Ivan Ives

Ivan Ives is a hip hop artist originally from Leningrad (USSR) - now living in Los Angeles, California. Although from Russia, all of his work has been composed while growing up and living in the United States. He has worked with the likes of The Cool Kids, Black Milk, Percee P (Stones Throw Records), Oh No (Stones Throw Records), Tre Hardson (The Pharcyde), Cappadonna (Wu-Tang Clan), O.C. (D.I.T.C.), Vast Aire (Cannibal Ox), 2Mex (The Visionaries), Insight, and more. Ivan Ives' music has been primarily released through his own label, No Threshold Records.

History

Ivan Ives spent his early childhood playing piano and learning the works of Shakespeare. He fell in love with poetry and hip hop at a young age and started developing his craft in his teenage years. Practicing his MC craft while finishing Film School led him to release his first album upon graduating college. He reconciled with his old high school friend Fresh The Hitman and they began making music together. Fresh is now Ivan's main producer, responsible for such tracks as 'Victory' and 'Got It' - which has been featured in numerous skate videos, including the new film [Shot From Dark].

Ivan was recently named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the next 40 artists to watch. His hit single, "Victory" from the album Iconoclast, was put up for free download on iTunes as part Rolling Stone's promotional campaign. This break bumped album sales so much so that the CD is now out of print. However the album remains relevant as the digital sales on iTunes still flourish.

In August 2008, Ivan was a featured artist on MySpace and in October 2008 he hit 1 million spins on his MySpace music player. Thanks to the Internet, Ivan has fans all over the globe and albums are constantly sold and shipped to listeners everywhere.

Ivan's European fan base has been growing, especially in Poland.

Ivan completed 8 tours in North America from July 2007 - June 2009; And with more mixtape releases and albums put out on his No Threshold imprint, Ivan has released over a dozen albums since 2005. He recently released his New album, titled Newspeak, which charted on iTunes in the top 500 albums upon it's release.

Discography

Albums

• NEWSPEAK (2009), No Threshold Records
• Juice To Get Loose To (2008), No Threshold Records
• ICONS Last (Remix Album) (2008), No Threshold Records
• Eat Pop And Die (Mixtape) (2008), No Threshold Records
• The I.V. League Project (2007), No Threshold Records
• Iconoclast (2007), No Threshold Records
• The Prelude (EP) (2007), No Threshold Records
• LA Heat (EP) (2007), No Threshold Records
• Deus Ex Machina (2006), No Threshold Records
• Fork Music Vol. 1 (2005), No Threshold Records

Singles

• "Villain" (2009), NEWSPEAK
• "Got It" (2008), Iconoclast
• "Victory" (2008), Iconoclast

See also

• Los Angeles hip hop
• Russian hip hop