Ceza

CEZA was born in Istanbul / Turkey in 1977. His interest in music rap music arose
with Breakdance 1 & 2 and Beatstreet movies he saw on TV at his childhood days. At the school years he started writing his raps first.. His career moved on to a more professional level when he met Dr Fuchs and formed NEFRET in 1997. In 1998, they have recorded couple of songs. With four of these songs, they participated in a compilation album called “YERALTI OPERASYONU” together with couple of other rap acts. They were the most outstanding act of the compilation. Right after this compilation they caught Hammer Muzik’s attention, received a good offer and signed a multi album contract. In 2000, their debut album “Meclisi Ala Istanbul” was released. A videoclip was made for the song “Istanbul” which had airplay in some TV channels and they managed to get coverage in the national press as well. And “Meclis-I Ala Istanbul” was the album to bring back the hip hop music to Turkish music market again, years after the release of Cartel’s album. In 2001 came the second album “Anahtar”. With which the media interest and sales quantities were doubled. Shortly after the “Anahtar” album was released, Dr Fuchs’ military service problem occured and he had to leave for 18 months. In Dr Fuchs’ absence CEZA started working on his debut solo album “Med Cezir” which he already had on mind. The album was released in 2002 and it got big interest from press and listeners.. After the spark “Meclis-I Ala Istanbul” album, “Med Cezir” was a real breakthrough! CEZA did a intense Turkey tour and also performed live outside Turkey in countries such as Germany, Holland, Belgium, Sweden... The first gig abroad ever was in Stockholm Sweden where he shared stage with Sweden’s Fjarde Varlden and Advance Patrol. Ceza recorded a song together with Fjarde Varlden in the trip which was titled “Tamam” and released in Fjarde Varlden’s album. In 2004 summer, the second solo album RAPSTAR was released. The interest from media was huge! A lot of tv programmes, interviews, concerts, guest feat. vocals with famous popstars like Candan Ercetin, Burcu Gunes and Mercan Dede followed.. And CEZA became a RAPSTAR! He performed in major events like Rock Istanbul, Rock’N Coke and also solo concerts in numerous cities and venues in and outside Turkey. Also in Summer 2004, he took part in the documentary movie “CROSSING THE BRIDGE” by the award winning director Fatih AKIN. With the help of the movie he also increased his reputation outside Turkey as well. CEZA was asked to do a feat. for the new Massive T..ne album “Z..r..ck In Die Zukunft” which he gladly accepted and “Worauf Wartest Du” was recorded. This song was very well accepted and Massive T..ne also did a self-made videoclip during their visit in Istanbul for the Istanbul Hiphop Festival 2. On April 29, “Feyz Al”, the first single of the upcoming 3rd solo album was released. Around the same time he also appeared as guest in the Gheddo CD Single by Eko Fresh which was released in Europe. In the summer of 2006 Ceza performed at Wiener Fest Wochen (Austria), Stimmen Festival (Switzerland) and Europe’s biggest hiphop festival SPLASH (Germany) as the very first MC coming from Turkey to appear at SPLASH ever. On September 6th, 2006, the 3rd solo album of CEZA; “YERLI PLAKA” was released in Turkey. The beats of the album have been produced by producers from Turkey, Germany and Holland; namely Roka, Ayhan Sayiner, Yusuf K..ybasi, Aksit Ugurlu, Paolon Roe Beardie, Soniq, Phat Crispy. In the album guest feat. parts of Sezen Aksu Ayben, Sahtiyan, Yener, Alaturka Mavzer, Mihenk Tasi, Emre from Turkey and also Tech N9ne (USA), Samy Deluxe (Germany), Afrob (Germany), Eko Fresh (Germany) Killa Hakan (Germany) from abroad are included. For the production of “Yerli Plaka”, 3 studios have been used; Digitolia (Istanbul), Kraft (Istanbul) & No 5 Production (Berlin). Digital mastering has been done by Tom Meyer of Master & Servant Gmbh Germany. The album has top-notch sound quality. The photography of the album cover has been done by Cemil Agacikoglu and the design and the lay out has again been very well conceived by Mazhar Bilgic who also did an excellent job for the cover of “Feyz Al” single. “Yerli Plaka” is now available in Turkey via Hammer Muzik under distribution of EMI Music Turkey, and the album shall also be released worldwide by EMI Music under license of Hammer Muzik very soon. In November 2006, Ceza shall start the Yerli Plaka Tour. The first videoclip for the album has been shot for the title track “Yerli Plaka” in Germany under production of Media Juice (www.mediajuice.de) and direction of Thomas Garber (www.cliplounge.net) with the international quality standards. The videoclip is now in rotation at many Turkish music channels like Dream TV, Number 1 TV etc. and it shall soon be aired at MTV, VIVA,TRACE and some other international TV channels.

