NDITBIO-BELOBIO-TKBIO

GROUPBIO

Yo people, how ya' doing? My name is Tarik.

The story started like this. Lil' baby boy born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on July 18, 1981 to Jamaican students. Big ups to my Mom, Joan, because she had to raise me and my three other siblings alone in a foreign country when my parents divorced.

I grew up somewhat like other kids, but was noticeably more quiet and solemn. Incredibly self-conscious and scared a lot of the time. I was delivered from that through the love of God.

In 1997, I started to rap. My first hobby was designing sports uniforms, drawing maps and writing. I was losing interest in that so in Grade Eleven at William Aberhart High School I started to rap. I'd always jammed on keyboards, so I made a beat and rapped over it on my Mom's ancient Hitachi boombox.

I showed it to people. They liked it. I kept doing it, getting a little bit better each time. Through my first demo tapes, the alter-ego "Terakoza" was born. Terakoza was this wise and tough person who could say things and do things Tarik couldn't or wouldn't. Straight up. 

Later on in Grade Eleven (1998) I became friends with Nathan Lenet. We started chilling together during our shared spare and I introduced him to the Christian hip hop I knew of while he introduced me to a deeper level of thinking. No longer did I want to write songs about macks and playas. Now I tried to start writing honest poetry.

Still that year, I went on a trip with my high school band to Cuba. During this trip I got to do an impromptu rap performance in front of 400 kids my age at a high school. They were waving their hands in the air and chanting after my lead. It was the day that changed my life. 

At the end of that school year I performed one of my tracks, "Breakaway" in front of my entire high school. It was a flop with bad sound and a passive crowd.

I didn't give up and kept rapping, with Nathan becoming more & more involved. WIth my confidence improving, I would start rapping in class, at dances, in churches, talent shows.

At the end of Grade 12, I met another big influence. The crew known as ETC. They were the ones that introduced me to underground hip hop, french hip hop, lyricism. Tim (Size) from the crew was also a Christian and he was the one who first invited me and Nathan to Jubilee Christian Centre.

At Jubilee, I performed and met a bunch of people including Nii Gyamfi aka Bishop, a slick hip hopper who used a live band. Everything blossomed from there. We put on a big show called "I'm Glad I Finally Met You". Bishop, myself and Nathan (Zayin Ascension) and ETC performed.

Later that year (1999), I heard from Ecto of ETC about David Brunning aka Belo, who I originally thought was of Arabian descent. He was another hiphoppa who was a Christian, so I thought he fit perfectly into the plan to form a group of all of these emcees from Calgary into one crew called Crown of Thorns.

Since then, my dream of having a CD out was realized with the release of the Crown of Thorns Crew "Journey Is Destination" LP coming out at the end of 2000 at the second hip hop night, Mic Check. I was especially happy that I was able to get Sev Statik and Listener on the CD because of my love for the Christian hip hop community.

I've worked on refining my production skills on the ASR-X, done a few solo tracks, a few performances, built with many heads and done some collaborating since.

The music is a part of me, but I'm trying to make sure that its not all of me. That isn't easy because of my passion. Stil, I'm trying my hand at journalism for my degree, trying to stay in the scriptures trying to become a man. 

The greatest thing about the music is that it allows me to meet more people and build with them, find out what they're about. It has been a huge blessing in my life, and I'm striving to do the best that I can with it.

Each day I walk this earth is a blessing. I know my life is fragile. This is why I put my trust in God. And may God bless all of you.

I praise the Lord with my vocal cords becuse tongues are swords in a spiritual battle not seen by the human eye. The reward for standing up for this cause is eternal. 
-Tarik Robinson

Whaat??