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=100280541, accessed March 20, 2008] . Azad's song that accompanies the hit TV series Prison Break shows how far German hip-hop has come in its brief life span, but also shows how much it owes to American hip-hop and African-American culture.

Azad obviously draws largely from the American hip-hop culture to produce the stylistics and flow that he employs. A bit more compelling is the amount of influence African American hip hoppers have had on German hip hop. [ Brown, Timothy S. “‘Keeping it Real’ in a Different ‘Hood: (African-) Americanization and Hip-hop in Germany.” In The Vinyl Ain’t Final: Hip Hop and the Globalization of Black Popular Culture, ed. by Dipannita Basu and Sidney J. Lemelle, 137-50. London; A.] Two of Germany's founding rap groups, Die Fantastischen Vier and Advanced Chemistry swallowed up the hip hop craze when movies such as "Wild Style" and "Beat Street" dropped in the early 1980s. When the fad died down, the elements of the movement--questioning externally attributed identities and dealing with positions of disfranchisement in society--resonated with German youth. So much so that when groups started emulating American Hip Hop in search of their own, local sound, the clique "rap" indicators like screaming "hey yo" over a chorus were soon dismissed as mindless. It wasn't until this stage in the movement in Germany, that performers like Azad could arise, respectfully embodying the confidence, presence, and seamlessness so reminiscent of American rappers like Notorious BIG and Snoop Dogg. [ [http://www.artistopia.com/azad/biography Biography on] Artistopia]

Discography

tudio albums

* 2001 - "Leben" ("Life")
* 2003 - "Faust des Nordwestens" ("Fist of the North-West")
* 2004 - "Bozz-Music Volume One"
* 2004 - "Der Bozz" ("The Bozz")
* 2005 - "One" (with Kool Savas)
* 2006 - "Game Over"
* 2006 - "Der Bozz Remix" ("The Bozz Remix")
* 2007 - "Betonklassik" (as part of the hip-hop formation Warheit) ("Concrete Classic")
*2007 - "Blockschrift" ("Block Letters")

Mixtapes

* 2008 - "Azphalt Inferno"

ingles

References

External links

* [http://www.azad.de Official website] (German, needs Macromedia Flash)