Rhymefest

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Rhymefest
Origin Chicago, Illinois
Country United States
Years active 2005–present
Genres Hip Hop
Labels Allido Records/J Records
Website(s) http://www.rhymefest.com

Che Smith, known by the stage name of Rhymefest, is an American hip hop artist and rapper (born January 1, 1977) from the south side of Chicago whose first official album, Blue Collar, was released on July 11, 2006. The Grammy Award winning co-writer of Kanye West's "Jesus Walks" is signed to Mark Ronson's Allido Records.

Contents

[edit] Biography

For years, Rhymefest gained the reputation as one of the most charismatic, intelligent and humorous rappers on the freestyle battle rapping circuit. He gained attention because his lyrics were both witty and honest, and addressed the daily struggles that the average working person goes through, and not the over-glorified life of a drug dealer or clubgoer. He returned to Scribble Jam in 2003, where he defeated Yo Momma's Pimp to capture the title. Rhymefest was born January 1, 1977 on the south side of Chicago in Jeffrey Manor. Although he dropped out of South Shore High School, he would go on to earn his GED and even enroll in college at Columbia College in Chicago to study radio broadcasting at night school. He also worked as a substitute teacher to inner-city preschoolers at the time. In addition to all this, he was also building a reputation as one of the better known freestyle battle rappers in the Midwest. After enrolling at Columbia however, he learned his girlfriend was pregnant. He married her and moved to Indianapolis because she had been attending Purdue University in nearby West Lafayette. His son, Solomon, was born in 1998 and Rhymefest was forced to work various low-paying jobs, including one as a janitor at a university, to support his family while his wife went to school. When his wife graduated and went on to get a job as a chemical engineer, Fest was then able to devote his time to his true passion, music.[1]

While living in Indiana, Rhymefest was introduced to Mark Ronson by then manager Ron "DJ Indiana Jones" Miner. In February of 2003, Rhymefest signed his record contract with producer and DJ Mark Ronson's Allido Records, a subsidiary of Sony BMG's J Records, managed by Clive Davis. This was despite an offer on the table from long-time friend and producer Kanye West to sign with his own record company, GOOD Music. Fest attributes this decision to having a better musical relationship with Ronson and also not wanting to be in an "employer-employee" relationship with West, where difficulties in business could lead to a disruption of their musical relationship and even friendship. Fest had a great admiration for Ronson's ability to mesh music of different genres.

Rhymefest was featured on the track "Bout to Get Ugly" on Ronson’s album "Here Comes the Fuzz” in 2003 along with Anthony Hamilton. He was also featured on the official soundtrack to the films The Rundown, Take The Lead, and Big Momma's House 2 with the track Private Dancer along with We Got Action. Fest was also a part of the Marc Ecko video game, "Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure" in 2005 and was most recently featured on the Kanye West track, "We Can Make It Better," on "Hurricane Relief: Come Together Now," a tribute CD for Hurricane Katrina.

Along the way, Fest worked with his childhood friend West quite often. A mixtape released in 2001 entitled "Raw Dawg" was largely produced by the then relatively-unknown producer, West. More recently and most notably, he collaborated with West on the record "Jesus Walks," off the ground-breaking album The College Dropout. On February 15, 2005, Rhymefest earned the Grammy Award for Best Rap Song, along with West, for co-writing the song. Rhymefest had the initial idea for the song and discovered the sample used in the song, Arc Choir's "Walk with Me." Rhymefest played the song for West and then gave it to him to use for the album West was working on at the time, "The College Dropout." Fest didn't have a record contract at that time and he knew that if West could produce it and become famous, he would be able to gain some notoriety from it as well. Fest co-wrote the chorus and first verse with West and even wrote and performed a third verse that did not make the final cut, but is performed on his mixtape, "A Star is Born."

Rhymefest's much-anticipated first album "Blue Collar" was released July 11, 2006. On the album he works closely with long-time collaborator and producer Mark Ronson, as well as with producers Kanye West, No I.D., Just Blaze and Cool and Dre. The first single off the album is entitled, "Brand New," and is produced by and features West with a video featuring renowned Hip hop model Bria Myles. Artists he collaborates with on "Blue Collar" are Citizen Cope, Carl Thomas, Mario and the late Dirt McGirt.

[edit] Notable Television Appearances

Fest was seen on the MTV show Punk'd when Kanye West was the subject of a practical joke on the set of his second music video for "Jesus Walks." Rhymefest was the first to greet West as he stepped out of a van after it had been revealed to him that he had just been "Punk'd." Rhymefest was on the set of the video to give his input as he co-wrote the track. Also appeared on TRL along with Kanye West and other stars introducing new artists to the game such as Pharrell Williams introducing Robin Thicke.

Rhymefest was also featured heavily on the episode of the VH1 show, "Driven," that dealt with the life story of Kanye West as told by his family, friends and colleagues. They met as 15 years-olds in Chicago and have been close friends ever since.

Rhymefest guest starred in an episode of the second season of "Nick Cannon's Wild N' Out" on MTV, originally aired on Thursday, February 23, 2006. During the "Wildstyle" segment of the show, Fest freestyled to Nick Cannon, "The black team, a real hard team to deal with, what the hell is this? A little baby Will Smith? I don't understand, by all accounts, Nick Cannon, get out of here, you need to Roll... Bounce!" After that, in response to a rap about his lisp, he rapped, "Yeah I got a lisp, I understand this, but why you look like a piece of big Suge Knight's shit? I don't understand, wait a minute, don't bug me, Celie from The Color Purple, 'You sho is ugly!'" He also performed "Brand New" with Kanye West on the episode.

"Brand New" was featured on the series premiere of the MTV program, 8th & Ocean. It was being played in the Miami club, Privé, while Britt danced with Adrian.

[edit] Rhymefest the Goodwill Hip Hop Ambassador

Rhymefest recently on the 19th October 2006 met with UK opposition leader David Cameron of the right wing Conservative Party. They discussed the issue of violent rap lyrics which Cameron had highlighted as problem and they both agreed that hip hop music should not be banned but rappers should portray the positive side of life in their music.

According to the London Metro Times, Rhymefest treated the British politician to a performance in his House of Commons office and even invited him to venture with him to a nightclub. However this was turned down by Cameron due to his busy schedule.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Singles

[edit] Studio albums

[edit] Mixtapes

[edit] Other songs

Did the last song in the movie The Rundown entitled "Run That"

[edit] Quotes

"The entire concept behind my project is to fight the wackness that rap has become... There are enough people trying to be gangsters without me going that route... What we need in hip-hop right now are rappers who are both truthful and entertaining."

- taken from Rhymefest.com

"This is stuff that happens in the streets and that's why I named my album 'Blue Collar,' because I feel like it's the hustle. The grind is a hustle. Like, if you go down to the Southside of Chicago, where I'm from you might not see six brothers out there slinging dope, you might see five people on the bus stop going to work, but ain't nobody talking about that."

- taken from interview atBallerStatus.net

"There's hardworking people that try to make ends meet that come home and have to deal with a drug addict in their family, or with children that's been molested, or with utilities that have been turned off. Hard times are something that great comedy has been made of. Hard times are something that great books have been made of. Why not great rap?"

- taken from article at The Meter


[edit] External links

- Fest performs "Bullet," "These Days," "Devil's Pie," "More," "All Girls Cheat" and "Brand New" from his album "Blue Collar"

[edit] Multimedia

[edit] See also

[edit] Interviews and articles

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