About this artist
Globe-trotting rapper Azizi Gibson spent years hopping from country to country with his family before settling in Los Angeles to pursue a career in music. Influenced by everything from Eminem and Outkast to anime and video games, he rose from the underground with the release of a handful of mixtapes and EPs (some on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label). As an independent artist with his own preHISTORIC label, he issued his first full-length, Prehistoric Til Death, in 2015. He followed with an album per year into the early 2020s, including 2017′s Memoirs of the Reaper, 2018′s Xenophile, and 2019′s Chimera Act. In 2021, he issued This is not an Album. This is a Killer Playlist, Vol. 1.
Born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1990, he was part of a military family originally from Zaire and spent the better part of his young life in transition. He lived in Singapore and Thailand before moving to Maryland, all the while becoming increasingly interested in boundary-pushing hip-hop production and lyricism. He dropped out of college in 2010 and promptly moved to Los Angeles. Already obsessed with rap, Gibson came to L.A. with a low-budget mixtape under his belt, blending his own articulate flow with clear influences from Eminem and the Pharcyde. As fate would have it, Gibson met famed producer Flying Lotus in passing several times after moving to L.A., and eventually gave the more established star a copy of his mixtape. He was signed to Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label, which released his more polished 2013 mixtape, Ghost in the Shell. The next year he followed with the Backwards Books EP and released his first proper full-length, 2015′s Prehistoric Til Death, which featured Waka Flocka Flame on “Slave Ship” and Dragon Ball Z voice actor Christopher Sabat on “Marriage Skit.” His second album, A New Life, surfaced in spring of 2016, recruiting Big K.R.I.T. on “Issues” and DJ Paul on “Mischeif.” Memoirs of the Reaper followed in 2017. By this time, he had split with Brainfeeder to start his own label, preHISTORIC.
The prolific artist continued with a pair of efforts in 2018: Xenophile and Backwards Books 2. Chimera Act landed in 2019, with Reaping the Benefits following in 2020. Without pause, he released This is not an Album. This is a Killer Playlist Vol. 1 in 2021, featuring Maxine Ashley on a pair of tracks and frequent collaborator AKTHESAVIOR on “Genesis.” ~ Fred Thomas