Citing country music, Quincy Jones and Kool G Rap as influences, Hezekiah was undeniably born to be different. Alas, music is second nature to Hezekiah, as he was raised in a musical family just outside of Philadelphia and got his chops at an early age, soaking up his parents predilection for Blues (Otis Redding and Bo Diddley) and belting out God’s greatest hits at his family’s church; and before long Hezekiah was singing in his Uncle’s band, the Funk Disciples (who dropped some super hard-to-find wax in the mid-70’s).
Around 1986, Hezekiah’s cousin brought home a track machine and a drum machine and he was instantly hooked. Predating the live Hiphop trend by years, Hezekiah spent much of his early days in front of the two machines, rocking sellout shows in the living room with his Cousin on bass and his Uncle on Guitar.
Once out of High-school, Hezekiah linked up with arguably the only Hiphop crew to ever exist in Delaware and put together a mixtape called “Exit Wound Status” which sold an impressive 2,000 copies (of the hand-to-hand variety) on the streets and at shows. But it was getting down with the Legendary Roots Crew in ’93 that spurred him to get down to business. Hezekiah then began to work his way up through the ranks of the Philly’s ever-strong and flourishing Hiphop scene with his on point wordplay, superior songwriting, and lovely production skills—working with the likes of Musiq Soulchild, Bilal, The Jazzyfatnastees and Bahamadia.
In 2005 Hezekiah’s debut album Hurry Up & Wait (a title dedicated to the woes of the independent artist), was released to critical praises by Vibe, Trace, XLR8R, Allhiphop.com, Pitchforkmedia.com, okayplayer.com and also included on Itunes “Best Of 2005” list among many others) on New York’s Soulspazm Records. Put together in full-on Hiphop hermit mode, as he produced the record locked up in his home studio and penned all of its lyrics lost amongst crowds in the chaos of Philly. What resulted was a collection of luxurious, smoked out Hiphop beats and minimal synth Funk produced by the man himself (with notable exceptions coming from Illmind); with Hezekiah flowing beautifully atop it every second of the way. And although the record is let Hezekiah shine, the guestlist he assembled was impressive; Bahamadia, Scratch (The Roots), Grand Agent and Chief Kamachi all made appearances. Hurry Up & Wait was an album intended for headphones, getting deep tissue massages and eating fruit smorgasbords at dusk.
In addition to the release of Hurry Up & Wait in 2005, Hezekiah keep himself busy working on albums for Philadelphia singer and sandwich-making mastermind Aaron Livingston and Musiq’s backup twin singing sensations Aaries. In addition, he’s the driving force behind the influential Beat Society and at the request of Dawn Thompson (sister of The Roots musical mastermind ?uestlove) was tapped to co-produce the music for a Showtime original series entitled Street Time.
In September 2007, Hezekiah returns with his sophomore LP, I Predict A Riot, which features guest appearances from Bilal, Freeway and Jaguar Wright.
