Doze
Doze | |
---|---|
Background information | |
Birth name | Giancarlo |
Also known as | Doze |
Born | Geneva, CH |
Labels | United Vibez |
Associated acts | MadInk, Grim City, Triba, World Wide Connects |
Doze (born 31 October 1991), is a Swiss hip-hop singer and producer.
Biography
Debut
Born Giancarlo in Geneva, Switzerland from Italian parents, Doze grew up with music. Since his youngest age, his father, who released a rock album (Wot's Up) with the Wot?, and played several gigs in the Geneva region, educated him in a musical environment introducing him to various instruments and to music in general. At the age of 12, Doze started playing piano and guitar, before discovering hip-hop at the age of 14. He started producing hip-hop beats and then he started rapping on them in Italian, then in French and finally in English. By the age of 16 he had already released 6 auto-produced, recorded and mixed songs with the participation of local rappers like NJ and Mister H. He also participated at the local "Café Cabaret" gigs at the Lycée International de Ferney Voltaire where he graduated in sciences in 2009. In 2010, Doze studied composition at the Brighton Institute of Modern Music. He has collaborated with artists like Charly-B and Morad from the Scred Connexion.
Career
In 2008, at the age of 16, Doze started collaborating with local reggae artist Triba (Singer of Mikmash) on reggae songs like "More Love" and "Burning System".
In the same period, the two young singers played at the Regg'Ain Fest in Segny organised by Success Prod, with Buddha Monk from Wu-Tang Clan, where became friends with famous singer Charly-B who produced and sang on a hit-tune released in 2009: "War n' Killing".
Doze arrived second at the World-Wide ReggaeEurope Contest in 2009 with the song "War n' Killing".
By 2010, Doze had created its own original style: a mixture of old school jazzy hip-hop and heavy new school production and started calling himself a "New Old School HipHopper".
His collaboration with labels Success Prod and Sickboys Prod brought Doze to play gigs alongside great names like Blacko from Sniper, Afu-Ra, Buddha Monk from Wu-Tang Clan, the Scred Connexion, Charly-B, Aya Waska, Blue Eyes, Kya Bamba, Tiwony, Sergent Garcia, Daddy Mory and Big Red from Raggasonic.
The 23 April 2011 Doze founded the United Vibez label and released his first French album Manipulation Mentale with collaboration from Morad from famous rap band the Scred Connexion and ZinZin from BlediYouth. The 13 track album is totally composed, recorded and mixed by Doze in his own studio, mastered by famous sound engineer Julien Coutois who worked with artists such as Sizzla and Orel San.
The 22 March 2012, at the Artiphys Festival at the polytechnic school of Lausanne – EPFL – the United Vibez label released Positive Violence, a morally & politically engaged old-school hip-hop album entirely produced by Doze & interpreted by Doze & MadInk & various artists from Geneva's Hip-Hop scene. The selling of the album allowed the humanitarian association "Habite ta Terre", which Doze is part of, to bring hundreds of vaccines in Senegal. This action signed the beginning of Doze's political & humanitarian actions.
Encounter with Morad from the Scred Connexion
Morad is a famous French rapper "de cité" from Paris. He is member of the Scred Connection from Bezbar together with rappers Haroun, Mokless and Koma. Doze invited him to feature on the Zen Masters Project, so they recorded a song in a recording studio in Geneva when they met at the Step-By Straight festival in Gex. As the Zen Masters Project was not released, the song "Tu Nous Baises Pas" was re-arranged and is now featured on the Manipulation Mentale album.
Discography
Mixtapes
- 2008 : Doze & Triba (English) – France
Albums
- 2011 : Manipulation Mentale (French) United Vibez – France
- 2012 : Positive Violence (English) United Vibez – France
Filmography
In 2011 Doze was introduced to the film industry by Thibaut Vignal, and together they started to work as freelancers in France & Switzerland.
As music composer
- 2011 : "L'Amour de l'Autre" by Roni Can Vesar – Switzerland
- 2012 : "Puta Libre" by Blaise Vilars & Kevin Haefelin – Switzerland
Short films:
- 2011 : Niejnay by Thibaut Vigniali – Switzerland
As sound designer
Short films:
- 2011 : Karne by Basiro Geneux – Switzerland
As lights technician
- 2011 : "L'Amour de l'Autre" by Roni Can Vesar – Switzerland
- 2012 : "Puta Libre" by Blaise Vilars & Kevin Haefelin – Switzerland
Short films:
- 2011 : Karne by Basiro Geneux – Switzerland
- 2012 : Trained by Anthony Jergen – Switzerland
- 2012 : Resurrection by Jeremy Rosenstein – Switzerland
- 2012 : Vacances by Natalia Ducrey – Switzerland
Major shows
- 2008 – Café Cabaret Ferney-Voltaire, France
- 2009 – Café Cabaret Ferney-Voltaire, France
- 2009 – Regg'ain Fest Segny, France with Buddha Monk from Wu-Tang Clan, Aya Waska, Blue Eyes, Kya Bamba and Charly-B
- 2009 – Etablis Massongy, France with Charly-B
- 2009 – Théatre de Verdure Divonne, France
- 2009 – Fête de la Musique, Ferney-Voltaire
- 2010 – Festival Success-Prod 2010 Divonne, Sergent Garcia and NajaVibes
- 2010 – Step By Straight Festival Gex, France with Scred Connexion
- 2010 – New-Chene Club Night St-Genis Pouilly, France with Afu-Ra
- 2010 – New-Chene Club Night St-Genis Pouilly, France with Blacko from Sniper
- 2010 – SickBoys Prod Combloux, France
- 2011 – 01 Soundklash Ferney-Voltaire, France with Tiwony
- 23 April 2011 – Festival Success Prod 2011, Manipulation Mentale Album Release Divonne, France with Daddy Mory and Big Red from RaggaSonic
- 14 May 2011 – Le Rouge et Noir, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 2011 – Bonneville with Triba, France
- 21 June 2011 – Fête de la Musique, Chalex, France
- 22 October 2011 – Concert de la Jeunesse d'Ornex, Ornex, France
- 1 December 2011 – Tremplin Artiphys, Buzz Club, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 22 March 2012 – Festival Artiphys, Positive Violence Album Release, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 11 May 2012 – Political Prisoners liberation concert, Polytechnic University, Athens, Greece
- 12 May 2012 – Legalise It Festival, Athens, Greece
- 13 May 2012 – Legalise It Festival, Athens, Greece
- 25 May 2012 – Belgrade, Serbia
- 21 June 2012 – Dunky Stand Fête de la Musique, Divonne, France