R-Mean

Armin Hariri (; born June 9 1980), is an Armenian MC known by his stage name R-Mean. He was born in Los Angeles, California. To date, he has one studio album and numerous mixtapes credited to his name. R-Mean is considered to be very skilled lyricists.

Biography

Armin Hariri was born in Los Angeles, CA and lived in the Netherlands until the age of 18. He lost his father at an early age and was reaised by his mother. During his pre-teen years, he was a basketball player. However, due to chronic pain he quit the game. At the age of 15 he started working in his uncle's rug store while going to school. He started writing as a way to express himself. R-Mean started rapping over famous instrumentals as a hobby and after auditioning for one of Holland's top producer's at the age of 17 he was offered a contract. However after graduating from high school his family moved back to the United States.

In the United States he started working as a waiter at Johnny Rockets restaurant. Using a credit card He bought a stereo with a microphone and started recording his own tapes. "I remember one day I told myself that I'm going to stop rapping because I really didn't know anyone to even share it with. I felt hopeless. That's until out of nowhere Blind called me one day."

He was just a struggling producer who had gotten a hold of one of R-Mean's tapes. Blind fell victim to a drive-by shooting in Pasadena, CA in 1992. He got shot in his face, which caused him to completely lose his eyesight. Together they started the crew Pentagon, which symbolizes the four corners of the world (east, west, north, south), and the 5th angle which is the Lord. Later Ras Teo, who R-Mean often refers to as his secret weapon, joined the crew and helped push R-Mean and Pentagon to the next level. Though Pentagon is a family, R-Mean's independence allows him to remain at heart a solo artist.

As an INCredible lyricist and extremely talented songwriter, he manages to put all his life experiences in his music, as he "speaks the bottom of his heart from the top of his lungs". Besides the addictive sound of his voice, flow and lyrics, his marketable looks make him popular among people from all ages and backgrounds.

"Every day I get approached by die hard fans. I even met people who had tatted my lines on their body! It’s just crazy because I’ve never been signed or anything."

Discography

Mixtapes

  • Pentagon Mixtape Vol. 1
  • Pentagon Mixtape Vol. 2
  • 2007: Jackin' For Beats '07

Albums

  • 2005: Broken Water
  • 2008: Born [...]

Trivia

  • As of September 2005 R-Mean has sold over 10,000 copies of his debut "Broken Water" independently since it was released in April 2005.
  • Since then R-Mean has become a celebrity in the enormous Armenian community and a very well known name in LA's underground Hip Hop scene.
  • R-Mean's drops for LA's top DJs (incl. Felli Fel, Tha Goodfellas, Big Boy and Friday Night Flavaz) at LA's top radio station POWER 106 FM are in rotation.
  • R-Mean has done a collaboration with multi-platinum recording artist The Game.
  • R-Mean is featured on numerous websites - including a full-length interview on the world's #1 hip hop site www.hiphopgame.com
  • Almost 40,000 profile views/plays on www.myspace.com/pentagon (in less than 6 months)
  • His own website (www.r-mean.com) gets hundreds of independent visitors per day.
  • R-Mean has been featured in numerous magazines and school papers (including Glendale News Press)
  • Has done mixtape appearances with artists DJ Skee - The Game and DJ Southpaw.
  • Numerous shows (incl. opening for multi-platinum acts like Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Nas and legendary Hip Hop Artists like GURU/GangStarr).
  • He continues to sell CDs as well as t-shirts and keeps packing shows as his popularity keeps growing day by day.