The bizczar Sinista biography
The Great Bizczar Sinista, also known as The Bizczar Sinista, is from the East Woodlawn and Southshore neighborhoods (over east) on Southside of Chicago, Illinois, USA.
His love for Hip Hop began in the early 1980s when a cousin took him to the legendary Rap concerts Fresh Fest and RUN-DMC’s Raising Hell Tour. It was there that he saw the Fat Boys, Whodini, RUN-DMC, Kurtis Blow, LL Cool J, The Beastie Boys and world famous Breakdancers.
Earlier in life, he attended the Singapore American School. Being a Black kid from the Southside of Chicago, living in Singapore came with a lot of cultural challenges. The experience would change and saved his life.
Upon returning to the rough streets of Chicago, he transferred back into the public school system. He stayed in trouble by fighting and hanging around bad influences. This was stressful for his mother so in the late 1980s, to escape the violence and crime, she relocated her children to the South Suburbs of Chicago.
Moving to the South Suburbs was a breath of fresh air and a new beginning. He attended Hillcrest High School in Country Club Hills, Illinois. Most of the schools in the South Suburbs were racially integrated at the time. His high school years were a very important time in his life.
After reading the Autobiography of Malcolm X and listening to Lakim Shabazz, Public Enemy’s classic album “It Takes A Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back”, Poor Righteous Teachers, Eric B & Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, KRS-One, and many other conscience rappers, he wanted to learn his identity and would transform into a student of Black History and Civil Rights.
He became an Activist, supporting and joining different Black organizations that promoted social and economic reform within the Black Community.
While in high school, he would became a member of Junior Achievement in Chicago. Junior Achievement had a program with WGCI radio Chicago in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
JA-AM 1390 (Junior Achievement Radio) was a program that gave young people experience on how to operate all departments of a radio station. This would include sales, marketing, media presentation, production and editing different program formats. Every Saturday, the teens would broadcast over the air between 9am-5pm.
Radio Executives Marv Dyson, Darryl Green, and Jacquie Haselrig were mentors to the members of JA-AM 1390 and responsible for the Junior Achievement’s program existence.
The Bizczar Sinista was a fan of The Rap Down, a Hip Hop radio show that started on WGCI’s AM frequency. The show was hosted by Ramonski Luv, Disco Dave, Frankie J, and producer Taco Bops, who had preceded him in the Junior Achievement program. Taco Bops left the program and passed the torch to Bizczar, who occasionally helped behind the scenes producing the show during contingencies. He would go on to help The Rap Down during the early phase when the show moved to the FM frequency.
He spent long hours in WGCI’s production studios carting Hip Hop and R&B music, doing voice overs, creating commercials and editing material before it was broadcasted over the airwaves.
Many records and demos were mailed to the station, the Program and Music Director allowed him access to them freely. He created his own rap show. When it was his turn to broadcast he played Underground songs and music from local Artists.
He ran errands for the stations Executive staff and also worked with Chicago radio legends Tom Joyner, Doug Banks, Harold Lee Rush, Bonnie Deshong, Armando, and other WGCI On-Air staff.
WGCI’s Junior Achievement program allowed him to attend iconic Hip Hop and R&B concerts. This allowed him to hangout with Recording Artists when they visited Chicago. Working behind the scenes he learned from Hip Hop artists he admired. This influenced him to start rapping and making demo tapes.
After the JA-AM 1390 ended, The Bizczar Sinista became a member of Chicago's Underground Hip Hop community by attending the Underground Hip Hop parties on the Southside and Northside’s Wicker Park area. He started listening to WHPK, a radio station owned by the University of Chicago. WHPK played local Hip Hop Artists and Hip Hop music that was not being played by mainstream radio stations. Bizczar would record the Hip Hop shows of Icebox, Collapsar, and J.P. Chill . WHPK was and still is the go to place for Underground Hip Hop in Chicago.
He attended an open mic session at the Lizard Lounge and met a promoter named Duro Wicks, of Who Got Big Lips Promotions. Bizczar became a cult follower of Duro’s parties, and when Duro moved the open mic sessions to club Lower Links in Wrigleyville Bizczar and his younger brother, Jonah would follow.
Lower Links would change The Bizczar Sinista’s life forever. Every Duro’s $2 Open Mic on Sundays, attracted Hip Hop talent from all over Chicago and beyond. Bizczar and his underaged brother never missed a week and often rocked the mic to establish themselves amongst peers. The two commuted from the Suburbs and stayed at their grandmothers in Woodlawn, catching the CTA trains and bus in the late hours of the night.
Club Lower Links was a very important time in Chicago Hip Hop history. It showcased tons of upcoming rappers who were trying to make a name for themselves. He befriend members of different crews in passing and would attend Hip Hop parties and concerts he heard about. This included; Chi Rock Nation, The ILLState Assassin’s, Dem Dare, Chrewd Promotions, Save The Children concerts at the Amphitheatre (Folk’s concerts), and many more crews.
There was a casting call in a local magazine called 'The Reader' for a movie called “Reasons”. The movie starred late comedian Bernie Mac, Lisa Raye-McCoy, and rapper MC Eiht from the rap group Compton’s Most Wanted. Bizczar was casted to play Bernie Mac's younger character . The movie was based on the life of Southside Chicago Businessman Nate Hill. He is currently serving a life sentence. The government prevented the release of the movie. The movie "Reasons", was rumored to be better than New Jack City and Boyz N The Hood.
He attended Columbia College Chicago and discovered fellow students and people hanging at Columbia, were members of the Chicago Hip Hop, and Entertainment community.
As a student of Columbia College Chicago, he wrote for a local music magazine doing music reviews and interviewing Hip Hop artists. He was a member C.U.M.A. (Columbia’s Urban Music Association) and C.O.R.E. Music Foundation.
Prodigy (Massive) and Dj EQ (Equalizer) asked Bizczar to co-host a Hip Hop show, Basik Elementz Radio they hosted on WHPK for a couple of years. Massive and Dj EQ are members of Chicago Hip Hop crew The ILLState Assasins.
With the help of some music industry executives, he was able to obtain some working internships doing artists relations sales, and marketing with the Midwest branches of W.E.A. (Warner, Elektra, Atlantic Records), Sony Music, Tommy Boy Records, MCA Records, Polygram, Epic, Flavor Unit, Motown, Priority Records and many others.
He worked at different Chicagoland Record stores including Magical Records, Hegewisch Records, Jimmy’s Records, and George’s Music Room as a Sales and Marketing Associate .
He continued recording demos, performing at open mics, and participated in a few undocumented battles. His primary focus was the music business and working behind the scenes consulting, song writing, marketing, and helped Artist release music independently.
Seeing Artists go independent, and some local artists putting their music out without shopping demo tapes, would influence him to releasing his music catalog independently.
The retail market was changing and with demise of physical distribution and mom & pop stores, the rise of digital downloading caused the music business to change.
After the secret meeting amongst powerful record label and entertainment executives , the whole business would change. The music industry would no longer be the same for independent labels and recording artists.