How Did Azizi Gibson Get Started in Music?: find out now
You want the real answer, not a vague “he always loved music” story. So here it is: Azizi Gibson started making music seriously as a teenager after moving to Maryland, dropped out of college in 2010 to chase it full-time in Los Angeles, and got his real break in 2013 when a chance encounter at a gym with producer Flying Lotus led to a deal with Flying Lotus’s own label, Brainfeeder. That’s the whole arc in one sentence. Now let’s actually dig into how each piece of that happened, because it’s a better story than most artists get.
A Childhood Built on Constant Change
Before there’s a music career to talk about, there’s a kid who never stayed anywhere long enough to feel settled. Azizi Gibson was born in Frankfurt, Germany, into a military family. From there, his childhood turned into a string of countries: Zaire, then Bangkok, then Singapore, then Bangkok again, before his family finally landed in Maryland when he was around 11 years old.
That detail actually matters here, because it’s where his relationship with music started. It wasn’t a producer or a label. It was his older siblings, who got him into rap while the family was still living overseas. Music became one of the only things that didn’t change no matter which country they were in, and that’s part of why he leaned into it as hard as he did once he had the chance to actually pursue it.
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Dropping Out of College and Moving to LA
This is the part of the story that separates Azizi from someone who just dabbles in making beats on the side. In 2010, he dropped out of college and moved to Los Angeles, showing up with nothing more than a low-budget mixtape and a genuine obsession with rap. That’s not a small decision. He wasn’t moving to LA with a deal already lined up or a manager pulling strings. He moved out there on belief alone, betting on himself before anyone else had a reason to.
His early sound at that point was already shaped by his major influences, artists like Eminem and the Pharcyde, and you can hear that DNA in his early flow even before his style fully became his own.
The Gym Meeting That Changed Everything
Here’s the part of the story people always want to know more about, because it sounds almost too simple to be true, except it is. Azizi Gibson met producer Flying Lotus by chance at a gym in Los Angeles. Not at a show, not through an industry contact, at a gym. The two crossed paths a handful of times before Azizi eventually handed him a copy of his mixtape.
Flying Lotus liked what he heard, and that meeting turned into a deal with Brainfeeder, Flying Lotus’s own label, known for pushing boundaries rather than chasing whatever sound was trending at the time.
His actual first release on the label came in 2012, a collaborative mixtape called Ignorant Prayers made with fellow Brainfeeder artist Jeremiah Jae. It was Ghost in the Shell, released the following year in 2013, that became his first major solo breakout mixtape, the project that put him on the map as a serious new name in the underground scene in his own right.
For context on how rare this kind of break actually is: Brainfeeder has never been a label that signs a lot of rappers. Azizi Gibson became one of the only rap artists on their roster, which says a lot about how much Flying Lotus believed in what he’d heard on that mixtape.
Building Momentum: From Mixtape to Movement
Getting signed wasn’t the finish line, it was the starting gun. After Ignorant Prayers in 2012 and his first major solo breakout mixtape, Ghost in the Shell, in 2013, Azizi kept the momentum going fast. He released the Backward Books EP in 2014, and it landed well enough to earn him a spot as one of the most talked-about new names of that year. In 2015, he dropped his first full-length album, PreHISTORIC Till Death, under his own preHISTORIC label, having moved on from Brainfeeder to build something entirely of his own.
From there, the pace didn’t slow down. Between 2013 and 2020, he put out eleven albums and played more than 200 shows across eleven separate tours. That’s not the output of someone who got lucky once. That’s someone who used the initial break as fuel and kept building on it year after year.
Why His Sound Never Sat Still
Part of how Azizi Gibson got started and kept going comes down to what he chose to put into his music once he had a platform. His childhood overseas shows up constantly in his lyrics, alongside heavy references to anime and video games, something he’s said he’s been doing since he started because it’s genuinely part of who he is, not a gimmick layered on top.
He’s also been clear that he intentionally avoids closely following newer rappers, saying in interviews that he doesn’t want other people’s current styles bleeding into his own. His core influences, Eminem, Outkast, Linkin Park, and Gorillaz, all trace back to before 2010, and he’s stuck with that foundation deliberately rather than chasing trends as they came and went.
What This Means If You’re Discovering Him Now
If you’re new to his music and wondering where to actually start listening based on how his career began, here’s the practical answer. Start with Ghost in the Shell from 2013, his first major solo breakout mixtape and the one he’s personally named as the best introduction to who he is as an artist. If you want to go even further back, Ignorant Prayers from 2012, his collaborative tape with Jeremiah Jae, shows where it all actually began on Brainfeeder. From there, Backward Books and PreHISTORIC Till Death show the jump from “promising new signee” to “artist running his own label and sound.” Together, those projects are basically a direct timeline of how he got started and how fast he built on it.
Frequently Asked Questions
How did Azizi Gibson get started in music?
He got serious about music as a teenager after his family settled in Maryland, then dropped out of college in 2010 and moved to Los Angeles to pursue it full-time, eventually getting signed after a chance meeting with producer Flying Lotus.
Who discovered Azizi Gibson?
Producer Flying Lotus effectively gave him his first real break, after meeting him by chance at a gym in Los Angeles and later hearing his mixtape.
What was Azizi Gibson’s first project?
His actual first release on Brainfeeder was Ignorant Prayers, a 2012 collaborative mixtape with Jeremiah Jae. Ghost in the Shell, released in 2013, was his first major solo breakout mixtape.
Was Azizi Gibson always signed to Brainfeeder?
No. After his time with Brainfeeder, he moved on to release music independently under his own label, preHISTORIC, starting with his 2015 album PreHISTORIC Till Death.
Where is Azizi Gibson originally from?
He was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and spent his childhood in Zaire, Bangkok, and Singapore before settling in Maryland around age 11.
How many albums has Azizi Gibson released since starting his career?
Between 2013 and 2020 alone, he released eleven albums, in addition to earlier mixtapes and EPs.
How many albums has Azizi Gibson released since starting his career?
Between 2013 and 2020 alone, he released eleven albums, in addition to earlier mixtapes and EPs.
Final Thoughts
Azizi Gibson’s start in music isn’t a fairy tale about being discovered. It’s a story about a kid who moved constantly, held onto music as the one constant, and then bet everything on himself by dropping out of college and moving across the country with nothing but a mixtape. The gym meeting with Flying Lotus is the part people remember, but it only worked because he’d already put in the work to have something worth handing over. That’s really the whole story: preparation meeting one lucky moment, and then never letting up after that.
If this gave you the real story you were looking for, pass it along to someone else who’s curious about how he actually got his start. Good, accurate info like this is harder to find than it should be.
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