AZ
AZ can be booked through this site. AZ entertainment booking site. AZ
is available for public concerts and events. AZ can be booked for
private events and AZ can be booked for corporate events and
meetings through this AZ booking page.
Unlike most middle agents that would mark
up the performance or appearance fee for AZ, we act as YOUR agent in
securing AZ at the best possible price. We go over the rider for
AZ and work directly with AZ or the responsible agent for
AZ to secure the talent for your event. We become YOUR agent,
representing YOU, the buyer.
In fact, in most cases we can negotiate for
the acquisition of AZ for international dates and newer promoters
providing you meet professional requirements.
AZ Biography
One of the numerous thoughtful, literate gangsta rappers to
emerge from New York during the mid-'90s, AZ never garnered the
attention of peers like Nas and Jay Z. Instead, he saw his debut album,
Doe or Die, become a critical favorite in late 1995 before his career
suddenly went downhill after such modest and short-lived success.
Critics and b-boys alike celebrated AZ and his debut album for a
literate approach to the gangsta lifestyle. Like his aforementioned
peers Nas and Jay Z, AZ not only brought intelligence to his rhymes but
also an impressive flow and delivery that further set him apart from
the flood of New York MCs fighting for survival in the crowded rap
game. Unfortunately, despite Doe or Die's quiet success, AZ stumbled in
successive years, finally scoring a new major-label relationship with
Motown in the early 2000s.
Born in Brooklyn as Anthony Cruz, AZ first came to the greater rap
community's attention in a big way after his stellar performance on
Nas' Life's a Bitch in 1994. Given AZ's similarity to Nas and the
overwhelming response to Nas' Illmatic album, it was just a matter of
time before AZ would score a record deal, a feat he accomplished in
1995. The resulting debut album, Doe or Die, shook the New York hip-hop
scene as Nas' Illmatic and Mobb Deep's Infamous had done shortly before
it. Like those albums, Doe or Die reveled in the street life --
hustling for cash, peddling drugs, violent encounters, mandatory
boasting, struggling daily just to maintain -- but took a literate and
thoughtful approach to the often exploitative gangsta motifs.
Furthermore, like Nas, AZ had Pete Rock crafting the beats, which won
the young rapper instant credibility among the hip-hop community.
When word hit the street that AZ was an official member of the
supergroup known as the Firm, his status only rose higher. Anchored by
Nas, Foxy Brown, Nature, and AZ on the mics, with Dr. Dre and the
Trackmasters on the beats, it would seem as if the group could do no
wrong. The group's 1997 album ended up being a surprise failure,
though, buried under ridiculous expectations and too much hype. But
AZ's bad fortune didn't stop there. He returned a year later with his
sophomore album, Pieces of a Man, an album that came and went
relatively unnoticed and uncelebrated. For the next few years, AZ
became a forgotten name. No longer with a major-label contract, he
managed to release the little-heard S.O.S.A. record in 2000. It didn't
sell many copies or resurrect his career but rather re-affirmed the
fact that he was indeed a talented rapper whether the public and the
industry wanted to acknowledge it or not.
Within a year's time, AZ secured a new major-label relationship with
Motown, a label that had never had much, if any, success with rap
artists. Still, the Brooklyn rapper wouldn't let the label's reputation
hold him back, as he illustrated on 9 Lives, unofficially billed as his
comeback album. Though lacking big-name production and employing a
skimpy roster of guest rappers, the album did showcase AZ's lyrical
prowess and his endurance, anchored by the sample-laced lead single
Problems. Aziatic from 2002 received positive reviews overall and two
years later by the double disc career overview Decade 1994-2004. ~
Jason Birchmeier, All Music Guide
Written by Jason Birchmeier