Azeem Ismail (born July 17, 1977 in New Brunswick, New Jersey), better known simply as Azeem is a hip-hop rapper and performance poet, residing in

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York.Ducker, Jesse (2008)
Azeem: Cartoon networker
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'', September 10, 2008, retrieved 2011-07-30

Biography

Azeem, born of Jamaican and Panamanian descent started his first band,

Telefunken Telefunken was a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the ''Allgemeine Elektrizitäts-Gesellschaft'' (AEG) ('General electricity company'). The name "Telefunken" ap ...

, in 1991, which was a combination of live instrumentation and hip-hop. Their first release came out in 1994 on the then newly formed

Om Records Om Records is an American record label, established in 1995, which releases electronic music, dance music and hip hop. The label was founded in San Francisco in 1995 by Chris Smith. Om Records releases both artist albums and compilations, incl ...

. Azeem's first break as a solo artist came at an open mic competition where he performed under the alias the "Invisible Man" against fifty other poets and lyricists for a spot on the

Lollapolooza Lollapalooza (Lolla) is an annual American four-day music festival held in Grant Park in Chicago. It originally started as a touring event in 1991 but several years later made Chicago the permanent location for the annual music festival. Mus ...

Tour. This led to a

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

special (''United States of Poetry'') with Washington Square Films, and two book publishings. In 1997, Azeem was hired by Bay Area artist,

Michael Franti Michael Franti (born April 21, 1966) is an American rapper, musician, poet, activist, documentarian, and singer-songwriter, known for his participation in many musical projects, most with a political and social emphasis, including the Beatnigs ...

(

The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy were an American hip-hop musical ensemble, active during the early 1990s. The band was formed in 1990 by Michael Franti (vocals, production, misc. instruments) and Rono Tse (drums, percussion, programming), w ...

and Spearhead) to assist him in composing songs for the second Spearhead album, ''Chocolate Supa Highway''.Harris, Craig
Azeem Biography
,

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

, retrieved 2011-07-30 This led to Azeem touring, writing, and performing with the band for two years. The single "Keep Me Lifted", a song that features Azeem, was the only song from the album to reach '' Billboards Rap Charts. In 1999, after his third tour with Spearhead, Azeem left to work as solo. 1999 saw the release of his first solo EP ''Garage Opera'' (Heratik), and he contributed a track to Afro-Mystik's ''Future Tropic'' album. Azeem followed up with the full-length album ''Craft Classic'' (Stray). The album's single "Rubber Glue" reached number two on the

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

radio rap chart. In 2003 Azeem released the

12-inch single The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...

"Family Man" ( Bomb Hip-Hop) and toured Europe with the Bomb Hip-Hop Tour. In early 2004 Azeem was the frontman on the VU release ''Mayhemystics'' ( Wide Hive),Henderson, Alex
''Mayhemystics'' Review
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, retrieved 2011-07-30 which was nominated for a California Music Award. In 2005 Azeem wrote and performed a play called ''Rude Boy''.Hartlaub, Peter (2006)
Journeying into his own heart of darkness
, ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

'', November 15, 2006, retrieved 2011-07-30 Azeem plays the character of Johnny Burke, a struggling and slightly disturbed "Jamerican" (

Jamaican-American Jamaican Americans are an ethnic group of Caribbean Americans who have full or partial Jamaican ancestry. The largest proportions of Jamaican Americans live in South Florida and New York City, both of which have been home to large Jamaican commu ...

) who works as a janitor. The play is set at Johnny's place of work, a Mexican

cardboard Cardboard is a generic term for heavy paper-based products. The construction can range from a thick paper known as paperboard to corrugated fiberboard which is made of multiple plies of material. Natural cardboards can range from grey to light ...

box factory. Azeem performed ''Rude Boy'' at: The

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...

- NYC, Marsh Theater - SF, Oaklandish - Oakland, Hip Hop Theater Festival ( Brava Theater)- SF, San Francisco Theater Fest -

Yerba Buena Gardens Yerba Buena Gardens is the name for two blocks of public parks located between Third and Fourth, Mission and Folsom Streets in downtown San Francisco, California. The first block bordered by Mission and Howard Streets was opened on October 11, 1 ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, Redline Theater -

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IL. He also produced and directed ''The Secret Circus'', a

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

show at the Marsh Berkeley.Arnold, Eric K. (2006)
Rapper Azeem takes his YouTube blessings and curses all in stride
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'', October 3, 2006, retrieved 2011-07-30 In 2008, Azeem released another solo effort ''Air Cartoons'', In 2010, Azeem performed live with

Heavyweight Dub Champion Heavyweight Dub Champion is a music and art collective founded in Gold Hill, Colorado in 1997 by Resurrector & Patch.

Discography

Albums

Singles and EPs

Other appearances

* ''Afro Mystic'' (1999), Om Records - "Shoplift The Future" and "Trivia Terrorist" * ''Spearhead'' (1997), Capitol - "Keep Me Lifted", "Food for the Masses" and "Madness in the Hood" * ''Groove Active'' (1997), Om Records - "The Message" (Telefunken) * ''Grand Slam'' CD — Azeem the Invisible Man

References

External links

www.thepoetazeem.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Azeem American hip hop musicians Living people 1977 births