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Wrekonize | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Benjamin Miller |
| Born | (1983-05-05)5 May 1983 (age 41)[1] London,England, U.K. |
| Origin | Miami,Florida, U.S. |
| Genres | Hip hop |
| Occupation(s) | Rapper, singer, songwriter,Record producer |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Labels | Strange Music Mayday Music |
Benjamin Miller (born 5 May 1983), better known by his stage nameWrekonize, is an American underground rapper and current member of Miami band¡Mayday!. He is currently signed to the record label Mayday Music, after previously being signed toTech N9ne'sStrange Music.
Benjamin Miller was born inLondon and raised in a household of both British and African descent. His mother was England-born and his father had immigrated to England fromCape Town, South Africa.[2] After moving toMiami,Florida, in 1988, Miller's parents had formed a local band together. They performed on occasion with MC Guru for his originalJazzmatazz album. At the age of 11, Wrekonize was introduced to Guru, who helped inspire him to make his own music.[3]
By the age of 13, Miller became involved ingraffiti. Attempting to imitate the works of Miami graffiti artistsOs Gêmeos, he spotted the term "Wrekonize" inMartha Cooper's Subway Art book.[4] Admiring the graphic, Miller chose to adopt it as his stage name. Miller has stated that his stage name is intended to reflect the state of being "observant and always alert to the surroundings and the people in them".[5]
In his early career, Wrekonize performed as abattle rapper. He competed inMTV Battle II: The Takeover in Times Square in 2003, beating ten other rappers to become the winner.[3][6] Though Wrekonize was promised arecord deal withRoc-A-Fella Records as a grand prize, it was reported several months later that Wrekonize had never been offered a contract.[3] Soon afterward, he signed to SouthBeat Records, where he released a mixtape titledThe Waiting Room.[3][7]The Waiting Room was planned to be the first mixtape to a three-part series he planned to release through Southbeat Records. With the subsequent fall of the label, the album had minimal publicity on its release, but it later resurfaced on the underground hip hop databaseDatPiff as an album of the week. After the online success of the first album, Wrekonize self-produced a second installment calledElevator Music. During this period, Wrekonize also collaborated with¡Mayday!, a Miami-based hip hop band and fellow SouthBeat Records signee.[3][8]
Eventually, ¡Mayday! offered Wrekonize full-time membership in the band as a vocalist. In 2010, Wrekonize releasedStuck on an Island, his first album with ¡Mayday!, as well as a solo album calledA Soiree For Skeptics.[3] After ¡Mayday! signed withStrange Music in 2011, the band released theTake Me To Your Leader album, theThrift Store Halos EP, and theSmash & Grab mixtape in 2012; Wrekonize also completed theWaiting Room mixtape trilogy that year by releasing theRooftops Mixtape.[3] Wrekonize remained signed to Strange Music until 2022; during this period, he released three solo albums and participated on five additional ¡Mayday! albums through the label as well as a collaboration album with rapper MURS titled ¡MURSDAY! Wrekonize has also produced various freestyles via numerous blogs and web sites.[9]
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions[citation needed] | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US R&B | US Rap | ||
| A Soiree For Skeptics[10] |
| – | — | — |
| The War Within[11] |
| 88 | 27 | 5 |
| Into the Further[12] |
| – | — | — |
| Pressure Point[13] |
| – | — | — |
"—" denotes a title that did not chart, or was not released in that territory.
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions[citation needed] | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US | US R&B | US Rap | |||||||||||
| Stuck on an Island (with¡Mayday!) |
| – | — | — | |||||||||
| Take Me to Your Leader (with ¡Mayday!) |
| 86 | 18 | 15 | |||||||||
| Believers[14] (with ¡Mayday!) |
| 75 | 19 | 11 | |||||||||
| ¡MursDay![15] (with ¡Mayday! &Murs) |
| 45 | – | 4 | |||||||||
| Future Vintage[16] (with ¡Mayday!) |
| 112 | 9 | 8 | |||||||||
| Search Party (with ¡Mayday!) |
| — | — | — | |||||||||
| South of 5th (with ¡Mayday!) |
| — | — | — | |||||||||
| Minute to Midnight (with ¡Mayday!) |
| — | — | — | |||||||||
| "—" denotes a title that did not chart, or was not released in that territory. | |||||||||||||
