Biography
Coolheaded MC Bazanji weaves verses around introspection, personal resolve, and achievement. The Kurdish-descended artist raised in North Carolina launched his recording career on New Year’s Day 2015 with the assured single “Right Now,” a track that previewed the approach he later honed across Mixed Feelings (2017), Outlier (2020), and Far from Normal (2021) plus numerous stand-alone releases. Operating without label support, he handles mixing and mastering duties himself, occasionally produces, and seldom invites other rappers onto his recordings.
Born Shad Albarazanji in England after his family left Kurdistan, Bazanji moved with his parents to North Carolina at age six. Exposure to Kanye West’s Graduation during middle school sparked his interest in rap; by high school he was already creating his own material, then committed fully to the craft as a dentistry student at the University of North Carolina. Following the 2015 debut, a steady stream of independent singles appeared through 2017 and were collected that November on the ten-track project Mixed Feelings, which combined earlier cuts with new songs. At that point his individual releases regularly accumulated millions of streams. Momentum built in 2018 when roughly a dozen commercial tracks surfaced, among them the motivational “Runnin’,” which earned placement in multiple sports broadcasts and the fourth Forza Horizon game. Output remained consistent the next year with the widely heard “2019” and “Escape.”
Early in the new decade Bazanji completed his dental degree at UNC yet chose to focus exclusively on music. Outlier arrived in 2020 and was followed the next year by Far from Normal. More than two dozen singles appeared throughout 2022 alone. His 2023 schedule opened, as had become customary, with an anthemic New Year’s track, then continued via further releases such as “Top of the World” and “Winning Time.”
Born Shad Albarazanji in England after his family left Kurdistan, Bazanji moved with his parents to North Carolina at age six. Exposure to Kanye West’s Graduation during middle school sparked his interest in rap; by high school he was already creating his own material, then committed fully to the craft as a dentistry student at the University of North Carolina. Following the 2015 debut, a steady stream of independent singles appeared through 2017 and were collected that November on the ten-track project Mixed Feelings, which combined earlier cuts with new songs. At that point his individual releases regularly accumulated millions of streams. Momentum built in 2018 when roughly a dozen commercial tracks surfaced, among them the motivational “Runnin’,” which earned placement in multiple sports broadcasts and the fourth Forza Horizon game. Output remained consistent the next year with the widely heard “2019” and “Escape.”
Early in the new decade Bazanji completed his dental degree at UNC yet chose to focus exclusively on music. Outlier arrived in 2020 and was followed the next year by Far from Normal. More than two dozen singles appeared throughout 2022 alone. His 2023 schedule opened, as had become customary, with an anthemic New Year’s track, then continued via further releases such as “Top of the World” and “Winning Time.”
Singles
