New Artist Spotlight: IYAZ

Article written by: Asmara Wreksono
Posted on: November 20, 2009

The traditional ways of the music industry are slowly shedding off and wearing out.  You know, the times where producers would talent-scout new artists in order to be thrown into the meat grinder of competitive air play and record sales. These days, thanks largely to the internet and social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook, artists are more savvy and have many more options to get directly to the top without selling out.

Established artists are able to start their own label earlier on, and thus help to nourish newer talents by signing and then promoting an understudy or an apprentice of sorts. Take Jamaican reggae-fusion singer and rapper Sean Kingston who took his fellow island boy, Virgin Islands-based IYAZ, to join him in his recording company.  Although IYAZ ignored Kingston at first contact (!?!) via MySpace, Sean managed to convince IYAZ that he meant well and ended up signing the upstart.

In the following video, IYAZ talks exclusively to Karmaloop TV about how he started his journey to stardom by using only a simple laptop and a headset.  Truly inspiring!

IYAZ’s single “Replay” is now available via iTunes.