Shabazz Baidoo

Shabazz Baidoo
Personal information
Full nameShabazz Kwame Kussie Baidoo[1]
Date of birth13 April 1988[1]
Place of birthHackney, England
Height1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)[1]
Playing positionStriker
Youth career
Tottenham Hotspur
Arsenal
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
2005–2008Queens Park Rangers28(3)
2007Gillingham (loan)0(0)
2008Dagenham & Redbridge3(0)
2008Lewes5(0)
2008–2010Croydon Athletic?(?)
2010Bishop's Stortford?(?)
2010–2012Croydon Athletic?(?)
2012Wealdstone?(?)
2013–Biggleswade Town?(?)
National team
2003England U161(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 13:32, 30 December 2013 (UTC).
† Appearances (Goals).

Shabazz Kwame Kussie Baidoo (born 13 April 1988) is an English professional footballer of Ghanaian and Montserratian descent, who plays for Biggleswade Town in the Southern League Premier Division.

Football career

Born in Hackney, as a youngster, Baidoo was on Arsenal's books. However, Arsenal released him and he had a trial at Norwich City before signing for Queens Park Rangers and Dagenham & Redbridge.[2]

Baidoo burst onto the scenes rather prematurely, during an injury crisis for Ian Holloway's team towards the end of the 2004/05 season. He made his debut aged just 16. The following two seasons saw Baidoo feature slightly more regularly, scoring four goals and making numerous substitute appearances and a few starts. However, since John Gregory became manager, Baidoo had been used sparingly and out of position, on the wing. He was used even less frequently under Gary Waddock, Mick Harford and Luigi De Canio. Baidoo went on loan to Gillingham in December 2007, but failed to make an appearance for the club, returning to Loftus Road in the New Year.[3]

On 17 January 2008, Baidoo's contract was terminated by mutual consent by QPR. On the same day he joined Dagenham & Redbridge on a deal that lasted until the end of the 2007–08 season. During this spell he took the chance to work on his developing music career, as "MC Terminator". In September 2008 he joined Conference club Lewes on a monthly contract.[4] Released after one month,[5] in October 2008 he moved to Croydon Athletic.[6]

He is currently playing for Biggleswade Town.[7]

Musical career

As well as his career as a professional footballer, Baidoo has a music career under his performing name "MC Terminator", otherwise known as "T" or the "Darkside Pioneer". According to his GrimeForum page,[8] Baidoo's musical career is secondary to his footballing and is a recreational activity.

Baidoo is said to have created his own musical subgenre within Grime known as "darkside" which predominantly involves a "sluggish flow" coupled with violent lyrics. Some of his musical techniques include rhyming words with themselves and holding one syllable for an extended amount of time to allow a bar to pass. Sometimes Baidoo will even make use of one word lines in his lyrics.[9][10]

He first grabbed the attention of the Grime scene in his F64 for SB.TV, where notable quotes include "I'll knife your Mum", "I'll knife man down to size", "I will knife man up" and "Krispy Kreme." He has also increased his profile by repeatedly adding the phrases "and it's T" and "T" in his lyrics to advertise himself.

In April 2012 an interview was published[11] in which Baidoo speaks of his return to Grime and the release of his mix tape titled 'Darkside Pioneer'. An EP named the 'Friday the 13th EP' has been released[12] and freely distributed. On 19 December 2013, Baidoo released his highly anticipated Darkside Pioneer album.

References

External links