Tragedy Khadafi

Play media file

Short interview by Tragedy Khadafi with Karmaloop TV

Tragedy Khadafi (born August 18, 1971 in Queens , New York City as Percy Chapman ) is an American rapper of the styles hardcore rap , political rap and east coast hip hop , who has been active since the Golden Age and is part of the Juice crew was.

biography

Percy Chapman was born to a single heroin addict mother in a public housing estate in Queens . He had a difficult childhood, marked by poverty and his stepfather, who raped Percy's brother and sister.

At the age of 9 he came into contact with hip-hop , which at that time developed in the South Bronx and from there spread to the various districts of New York City . Inspired by the song "Rock the Bells" by LL Cool J , he finally wanted to rap himself. He named himself Jadeski and teamed up with DJ Hot Day. As the duo The Superkids, they released a few songs on their own in 1986 that caught the attention of Marley Marl . This led Chapman to split up with Hot Day and instead join his Juice Crew . As part of this, he recorded, now performing under the pseudonym Tragedy, the two tracks "The Rebel" and "Live Motivator" for Marley Marl's album "In Control, Volume 1".

Before the work was published, however, Chapman was sentenced to 20 months imprisonment in the maximum security prison in Elmira in 1988, then 16 years old, for a robbery . There he read a lot about the African-American culture, the teachings of the Nation of Islam as well as the books by Malcolm X . Influenced by this, he enrolled in a community college and studied the history of the African American there .

At that time, Chapman was no longer interested in a career as a musician. That changed, however, when he met MC Joe Fatal, who convinced him to start rapping again. Soon after, Chapman signed a recording deal with A&M Records . He was now called Intelligent Hoodlum (English for "intelligent gangster ") and published his debut album under this name in 1990, which was completely produced by Marley Marl. He lyrically processed the knowledge he had acquired in prison and college and applied it to his living conditions, so that his music in those days was part of political rap .

The successor "Tragedy: Saga of a Hoodlum", published in 1993, also remained true to this style. Both albums, just like the singles "Black & Proud" and "Back to Reality", reached some category charts in Billboard magazine , but could not place on the Billboard 200 or the Billboard Hot 100 .

Because of this relative lack of success, Chapman worked as a pimp from then on . He got into a gang war and suffered a gunshot wound, which did not seriously injure him.

Chapman then changed his stage name for the last time. He now added the surname Khadafi to his previously used alias Tragedy, referring to Muammar al-Gaddafi . The reason for this was that, according to his own statement, he found out about the most blatant world politicians and dictators and found al-Gaddafi's biography exciting. In addition, in his opinion, it suited the atmosphere he wanted to create with his music. He also expanded his style and started doing hardcore rap as well .

As a result, he worked a lot with other artists. He discovered Capone-N-Noreaga and recorded the song "LA, LA" with them in 1996. It was a response to "New York, New York" by Tha Dogg Pound in the course of the East Coast vs. West Coast - Beefs . The piece became a division success and sold 65,000 times.

In 1997 he helped Capone-N-Noreaga with their debut album "The War Report". In addition to the duo, he is almost equally represented on the work, but the success of the album, which reached number 21 on the Billboard 200, did not lead to increased interest in Chapman's person.

Thereupon a beef arose between Tragedy Khadafi and Noreaga , which was characterized by mutual accusations. Chapman found himself ousted from Noreaga by the following business decisions, while the latter claimed that Tragedy Khadafi had robbed Capone-N-Noreaga. The dispute was also processed in the music of the two parties. Khadafi was lyrically attacked on "Halfway Thugs II" by Noreaga; this processed the dispute on "Blood Type".

The latter song was released in 1998 and was also the single from Tragedy Khadafi's third album "Against All Odds". Although it was completed in 1999, its release date was repeatedly postponed and didn't appear until 2001.

Subsequently, new albums were released regularly, but after "Still Reportin ′" they no longer gained commercial importance.

In 2005 he founded the group Black Market Militia with Hell Razah , Killah Priest , Timbo King and William Cooper and recorded an album with them.

At the end of 2007 his career was interrupted because he had to go back to prison. He was sentenced to a little over three years in prison for drug trafficking, but was released a few months earlier in June 2010. The albums released in the meantime were based on previously recorded material. After his release he worked on other music, which appeared on "Thug Matrix 3" from 2011 and "Pre Magnum Opus" from 2014, among others.

In April 2019 Camouflage Regime was released , a joint album with Vinnie Paz .

Discography

Albums

• 1990: Intelligent Hoodlum
• 1993: Saga of a Hoodlum
• 2001: Against All Odds
• 2003: Still Reporter
• 2005: Thug Matrix
• 2006: Blood Ballads
• 2006: Thug Matrix²
• 2007: The Death of Tragedy
• 2008: QU Soldier
• 2008: Thug Matrix 4118
• 2009: Lethal Weapon (together with Trez)
• 2011: Thug Matrix 3
• 2014: Pre Magnum Opus
• 2019: Camouflage Regime (together with Vinnie Paz)

Singles

• 1990: Black & Proud
• 1990: Back to Reality
• 1991: Arrest the President
• 1993: Posse (Shoot 'Em Up)
• 1993: Grand Groove
• 1994: Street Live
• 1998: Blood Type
• 2000: Bing Monsters
• 2001: What's Good
• 2003: You Make Me / Still Reporting
• 2003: Hood / Hood Love
• 2005: Break Bread / The Game

Web links

• Tragedy Khadafi at laut.de
• Tragedy Khadafi at Allmusic (English)
• Intelligent Hoodlum at Allmusic (English)

swell

1. ^ IMDb : Tragedy Khadafi
2. ↑ See the video interview linked at the beginning of the article
3. ^ Allmusic: The War Report - Capone-N-Noreaga | Awards
4. ↑ Hiphopdx.com: Tragedy Khadafi Released From Prison, Working With Capone-N-Noreaga