Rahzel, a.k.a. The Godfather of Noyze, is a hip-hop phenomenon, with a well-earned reputation as the most inventive human beat box.
Rahzel's indoctrination into hip-hop came early, running around with his cousin Rahiem -- a founding member of the Furious Five -- in Queens, N.Y., and watching Grandmaster Flash perform before he was even tall enough to reach a turntable.
Rahzel honed his beat boxing skills and already had a thriving solo career on the East Coast when he was approached by the Roots, hip-hop's cutting edge sextet, to join their ensemble.
Rahzel's gift for vocal percussion melded perfectly with the Roots' sound, as they relied on jazzy instrumentation and their own human drummer instead of heavy sampling to maintain their organic brand of hip-hop. Rahzel spent several years performing with the Roots before deciding to break out on his own again.
His debut solo album, The Fifth Element: Make the Music 2000, showcases Rahzel's uncanny ability to sound like any number of drum instruments and features cameos from some of hip-hop's heaviest hitters, including Q-Tip, Black Thought (of the Roots), Aaron Hall, Pete Rock and Erykah Badu.
