Josh Madry – famously known as Black Prez is an LA/Berlin-based rapper, songwriter, and actor. Prez is known as an artist having an irresistible sound and personality. Because of his unique content and amazing voice that he has engraved his name among the young talented rap artists of the time. The famous star is known for his outstanding performance with Wiz Khalifa, G Unit, Big Sean, and many others.
Story Behind his Nickname – Black Prez
Well, the story of finally getting his name – Black Prez’s story is quite amusing and starts when he was in middle school. Prez recalls being in a speech and debate that he thought was kind of boring. Every time he had to go to the bathroom or leave the class, he would walk by another class that looked a lot more fun.
It was an aeronautics class where they were building planes, listening to music, and some of his friends were in that class. He proceeded to ask his teacher if he was allowed to switch to the aeronautics class, but his teacher told him that he had already missed the deadline to switch courses. He was upset, so the teacher made a deal with him: make a speech convincing the class why you should leave, and then the class will decide if you can leave or not.
He gave his speech to the class and they were all very impressed! So impressed, in fact, they all started clapping. Some kid in the back jokingly said that the speech reminded them of a president or something.
Then another kid replied, “Yeah, like a Black president!” For about a week or so, the kids in his school kept calling him “The Black President”. Even though it was a joke, Prez thought back to this when he started rapping and just shortened it to Black Prez. That is then how the name was born.
Black Prez’s Music
Black Prez was performing around his city and venturing out to other states to perform as well. He ended up moving to Los Angeles to really pursue his music career and now has been splitting time with Berlin and LA. He has dropped a few albums, EP’s, and singles and has had his music featured in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, Call of Duty, NFL Network, Fast & Furious, HBO Ballers, BET, MTV, Netflix, and many others.
Recently, Black Prez released his album BERLA. With a few music videos and singles, he was featured on 24/7 Hip Hop and has been broadcasted on famous NAM Radio, Ejazz Radio, Futuristic Beats, and Roadie Music.
The creation of BERLA
BERLA is his new album that combines where he comes from to where he is today. Black Prez started recording the album in LA and finished recording it in Berlin. Black Prez and his friend and producer, Barbasauce, were chilling at a New Year’s Eve party to bring in 2020.
After the party was kind of dying down, Barbasauce took Prez into the studio to show him some of the latest material he was working on. This is when Barbasauce played a beat and Prez was instantly impressed and told him to get the mic ready so he could hop in the booth. “Häagen Dazs” was born!
Black Prez and Barbasauce initially thought this would just be a cool single that they could release, but then they decided to make a few more tracks and the next thing they know, they were working on a full-on album.
Even once Prez was back in Berlin, Barbasauce and Black Prez kept working on more of the album through virtual studio sessions and multiple voice memos back and forth. This is also how Black Prez came up with the name for the album, “I thought since we recorded half of it in LA and the other half in Berlin, I wanted to combine the two and came up with BERLA”.
Black Prez has three music videos that have already been released for BERLA and we could potentially see more. The album shows diversity while still keeping a rap vibe to it. It features some happy hip-hop vibes (What It Is), trap tracks (Zoo), and even deeper topics like police brutality (You Did It).
Black Prez plans on releasing some more music in the near future and has been hinting at releasing a full German EP as well. You can check out some of his German flows on his song “Riding The Wave” as well.
BERLA is available on all streaming platforms.
Image Credit: Bine Banner
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