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Kemo the Blaxican is a Latino rapper known as a former member of the Chicano rap crew, Delinquent Habits.
Kemo is a Mexican and African American- hence the "Blaxican" part of his name. Kemo is short for Keimonti.
Delinquent Habits
When Delinquent Habits was formed in 1991, the group itself originally consisted of two emcees, Ives ("El Guero Loco") and Kemo, and O.G. Style as the DJ and producer. Thus the group was often called "Los Tres Delinquentes" (In English: "The Three Delinquents"). Their first album was executive-produced by Cypress Hill member Sen Dog and featured guest appearances by Sen himself as well as Puerto Rican New York City rapper Hurricane G.
The Delinquents soon struck gold with their hit 1996 single "Tres Delinquentes". The song sold over one million copies around the globe, nearly pushing their self-titled album to the same figure. The success of the song and album landed the Delinquents a spot on Late Night With Conan O'Brien and tours with such talents as Korn and Ice T. The group toured around the globe in such locations as the U.K., South America, Japan, Mexico, and Taiwan. Being the only fluent Spanish-speaking member of the hispanic group, Kemo was known for his flawless bilingual transitions. After twelve years of success and the completion of their fourth album, Freedom Band in 2004, The Blaxican decided to pursue a solo career, which has been a colossal success.
Solo career After leaving the group, he recorded the self-produced album Simple Plan in 2004. It was released on his own label, Dead Silence Records, to dismal reviews. One of his more successful songs, "La Receta" was included the film 10 Items or Less staring the talents of Morgan Freeman and Paz Vega. Similar to some of his previous work, the song tastefully blended a Sonora-styled horn riff with the urban sound of Hip-Hop with multi-lingual lyrics. In another track titled Ruido, he briefly recounts his time spent as a "Delinquente", and mentions how he used to "rip the micro" with O.G. Styles and Irie Ives (a.k.a. "El Guero Loco".) The song also features the rapper known as Sicko, of Dos Rivales fame. Clearly, the Blaxican is able to sugar-coat his "street" rhymes in order to appeal to women in the 12-16 year old demographic.
The same year as his debut album, Kemo teamed up with Sick Jacken of the Psycho Realm on a collaborative effort to appear on the Spanish hip-hop compilation "Imperial Latino" by Profeta Records. The album also featured a track of Kemo's titled "No Que No' which, translated into English, is utter nonsense. Along with releasing a second album, titled Not So Rich & Famous, Kemo currently runs his own line of baggy clothes, "Joint Clothing".
When asked about his musical goal, Kemo states:
In fact, Kemo is well-known for making collaborative efforts with other Latino artists to help the Latino community find its place in Hip-hop as Latino artists often do not receive the amount of attention they think they deserve from record labels. Kemo realizes that Latino rap is just a novelty and that the Latino rappers are forced to rap in Spanish for mainstream success:
Discography * 2004 Simple Plan (Dead Silence Records) * 2007 Not So Rich & Famous (Dead Silence Records)
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