Cazwell

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Biography

NYC (2002 – present)

Rapper Cazwell is one of the more colorful characters to arrive on the NYC club scene since the ’90s heyday of Deee-Lite and RuPaul. He fires off raunchy rhymes over bumping club-friendly beats, boasts a distinctive visual flair, and knows how to rock a crowd live. His wicked verbal dexterity has prompted some critics to compare him with another blond MC with a big gay following, but it’s hard to imagine Eminem dropping lines like “Take off the Speedo/I’ll eat you like a Cheeto/You knew I was a freak/Don’t look surprised/When your ankles end up behind your eyes” (from the Cazwell tune “Do You Wanna Break Up?”) , or rhapsodizing about shooting his load on a Times Square hustler’s mug, as Cazwell does in “Is It All Over Your Face?”

That Cazwell is an openly queer artist making his mark in an infamously homophobic genre is extraordinary all by itself. That he began his career in Worcester puts his story somewhere near the twilight zone. From his point of view, his Worcester roots are by far the strangest part of the tale. “I don’t even care if I’m considered hip-hop,” he says. But he shudders at the memory of a poll from the early ’90s that cited his home town as the nation’s second-ranked destination for retirees — right behind Miami. At that point, he realized Worcester offered two choices: grow up and get out, or grow old and give up.

“People moved to Worcester to settle, and to die. I felt trapped. I had to leave.” Getting from Point A — rapping at skate-punk keg parties and staying closeted until he was 18 — to Point B in NYC took longer than he expected. Nevertheless, he’s now being courted by labels and is set to appear at Elton John’s Life Ball AIDS benefit in Vienna May 21.

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