Wrekonize

Born in London, England, Wrekonize was raised in a cultured household of both British and African descent. His mother was England born and father had immigrated to England from Cape Town, South Africa.[2] Moving to the U.S. in 1988, his parents had formed a local band together. They performed on occasion with MC Guru for his original Jazzmatazz album.[3] (According to Wrekonize on 19 May 2018 at Ratfest 3 in an interview with Interview Under Fire, his parents were never in a band with MC Guru. He said it was a rumor started back in 2008.) At the age of 11, Wrekonize was introduced to Guru, who helped inspire him to make his own music.[3]

At the age of 13, Wrekonize was part of the popular cult of graffiti. Attempting to imitate the works of Miami graffiti artists Os Gêmeos, he spotted "Wrekonize" in Martha Cooper's[4] Subway Art book. Admiring the graphic he chose to adopt it as his stage name because to him it meant, "observant and always alert to the surrounding and the people in them".[5]

Born in 1983 in London, England, Wrekonize moved to Miami, Florida at the age of 5. In 2003 he competed in MTV Battle II: The Takeover in Times Square[6] to beat 10 rappers and won.[3] Promised a contract with Roc-A-Fella Records as a grand prize, reports several months later surfaced that Wrekonize was never offered a contract as the contest initially stipulated.[3] Soon after he was signed to SouthBeat Records[7] and shortly released "The Waiting Room Mixtape" which featured songs with Ras Kass and DJ Spinna.[3] The Waiting Room was planned to be the first mixtape to a three-part series he arranged with to Southbeat Records.[3] With a subsequent fall of the label, the album had minimal release but luckily resurfaced on the underground hip hop database DatPiff as an album of the week.[3] With online success of the first album, he self-produced a second installment called "Elevator Music".[3] It featured the Miami MC rapping over underground instrumentals with one track produced by Plex Luthor of ¡Mayday! and another produced by DJ Sharpsound.[3] ¡Mayday!,[8] a Miami-based hip hop band, had also been signed with SouthBeat Records in 2004 and performed with Wrekonize at local clubs and opera houses as well as collaborating on songs with him.[3]

Eventually ¡Mayday! offered Wrekonize a vocal position and membership in the band. In 2010, Wrekonize released "Stuck on an Island" with ¡Mayday! and a solo album called "A Soiree For Skeptics".[3] After ¡Mayday! signed with Strange Music in 2011, Wrekonize came to release the "Take Me To Your Leader" album, the "Thrift Store Halos" EP, and the "Smash & Grab" mix-tape with his band ¡Mayday! in 2012, as well as completing the "Waiting Room" mixtape trilogy with the "Rooftops Mixtape".[3] Wrekonize then went on to release the solo album "The War Within" and ¡Mayday!'s second album "Believers" in 2013.[9] Wrekonize has also produced various freestyles via numerous blogs and web sites.[9] He announced his second solo album "Into the Further" in March.