ARR
Arr (aka Rasheed) comes from a unique background. He was born in July 1982 to two successful parents of Somalilander origin in the capital of the desert country of the U.A.E. At 14 months in 1983, however, his family relocated to Marietta, a rich suburb of Atlanta, GA. During this time, his father was indicted by the federal government and charged under the RICO act and sentenced to a 10 year prison term… Arr wouldn’t see his father for a long time.
Life was good to Arr up until this very fragile age, and overnight, his family went from an upper-class household living in luxury, to a fatherless household surviving on state funds. As a result, they at a later date moved to Montreal, and then Toronto two years after. His mother struggled to raise all her children righteous as she was raised, but as all fatherless households, there was bound to be problems.
Arr was the typical kid until he grew up in Toronto; he loved music from very young. His older sister introduced him to rap back in the late 80s, and she herself used to frequent studios and record tracks before turning to a life of religion. As he does today, Arr found writing rhymes as a way to express himself in a poetical way, regardless of the thoughts he was expressing. He would perform every chance he got, even if it meant at a tender age in front of parents in grade-school who had no idea what hip-hop was.
As he hit his teenage years, his life became a little more what you can call “shady” and Arr’s positive outlook on life turned for the worst. Arr dabbled in various ways to make money and feed his love for spending it. He went from wearing the same jeans for a week straight to the ladies telling him that "he’s the flyest nigga around." He got into trouble as the average youth does, but thought in ways that the average youth didn't. He avoided getting locked up more then once as his older brother was not around (often due to being locked up) and he had a house to be the man of.
He kept his love for rap throughout and would battle and write all the time. At high school, in college, on street corners, in hoods where he didn't know anyone except himself, Arr would just do his thing and shine all the time. People would always encourage him as they enjoyed his witty rhymes laced with just the right amount of cockiness. It was during these times that he did cameos in music videos, and ran into a lot of up and coming rappers (many whom he studied with) and even established acts. The kid had a swagger no one could explain, but his personal successes in other aspects of his life taught him to keep tight-sealed about how good his shady business life was treatin him; the source of his swagger.
Moving forward, Arr’s father was once again imprisoned (and he is currently still in prison) and this forced Arr to move out of the shady lifestyle he was into. He again had to leave behind the trappings of street life and be the man of his household. He flew to his father and got him a lawyer, but something interesting happened, he never came back to Toronto.
He stayed over in London England where he developed as a responsible man and didn’t return to Toronto for over an entire year. He just did his thing there for a minute and recorded primarily to keep his hobby alive but didnt like the quality of his output. Instead he returned to his bad habbit of keeping sleezy female company and earned the nickname "Number One Guy" after run ins with some notorious British and Scandinavian chickenheads, after which he headed back to Toronto. While there, he came to his senses and freed himself of his London commitments and embraced his hometown scene like never before.
After a year back in Toronto, Arr moved back to London where he is currently making his ends meet. He finds it a suitable place to travel internationally which is one of his favourite hobbies, and he's keeping a promise he made on a Dubai beach to never see another Canadian Winter!
The story is so much deeper, but one can only get Arr to tell the most basic aspects. Those who been around Arr know him for his spontaneous outbursts of entertaining madness and for his ability to enjoy life to the fullest while leading the troops. One thing that's known by those who have crossed paths with this humble man is that he’s the only aquaintance they ever gonna need, agreed. A been there done that kind of cat. One would have to conclude his bio in a way that is both unique and as unorthadox as he is; his iconic status is "Authentic Rugged & Real".
Website: www.myspace.com/authenticruggedreal
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