One-2 remembers the day he fell in love with rap. It was 1997 and he was celebrating New Year's with his cousin, who gave One-2 a gift that would change his life. The present: 2Pac's All Eyez On Me, the landmark double album that made 2Pac an international superstar.
"I fell in love with All Eyez On Me," says One-2, who was living in Sweden at the time. "I started listening to it a lot and got into hip-hop heavily. I dedicated everything to it and started writing my own raps."
One-2, who was born in Iran, raised in Sweden and is of Armenian descent, moved with his family in 1999 to the United States. They settled in Southern California, giving One-2 proximity to the entertainment capitol of the world. Eager to try his hand at MCing, One-2 dedicated himself to rapping and started making amateur recordings on his home stereo equipment. After tightening his skills, One-2 started performing in front of friends.
"People would give me good feedback," One-2 recalls. "They would tell me, 'What you're saying is real and you're telling it from your heart. You have that look in your eye. You can do this.' So I kept on doing it on the low here and there, interacting with different crews."
Soon thereafter, one of One-2's friends came to visit him at Quiznos, where One-2 was a dishwasher. One-2's friend introduced him to Tico Khrimian, President and CEO of the fledgling Treacherous Records. Impressed by One-2's rap skills and won over by his charisma, Khrimian signed One-2 to Treacherous Records.
Anxious to build a buzz for himself, One-2 got to work on his first mixtape, 2004's High School Dropout. Featuring a heavy dose of original material, the heartfelt collection became a collector's item on the West Coast. One-2 teamed with legendary rapper Big Syke on the sobering title cut and demonstrated his love for his mother on the soulful "Mamma Got To Work." He delivered a string of blistering punchlines on the intense "Posted Up." The high quality songs had many fans thinking the mixtape was actually an album.
Indeed, High School Dropout was a perfect showcase for One-2's lyrical agility and his ability to rap over a variety of beats. "With my mixtape, I really didn't want to do a lot of conceptual songs," he says. "It's almost like I'm venting. It's got all the fire I've kept in me all this time. When the album comes, it's going to be more laid-back. Now that I've let you feel me, you understand me and I've got your attention, let me tell you a story. It's going to be poetry over beautiful beats."
True to his word, One-2's forthcoming debut album, tentatively titled Buy My Story, is a heartfelt collection, with inventive song concepts and subject matter and production that is entertaining and catchy. One-2 came up with the title of his album for a variety of reasons. "When you tell someone a story and they don't believe it, they say, 'I don't buy that,'" One-2 says. "I'm telling people to buy my story because what I'm giving you is the truth, the facts of my life. Also, I'm saying to head to the record store and get something hot and something new."
Part of One-2's appeal is his ability to infuse his music with a distinctive worldview. He's seen the hip-hop game in Europe and has friends throughout Europe and the United States, all of whom helped shape his lyrical perspective.
"I stay in touch with the whole world and I'm aware with how the game is everywhere," One-2 says. "It has had a lot of effect on my music being that I have been around the world and have lived different places. Even when I was in Sweden, we were always moving around. America makes itself look like it's the only ghetto in the world, but everywhere there's problems. You don't have to be living in the ghetto to have a hard life. I've been all around the world and have seen different people with different personalities, different languages."
Now, as he readies the release of his debut album, One-2 continues growing as a person and as an artist. After all, he has already lived in several countries and has traveled more than many people do their entire lives.
"Being that I've kind of been around the world, it's like I'm giving you the world on my album," he says. "It's not coming from somebody who's been living in this box all their life. I'm telling stories about life, touching on a lot of topics. I want it to be the ultimate."
