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Canibus

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Canibus
File:Canibus.jpg
Canibus
Germaine Williams
Background information
OriginJamaica
Years active1998 - present
WebsiteMicClub.net

Canibus (Can-I-Bus, Rip the Jacker or just Bis for short; b. Germaine Williams to Basil and Elaine Williams, 9 December 1974, is a Jamaican-born, American citizen rapper.

Background

After his parents divorced, Germaine moved to the United States with his mother at the age of thirteen. His first new home was The Bronx, where he found an interest in the hip-hop culture, beatboxing, breakdancing and rap music. Due to his mother's job he was often forced to move, living in Washington D.C., Miami, England (where his mother originated from), Atlanta and New Jersey. This constant movement limited his ability to make friends and turned him into something of a recluse. Williams graduated high school in 1992 and went on to work for AT&T and the US Department of Justice as a data analyst. It was at this time that Williams became an internet 'junkie'. Having grown interested in computers and the internet, Germaine studied computer science at DeKalb Community College (now Georgia Perimeter College) in Atlanta.

Music career

Early career, 1995 - 1997

He began rhyming in the mid-'90s and by 1995 formed a duo called T.H.E.M. (The Heralds of Extreme Metaphors) with Atlanta rapper Webb. While he was with Webb, he took part in a legendary cypher with the Wu Tang Clan family in Atlanta, which earned him respect from the rap veterans. In 1996, T.H.E.M. split and Canibus teamed with businessman Charles Suitt".

Debut album/LL Cool J feud/sophomore album, 1998 - 2000

For the first part of 1998, he was managed by the main man behind the Fugees, Wyclef Jean, who was introduced to him by Jay-Z. It was at this time that the intense rivalry between him and rapper LL Cool J began. The battle stemmed from a collaboration with LL titled "4, 3, 2, 1" from L's 1997 album Phenomenon. LL took offense to the lines, "L, is That a mic on your arm? Let me borrow that," which referenced his tattoo of a microphone on his arm (which in actuality were Canibus' way of showing LL respect) and wrote an indirect diss to Bis, "The symbol on my arm is off limits to challengers...You don't wanna borrow that, you wanna idolize." Before the song was released, LL Cool J asked Bis to changes his lines. Bis claims that L said he would change his lines, too, but Cool J denied it and said nobody would know who he was talking about if Canibus' line was changed. The original version was eventually leaked out, and fans started to piece the lines together. After he inked a deal with Universal Records, Canibus released his debut single, "Second Round K.O." in 1998, in which Bis sent an all out assault on LL for dissing him on "4, 3, 2, 1". The rivalry continued, with both sides releasing further diss tracks, but eventually the feud fizzled out. Later on in his career, Canibus would have a similar, but less publicized rivalry with hip-hop superstar Eminem.

Bis's debut album Can-I-Bus came out in September of 1998. "Second Round K.O.", was a success (with the song and video featuring Wyclef Jean and a cameo by boxer Mike Tyson), the album itself was a commercial failure. Despite eventually being certified Gold, critics (including The Source magazine) also panned the album. Because Wyclef produced most of the tracks, Bis blamed him for his album being a "commercial failure" and cut ties with him. He went as far as to diss Wyclef on his second album for it ("You mad at the last album? I apologize for it / Yo, I can't call it, motherfucking Wyclef spoiled it!"). Bis's second album, 2000 B.C., was also released to mixed feelings. The album also suffered from having very little promotion. At the end of 2004, he and Wyclef met up and settled their differences; they have since worked together on a remix of the Machel Montano song "Carnival Survivors". In an interview with HipHopsite.com conducted in November of 2005, Bis said he recorded five songs with Wyclef and Jerry Wonda at Platinum Studios in New York for the upcoming Fugees' reunion album. Whether or not those recordings will appear on the album hasn't been determined yet.

C True Hollywood Stories

In 2001, Canibus released his third album C True Hollywood Stories, based after the television show E! True Hollywood Stories of the E! Television network. It was released on Archives Music, a label owned by Bis's future business partner Louis Lombard III. It was a controversial release due to the album's overall concept, which is still a little unclear to this day. Many people took it as Bis's attempt at going commercial and wrote him off as a one-hit wonder, while others have called it a concept album in which Bis satirized the mainstream hip-hop scene. Most explanations since the album's release seem to lean towards the latter. When his new official website MicClub.net went up in the end of 2002, the summary of this album in the merchandise section called it "an introspective look into the ultimate fan 'Stan's' take on the current state of hip hop". In an interview conducted in 2005, Bis's former hype man Pak-Man, who worked on over half of the album with Bis, spoke on CTHS, with his explanation leaning toward the satire idea: "At that time Canibus was in the studio recording a lot of songs and mean a lot, but he didn't want to make the fans wait no more so he did C True Hollywood Stories and he wanted to have fun wit, so thats what we did we had fun wit." In an interview on the website AllHipHop.com posted on April 8th, 2005, Bis was asked what direction he was trying to take with that album, in which he stated "That album depicts the state of affairs in my life at the time - nothing more, nothing less".

