Pittsburgh Slim

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Pittsburgh Slim
Birth name	Sied Chahrour
Genre(s)	Hip hop, alternative rap
Years active	2007–present
Label(s)	Def Jam

Sied Chahrour, better known by the stage name Pittsburgh Slim, is an American rapper from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He began as a member of the Pittsburgh indie rap group, Strict Flow, and after relocating to Los Angeles, California, released the single "Girls Kiss Girls". The song gained popularity from its video on YouTube, leading Chahrour to sign to Def Jam Recordings, where he debuted with the album, Tastemaker, in December 2007.

1 Biography
2 Discography
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Biography

Chahrour was born and raised in the Greenfield neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to an Algerian father and a part-Mexican mother. He began working on beats and rhymes around 1993 while starting Allderdice High School, where he graduated in 1997.^[1] He played in rock bands and formed the rap group, Strict Flow, in 1996, with Masai Turner, Chad Glick, and Eric Dan. The group signed to indie label Raw Shack in 1999, and released the single "People on Lock". Their debut album, Homegrown, sold over 6,000 copies, an unprecedented amount for a Pittsburgh hip hop group. Strict Flow opened local shows for artists such as Nelly, Jurassic 5, Usher, Nas, The Roots, Ja Rule and 50 Cent, but after releasing the album Without Further Ado in 2003, the group split up.

Chahrour relocated to Los Angeles, California in 2005 and worked as a waiter while he continued to work on his music. Chahrour conceived of a song based on the line "I like when girls kiss girls", and turned to North Carolina-based producer David Willis, also known as Ski Beatz, for help with the production. For the song, "Girls Kiss Girls", they made an American Pie-inspired video that featured Penthouse magazine model Krista Ayne. The video became a sensation on the video sharing website YouTube and started getting radio station play across the United States, beginning with KISS-FM in Pittsburgh.

Chahrour began receiving offers from record labels to release the single, but held out for an offer to make an album. Chahrour met with rapper and Def Jam CEO, Jay-Z, and was offered a five album deal with the label. Chahrour had come up with the name Pittsburgh Slim four years earlier, based on a line from Jay-Z's song, "So Ghetto" from Vol. 3... Life and Times of S. Carter, where he rapped "Iceberg, Slim, baby ride rims", referencing author and pimp Iceberg Slim. Chahrour released the single "Girls Kiss Girls" on Def Jam and his album, Tastemaker, was released on December 4, 2007. Chahrour appeared on Last Call with Carson Daly on December 11, 2007 and will appear in the film, The Bleeding, starring Vinnie Jones, Michael Matthias, Michael Madsen, DMX and Armand Assante.^[2]