Biography
Akir first entered the hip hop scene as an on-air personality at the high school radio station, WNMH, from 1994 to 1996. In 1998, he ranked second out of 50 in Howard University's Verbal Armageddon, MC competition. Akir sought to improve his musical talent and began to focus on production. Collaborating with his brother and business partner SouthPaw, he co-produced one track on Immortal Technique's Revolutionary Vol. 1. Soon after, Akir released his first song, "Best Friend", on DJ N'finit's mix CD, The Blockbuster Vol. 1, through his own production company, One Enterprises.
In November 2005, Akir and ten other up and coming emcees formed the group The Reavers, and released the album Terror Firma. Soon after, One Enterprises and Viper Records joined to release Akir's debut solo album, Legacy. Soon after the release of Legacy, Akir was featured in The Source's Unsigned Hype sidebar in the January/February 2005 issue, and the "Off The Radar" spotlight in the April 2006 issue. Akir was also featured in XXL magazine's Chairman's Choice in the October 2005 issue, and Show and Prove spotlight in the June 2006 issue. In 2006, Akir appeared as a model for Mecca 5star apparel, appearing in ad campaigns in magazines and billboards.
Akir has completed 6 international tours (Rock the Bells 2006-2008, Vans Warped Tour 2004, Fort Minor 2006, Redman Tour Fall 2007), 9 domestic tours and over 500 shows.
Additionally, Akir has been involved with the Flocabulary project collaborating with 9th Wonder on a track to transform the story of Romeo and Juliet into a hip hop song for school curriculums. He was also referenced in one of their texts called The Rappers Handbook.
In 2007, One Enterprises and Viper Records in partnership with Koch Distribution reissued Akir's second album Legacy.
In 2008 he was made the head of artist relations at the Hip Hop Caucus during the Respect My Vote '08 campaign which featured such celebrities as DJ Green Lantern, TI, Maino, Dawn Richard, and Pharoahe Monch.
He's currently working with at risk youth teaching writing, production, and recording with the non-profit organization Art Start.
Akir is also a member of a production/writing team called The Boiler Room and is part of a hip-hop activist collective called Rebel Army (a.k.a. Rebel Armz) Including: Immortal Technique, Poison Pen, Diabolic, Swave Sevah, Da Circle (Slim & Fatz), Hasan Salaam, CF, DJ Static, SouthPaw, and DJ GI Joe.
In the fall of 2009 he released a mixtape entitled The Secret by DJ Static and Statik Selektah. His next album will be entitled The Plan and is scheduled for release in Spring 2010.
Read more about this topic: Akir
Famous quotes containing the word biography:
“In how few words, for instance, the Greeks would have told the story of Abelard and Heloise, making but a sentence of our classical dictionary.... We moderns, on the other hand, collect only the raw materials of biography and history, “memoirs to serve for a history,” which is but materials to serve for a mythology.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The death of Irving, which at any other time would have attracted universal attention, having occurred while these things were transpiring, went almost unobserved. I shall have to read of it in the biography of authors.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There never was a good biography of a good novelist. There couldn’t be. He is too many people, if he’s any good.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)