About Iron African
I was born in uganda. One of the most impoverished places on earth. Pops brought me to Europe. Love my pops for that, I could’nt ask for more, its like saving someone out of a fire.
America gave me hiphop. I think its the best thing America ever gave the world. My world. The world of the dream chase, the hunger, the strength.
I am one of those “all in one” hip hop heads and i think i have done it all from scratching up wax to breaking and grafiti writing. It all started in 84. After 3 years in the swedish immigration swamp my pops had finally got a permit to bring me over to Europe, Sweden from Uganda. Around that time the waves of hip hop were sweeping across the world and i was no exeption to falling in love with this vivid culture. Being an african young’ne so far away from anything african, this new african-american lifestyle just spoke to me. It probably filled some kind of cultural void. I remember telling my family when i was about 12 that i would never wear anything else but fila suits and sneakers for the rest of my life,ha ha.
During the late 80′s me and my friends used to chill in the boy room with the permanent marker fumes in the air and listen to the latest tapes from the US( peace to my man K George). Some of us were cleaning up the sneakers, others were practicing the latest break moves and some just sharpening their tags while singing along with the raps coming out from the speakers. Everybody from our parents to teachers were telling us that this hip hop trend was a waste of time and that it would die out very soon. I was’nt listening to that though, i was in love.
Fast foward to the late 90′s and im in New York City still doing the same thing, hanging with different cats just living hip hop, recording a few tracks here and there, trying to get up in the rap game, making a few dollars doing street promotion for my man Ivan Ramires at GMP promotions and Cornerstone. Finally in 2000 we put out my first serious wax project called 720 degrees under the name Shiny Dayz and got it distributed by the legendary but now defunct Buds Distribution(shout to my man Tim Weedon). The high light of that project for me was to actually see people pick it up off the shelf at the Fatbeats record store and buying it. I will never forget that satisfying feeling. 720 degrees also got put on mixtapes by dope djs like Black Panther, Dj ESE(Def Jux/Embeded) and played on radio by the one and only Bobbito Garcia, also by Dj Opal on the world wide show-humongus stuff back then for a cat like me.
Good things were happening but after 911 in 2001 alot changed and i decided to fight my battles from Stockholm. I formed Ruush Entertainment and eventually released a project called Swedish Rap Is Dead: the Ep. The Ep got good reviews and the video to one of the songs, “Stay Awake”, got to the top 20 chart on Chanel U in London. The Ep also led to an extensive tour of Germany where i opened up Major artists like Mobb Deep, U God from the Wu Tang and Loop Troop among others.
Late Bloomer Ep
In 2005 we put out my debut album Third World Animal exclusively for the german market. It got great reviews and got voted in at top 10 for best international newcomers on germanys biggest hip hop website Rap.De.
In 2009 i’m just done with pushing Late Bloomer Ep. The first single/video out is “Used to love her”.
Late bloomer is about me being late in the game of rap and just now after a long time starting to get recognition. And also how im a bit stuck in the late 90′s…a bit musically retarded.
