Torae

If you reside anywhere on the planet earth it’s safe to say TORAE has rocked a venue in your city, laced three out of five albums you have in heavy rotation and all of your friends follow his lead on twitter. In this digital age where the traditional grind is almost completely lost, he continues to take it to the max as a minimalist. Why? Because he loves it, so he's gonna spit it until you all get it. For over a decade TORAE has been giving us gritty yet lyrically driven hip-hop. As the story goes a Bad Boy Records employee recognized the real dripping from his demo and included him on an independent compilation album in the late 90’s. He never looked back and soon began blessing the hottest DJs from coast to coast on their mixtapes. This Coney Island bred MC went from obscurity to customizing a track for LeBron James' signature IV shoe and recording with gold & platinum selling producers faster than a ride on The Cyclone. After dropping a pair of DJ Premier produced masterpieces alongside Skyzoo in 2007, the streets were salivating for a solo release. Fast forward to February 8’ when via his own label, Internal Affairs Entertainment, he delivered the goods with Daily Conversation. Beats by household names 9th Wonder, Black Milk and Khrysis provided the perfect backdrop and the album instantly incited him a feature on iTunes as an indie spotlight artist. You may have read about the first single "Click" in XXLmag.com’s “Banger” section or virtually every hip hop website and blog. With the success of Daily Conversation under his belt TORAE took to the stage internationally. Known to command a crowd, he joined Masta Ace on the Once More Tour; performing for tens of thousands in countries like Canada, Poland, Germany and Romania. After touring the world and building a discography that rivals the most prolific of MCs, the music kept calling him, and he joined forces with Marco Polo to crash the industry party with 2009’s Double Barrel. Newly signed to independent powerhouse Duck Down Records, the duo's dynamic chemistry concocted arguably the hardest album of the year. Double Barrel received rave reviews, earning the team an XL rating in the July 9’issue of XXL Magazine and a spot as one of BET.com's top 12 indie albums. Meeting the mainstream and still resonating at sub levels, the two were victorious at the 2009 Underground Music Awards winning Indie Album of the Year. His heavy video rotation on mtvU was telling; TORAE's traditional boom bap had us reminiscing, yet hoping that he was the future.