Sagopa Kajmer

SAGOPA KAJMER
DJ MiC CHECK
Yunus Özyavuz was borned in 1978 in Samsun.
-First he started DJing in a local radio in Samsun.
-In 1997 he came to Istanbul for his university education. "ISTANBUL UNIVERSITY PERSIAN LANGUAGE & LITERATURE"
-In 1998 He started his music studies by setting up his own music studio called "KUVVETMIRA".
-In year 1999 he attracted the most attention when he appeared as "SILAHSIZ KUVVET" which is his first project and , in the first turkish rap album which various performers were attended called "Yeralt Operasyonu".
-In year 2001 he released his first album as SILAHSIZ KUVVET "Sözlerim Silahm".
-In year 2002 his second album was released SILAHSIZ KUVVET "Ihtiyar Heyeti".
-In 2002 He created "SAGOPA KAJMER". He released the album that has the same name of him.
-In year 2002 he made the production of Ceza "Med Cezir" album..He produced all the beats himself.
-In year 2003 he completed his new album "Bir Pesimistin Gözyalar" and in year 2004 he released a double album that lasts 150 minutes. He attracted big attention by creating a brand new sound.
-In year 2004 he was the producer of FUCHS "Huzur N Darem" album.
-In 2004 he produced some tracks of original soundtracks of the Cem Ylmaz film called "G.O.R.A.". He shooted a video to track "Al 1'de Burdan Yak"
-Dj Mic Check is the pioneer of "turntablism" movement in Turkey.(scratch show with records)
-After moving to Istanbul, besides his musical productions and university education he worked as a music director and Dj in powerful radios. He's still making a program in Power FM.
-He made some djing in h2000 ve j&b festivals. He made djing in various places in abroad.
Having an important musical accumulation and archive Dj MicCheck with his identity "Sagopa Kajmer" formed the "PESIMIST UNDERGROUND RAP" style, he proved himself to people from various groups, with the musical quality, lyrical richness and his impressive voice.
He also made some musical beats to foreign artists
New Projects :
2007 SAGOPA KAJMER SOLO ALBUM
2007 KOLERA &SAGOPA KAJMER DUET Album
---- Dj MicCheck "Turntablist" ----

Turkish Rap

In Germany with the success and popularity of the Turkish rap group Cartel in the mid 1990s throughout Turkey. Unfortunately, after the success of their first album, the members of Cartel had a fight almost killing some of their members. The group was forbidden to perform together again and the members of Cartel were jailed. Cartel's album was banned from the music market. It was later re-released in 2004. This caused a decrease into interest in Hip Hop music. In 2001, Hip Hop music started to regain attention with the group Nefret, founded by Turkish rappers Ceza and Dr. Fuchs and they started the next generation of Turkish rap. Today, Ceza is arguably the most successful and popular Turkish rapper. Ceza lead the way for many Turkish rappers such as Sirhot, Sagopa Kajmer, and his sister Ayben who were all previously underground and are now signed into the German Hammer Muzik. Ceza's 2004 Rapstar album was a huge success in Turkey. In 2005, underground Turkish DJ Ege Çubukçu released his first album titled 1 Gün ("One day") which contained the 2005 hit "Yaz Geldi" ("Summer has come"). In 2006, Turkish pop singer Tarkan explained that hip hop had made a great impact on him and that his next albums would be slowly moving to Hip Hop. He featured Wyclef Jean in his 2006 album Come Closer.