Breez Evahflowin

MC Breez Evahflowin, born Enrique DaSilva and affiliated with the Stronghold underground rap collective, stood out as a dominant presence across New York’s battle rap circuit and its national counterpart throughout the late 1990s. He captured the national grand champion title at the storied Blaze Battle competition in 1999, one of several accomplishments that marked the period. As his focus on battling receded, he gravitated toward the independent rap movement that was coalescing at that moment. During his freestyle era he joined multiple local crews that issued vinyl and also issued his own solo 12-inch, “Forsaken,” in 1996, a track that later surfaced on the BBE Music compilation Hip-Hop Forever (1998) assembled by DJ/producer Kenny Dope. In the early 2000s Breez cut numerous singles and 12-inch records for a range of independent imprints, among them Boston-based Detonator Records, while supplying an extensive series of guest appearances. Although his personal discography stayed modest, he managed to link with several leading underground rap figures, among them Vast Aire and the Molemen. Breez delivered the Fly EP through Just Be Records in 2003, yet his first full-length album, Troublemakers, appeared in 2008 on Little Ax in an exclusive collaboration with producer Dirt E. Dutch.