RAFIQ

RAFIQ

Throughout music history, amazing things have happened when artists haven taken different elements and dared to blend them in a way many others never imagined. For the hip-hop artist known as Rafiq, that inspired combination involves laying down official street music on a refreshing foundation of morals and responsibility.

³I'm attempting to show people that it¹s possible to be your own ghetto-fabulous self, and at the same time, stay true to God,² says Rafiq. ³I feel as though God's using me to display to the world how to keep it gangsta AND keep GOD's commandments, simultaneously. By no means am I compromising my morals for the sake of entertainment, or what the world perceives to be acceptable.²

Rafiq¹s philosophies spring to life vibrantly in his debut album, ³Change Tha Game.² Even the title sends an immediate message that this is an artist not just intent on using his talent for personal glory -- he¹s actually got an ambition to help change the entire hip-hop landscape for the better.

Produced by Philip Adams (aka ³Ballistic²), the album has been described as a ³poetic alarm clock.² All the visceral sensations that have made hip-hop a world-wide phenomenon are there: Beats that involuntarily move your body, compelling musical tracks underscoring the rhymes, acrobatic world play delivered with perfectly timed phrasing, and even a sly sense of humor that pops its head out now and again.

But conspicuously absent from ³Change Tha Game² are the negative elements that have turned off many music listeners from the hip-hop genre. Rafiq expresses his love of ladies without sexism, his identity as a proud young black man without racism, and his confidence as a rapper without aiming violent threats at the competition.

Consider these lines from Rafiq¹s song ³Keep'n it Real"...

³Not even tryna/ hit them skins/ cuz fornication is a sin
just keep ya silk in your cocoon/ besides, this ain't my honeymoon²

Rafiq was born 23 years ago in the Bronx, the storied, ethnically diverse borough of New York City. In those 23 years, he has already seen more of the world than most Americans see in their entire lives. A member of the U.S. navy, he completed a six-month deployment aboard the USS Trenton in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. He was also stationed in Italy during the recent war in Iraq.

But as soon as Rafiq returned to the States, Rafiq got back to his true loves: Music and poetry. Armed with a unique perspective from seeing the world first-hand, firmly rooted in a belief in God and a code of upright living, Rafiq is ready to get into the game, to master the game ... and to Change Tha Game.