Soul Khan

Soul Khan
On stage at Knitting Factory
Background information
Born April 18, 1985
West Hollywood, CA
Origin Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, United States
Genres Hip hop
Years active 2010–present
Labels Unsigned
Associated acts Homeboy Sandman, Brown Bag AllStars, Akie Bermiss, Koncept, Sene
Website http://soulkhan.com

Noah Weston, better known as Soul Khan (born April 18, 1985) is an American songwriter, rapper, and retired battle rapper. Born in West Hollywood and raised in Woodland Hills, California, he currently resides in Brooklyn, New York City.[1] After a short career in battle rap that started in late 2008, in which he appeared in American circuits such as Grindtime and Smack/URL, as well as outside the United States, notably in Canada (KOTD) and United Kingdom (Don't Flop), he retired from the scene to focus his attention on his musical career in early 2010. He is a member of the Brown Bag AllStars, a collective of emcees and producers from the Brooklyn area.[2]

Music career

Soul Khan started his rap career after he met his current group, The Brown Bag Allstars while working at Fat Beats[3] in Manhattan, NY. In late 2010, Soul Khan released his free album Soul Like Khan.[4] The following year, he started releasing his Love Supreme series, four EPs in dedication to John Coltrane's legendary album by the same name, A Love Supreme.[5] The first EP, Acknowledgement was produced by DeeJay Element with an upbeat approach to help listeners feel "renewed."[6] The second EP, Resolution, was produced by Marink.[7] Pursuance EP,[8] produced by Audible Doctor is the third and Psalm, produced by Abnormal completed the series.[9] Soul Khan's song "Speeding Bullets" was also on the 2012 College Radio Day album.

Soul Khan performed at 2013 Bonnaroo with Black Violin, Jeni Suk, & Knower as the collective "Sooper Groop.".[10] Soul Khan lists Pharoahe Monch, Posdnous, Paul Robeson, & David Ruffin as musical influences.

Soul Khan was listed in Allhiphop's Top 50 Underground Hip Hop Artists of 2012.[11]

Battle career

Soul Khan burst onto the battle scene with a decisive victory over Yellow Rat Bassterd in a 2008 GrindTimeNow battle. From here Khan continued to battle in the GrindTimeNow circuit against many other GrindTimeNow heavyweights such as Cortez and Syd Vicious. Soul Khan's popularity grew within battle rap as more and more fans were being introduced to the subculture.

In early 2010 a fresh-shaven Soul Khan made his first appearance on the Ultimate Rap League(URL) stage against an Ohio rapper named Deacon Frost. Although this battle was highly debated, it is an example of why Soul Khan is so highly respected amongst many different battle rap leagues, and has such a diverse following of fans. Also in 2010 Soul Khan had two international battle rap performance in Canada's main battle league King of the Dot (KOTD) where he defeated Aspire, and top ranked Canadian battler Porich in a controversial decision.

Soul Khan continued to battle throughout 2010 in GrindTimeNow against other big names such as QP (SONS), Madness, and Fresco until he eventually got invited for another international appearance. This time Khan appeared in the United Kingdom on the prominent Don't Flop stage where he battled Don't Flop veteran Sensa in a classic three round clash.

Soul Khan went on to perform one more battle on the URL main stage in December 2010 against SONS rapper Fox, in what is widely considered one of the most one-sided battles in URL history. Soul Khan announced his retirement from battle rap for the sake of wanting to focus on his more lucrative music career, and getting out while he was still on top. Occasionally, Khan attends big name battle rap events as either a guest judge, or even just as a fan of the battle rap culture, but has stated that he has no intention of ever coming back to battling. In a recent interview with buzzntheburgh.com, Soul Khan reiterated that he will never battle rap again unless his music career took off dramatically.

Soul Khan has become an online YouTube sensation, having numerous videos eclipse the 300,000 view mark.

Discography

Singles

Selected Guest Appearances

Battle Rap History

References

  1. ↑ "Official Bio". Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  2. ↑ "Soul Khan bio". Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  3. ↑ "Village Voice interview". Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  4. ↑ "Daily Tar Heel interview". Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  5. ↑ "Village Voice interview". Retrieved 11 December 2012.
  6. ↑ "MTV News interview". Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  7. ↑ "The Madd Bloggers". Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  8. ↑ "Birthplace Magazine". Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  9. ↑ "Kevin Nottingham". Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  10. ↑ "Fuse TV interview". Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  11. ↑ "Allhiphop.com". Retrieved 24 June 2013.
  12. ↑ "Allhiphop.com interview". Retrieved 23 June 2013.
  13. ↑ "2Dopeboyz". Retrieved 4 November 2011.
  14. ↑ "Complex review". Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  15. ↑ "Soul Khan battle profile". Retrieved 31 January 2013.

http://buzzntheburgh.com/soul-khan-interview/

External links

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