Most recent works, upcoming projects

In the span of his career, Canibus has released six full-length solo albums. His most recent solo album, Hip-Hop for Sale was released on November 22nd, 2005 through partnership with Babygrande/Koch. The album was originally planned to be released in May of 2005, but it was pushed back to November because 75% of the material was leaked in December of 2004 in the form of an unofficial mixtape titled The Virtruvian Man. Out of the 11 tracks on the official album, five of them are from TVM, remastered for the official release. The album was mostly produced by Virginia-based producer Nottz, with some relatively unknown producers picking up the slack.

Canibus has an assorted number of projects that will be coming out soon. It has been officially reported that in 2006, Bis will release his eighth album Mic Club Volume 2, the sequel to his fourth full length album, Mic Club: The Curriculum. And Canibus himself has confirmed that he will also be releasing a sequel to his fifth album Rip the Jacker. In October 2005, Dewey Cooper announced that Bis will release another album on his Head Trauma label in 2006: a solo album titled Caesar Germanicus. Canibus has gone on to state in a recent interview that "Caesar Germanicus" will be his last and final album; DJ Premier will probably produce on the album, as he stated in a blog that he is producing for Canibus, among other artists. Other future projects from Canibus include an autobiographical documentary DVD showcasing his entire career in music, the long awaited HRSMN album, the second C&D album, the BlakMilc album, and a rumored collaboration with Kanye West.

Collaborative efforts

Aside from being a solo artist, Canibus is also a member of a number of Hip-Hop groups as well. In 2000, Canibus teamed up with Kurupt, Ras Kass and Killah Priest to form rap supergroup The HRSMN (originally spelled out as 'The Horsemen'). Their first collaboration together was the song "Horsementality" from Bis's second album 2000 B.C.. Since then, they have done various collaborations on each other's albums and rumors of a HRSMN album were rampant including speculation about collaborations with Pharoahe Monch, Common and Rakim among others. In 2003, Killah Priest's management released The Horsemen Project, an EP of previously unreleased outtakes recorded by the HRSMN in 2001, around the same time Bis recorded Mind Control (which would be released officially in 2005). As of 2005, the official full-length HRSMN album is still in the works. Canibus is also part of a duo known as Cloak 'N Dagga, which also features Phoenix Orion. Cloak 'N Dagga released their debut album Def Con Zero on October 25, 2005. The album was released through Head Trauma Records the label owned by K-1 fighter Dewey Cooper, and featured guest appearances from Kool G Rap, K-Solo, and former 106 and Park host Free. There is reportedly another C&D album in the works. Bis apparently also plays a part of a rock/rap group known as BlakMilc. The first appearance of Bis with BlakMilc can be found on Bis's recent mixtape, Mic Club Masters Vol. 1

Military career

In 2002, Canibus signed up for the United States Army. For the next three years fans had no concrete reason for this decision. It was originally thought that he did it because he was affected by the September 11, 2001 attacks but according to an interview with SOHH.com from 2005, there was another reason: "I enlisted because I wanted to get away from the music," said the MC. "I wanted to do something that gave me a separate definition from what I had done all through my teens and twenties. I was 28 when I enlisted" [1]. In May of 2003, two months before his fifth album, Rip the Jacker, would be released to very positive reviews, he graduated from Ft. Knox and started out as a reconnaissance specialist. In 2004, he was caught smoking marijuana and was discharged for it.

Science of Canibus

Canibus is known (and often praised) for his scientific and philosophical lyrical content. In his rhymes, he uses intricate scientific jargon which separates him from mainstream hip-hop. Many of Canibus' songs are littered with obscure references to science, religion, history, mathematics, literature and philosophy. Though this has garnered him critical praise, it has also seemingly hampered his chances of mainstream success[2]. Examples of his style can be found below.

I destroy your whole city block when I'm ready to rock
blow your speaker box magnetically shielded or not
magnetic energies propagates in radio waves
oscillate lyrics and beats copulate to pop your tape
manipulating space in large proportions
millions of brain organs get lost when I start talkin
about shit like, supernatural forces
gnomes and fairies and superstring theories
~Chaos, 2000 B.C.

I harness the power of the chakra
Remote viewing into darkness describing what I see in the process
Is stone statues surrounded by neolithic objects, geoglyphs on the pampa
A dose of propalamine makes you feel like a dream
The dream state is the playground for the supreme
Critics attempt to follow a trend
Today they call me a charlatan but tomorrow I will be the God of men
To create a universe all I need is one thousand trillion, trillion degrees
Sodium 22, betatrons and a cloud chamber
Keep the noise down so I don't arouse my neighbors
Got a message from The Falcon and the Snowman
in an unopened a Coca-Cola can
Show the whole plan in coded program
Encrypted by a pro-scan modem with a low-band
Hold up, let me load it in
~Levitibus, Rip the Jacker

Canibus was a visionary indeed
He believed light could travel in multiples of C
The organic supercomputer
That solved the mysteries of Klein-Kaluza with two blue metric rulers
~Poet Laureate II, Rip the Jacker

Discography

Albums (solo)

Albums (group)

Mixtapes

Films

Official Websites

Prodigy of Bis Hot Young emcee MarcMyWordz real name Marco Barnes                            * Official Homepage

Fansites

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