Azad (rapper)
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| Azad | |
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 Azad at a 2004 concert in Berlin
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Azad Azadpour |
| Born | January 1, 1974 Sanandaj, Iran |
| Origin | Frankfurt, Germany |
| Genre(s) | German hip hop |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Label(s) | Bozz Music |
| Associated acts | Asiatic Warriors |
| Website | www.azad.de |
Azad Azadpour (born January 1, 1974 in Sanandaj,Iran), better known as Azad, is a German rapper. Azad is a Kurdish given name meaning "Freedom".[1]
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[edit] Personal background
Azad came from Kurdistan as the child of a Sanandaji family of refugees and now lives in Frankfurt, Germany. He found his home in hip hop culture since it was a common part of life in the area he grew up. He became a member of multicultural, radical rappers Asiatic Warriors, who used to rap in English, Kurdish and German. After the crew disbanded, Azad focused on his solo career and the hip-hop formation Warheit, which he was a part of, and became one of the first German rappers to be successful in the German Singles Charts. (see Discography section)Azad aims to influence Kurdish youth through hip hop culture as a way to maintain their identities.
[edit] Recent career
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.
[edit] 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," [2] This devotion and respect of American culture proves how important this song is for Azud, as a musician, and how advanced hip-hop has become as a musical genre in Germany. Azud's style owes immensely to American rap culture, Azud 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, Azud 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. [3]. Azud'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.[4] 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 1980's. 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. [5]
[edit] Discography
[edit] Studio 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")
[edit] Mixtapes
- 2008 - Azphalt Inferno
[edit] Singles
| Year | Title | Chart Positions | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GER[6] | AUT | SWI | ||||
| 2003 | "A" | 65 | – | – | Faust des Nordwestens | |
| 2004 | "Phönix"1 | 65 | – | – | Der Bozz | |
| 2005 | "Kopf hoch"2 | 57 | – | – | ||
| "Locked Up" (Akon feat. Azad) | 15 | – | – | Trouble (Akon album) | ||
| "Signal" (J-Luv feat. Azad) | 52 | – | – | Threeshot (J-Luv album) | ||
| "Monstershit" (with Kool Savas) | 29 | – | – | One (with Kool Savas) | ||
| "All 4 One" (with Kool Savas) | 4 | 24 | 85 | |||
| 2006 | "Guck My Man"3 (with Kool Savas) | 27 | – | – | ||
| "Alarm" | 48 | – | – | Game Over | ||
| "Eines Tages"4 (feat. Cassandra Steen) | 28 | – | – | |||
| "2 Kaiser"5 (Seryoga feat. Azad) | 85 | – | – | Russia's No. 1 (Seryoga album) | ||
| 2007 | "Hölle auf Erden"6 (as part of the hip-hop formation Warheit) |
85 | – | – | Betonklassik (Warheit album) | |
| "Prison Break Anthem (Ich glaub an dich)"7 (feat. Adel Tawil) | 1 | 13 | 18 | Blockschrift | ||
| "Zeit zu verstehen"8 (feat. Gentleman) | 30 | 72 | – | |||
Title translations:
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[edit] References
- ^ Babynamesworld.com – Meaning of the name Azad
- ^ Brown, Timothy. 'Keeping it Real' In a Different Hood: (African) Americanization and Hip-Hop in Germany." In the Vinyl Ain't Final, 137-150
- ^ Azad's personal MySpace, http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=100280541, accessed March 20, 2008
- ^ 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.
- ^ Biography on Artistopia
- ^ Chartsurfer.de – By typing in the artist's name you will find the official German singles charts positions
[edit] External links
- Official website (German, needs Macromedia Flash)
