George Watsky

George Watsky
Watsky at VidCon 2012
Background information
Birth name George Virden Watsky
Born September 15, 1986 (1986-09-15) (age 32)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Rapper
  • poet
  • producer
  • harmonicist
  • author
Years active 2006–present
Labels Steel Wool Media
Associated acts
Website georgewatsky.com

George Virden Watsky (born September 15, 1986),[1][2] known professionally as Watsky, is an American hip hop artist, author, and poet from San Francisco, California. Watsky performs slam poetry, and was featured on Season 6 of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO.[3] His talents began to receive national and international acclaim in 2006 when he was the Youth Speaks Grand Slam Poetry Champion, and was also named Brave New Voices International Poetry Slam Champion.[4]

Watsky broke out as a rapper with his viral video "Pale kid raps fast" in 2011. He went on to record several hip hop albums, including Cardboard Castles in 2013, All You Can Do in 2014, and x Infinity in 2016, and held many live performances with his touring band Créme Fraîche.[5] Watsky is also known for his appearances in Epic Rap Battles of History, and as an author following the publication of How to Ruin Everything in 2016.[6][7]

Early life

Watsky was born in San Francisco, California, to Clare E. (born Miller, daughter of politician Clement Woodnutt Miller) and Paul Norman Watsky,[8] a librarian and a psychotherapist.[9] George has a twin brother, Simon Jay Watsky, who is a helicopter pilot. He has described himself as "half Jewish" (on his father's side).[8][10] Watsky attended San Francisco University High School[11] and then Emerson College in Boston.[12][13]

Career

Poetry

Watsky started slam poetry at the age of 15, and has since exploded in popularity to reach a national audience.[14] He was described as the Bay Area's reigning teen champion as the winner of nearly a dozen slams, and was on the team that took fourth place in the national contest in 2005.[15]

Watsky's poetry incorporates political and social themes. In 2006, in the midst of a lively performance to a sold-out crowd, Watsky likened politicians' behavior to a common bar pick-up line, and won the night's top score.[16] He also appeared in Season Six, Episode Two of Def Poetry Jam that year, performing his poem "V for Virgin."[17]

Reviewing a 2008 performance at Brandeis University, Sarah Bayer wrote, "Skinny, quirky George Watsky was next, with the night's most innovative piece. Watsky, a sophomore at Emerson College and a member of the grand prize-winning team from San Francisco at the National Youth Poetry Slam in 2006, adjusted the microphone to different parts of his body, imitated the sound of rewinding tape and recited binary code (a trope that caught the eye of headliner Saul Williams) in an altogether amusing performance."[18] In 2009, he was also profiled in The Boston Globe; the Arts section reviewed his one-man show "Where the Magic Happens" favorably, and called him a "poetry-slam star."[19]

Watsky continues to implement spoken word into his current career as a musician with songs like "Tiny Glowing Screens Pt. 2", "Cannonball.", and “Springtime in New York”[20][21]

Music

2009 – 2010: Watsky and Guilty Pleasures

In 2009, Watsky produced a 15-track hip hop album titled Watsky. The next year, he released the album Guilty Pleasures, which he made available as a free download on his website. Produced by Procrastination (San Francisco musician Tobias Butler), Guilty Pleasures contains mashups between popular songs and those from his first album.

2011: "Pale Kid Raps Fast"

Watsky at TEDxSFED in San Francisco in 2011.

On January 17, 2011, Watsky uploaded a video entitled "Pale kid raps fast" to YouTube, in which he performed a humorous original rap with rapid delivery over the instrumental of "Break Ya Neck" by Busta Rhymes. The video went viral, partly due to support from Reddit and Philip DeFranco[9] (Watsky's music can be heard in the background of DeFranco's news series and SourceFed channel). It accumulated four million views within two days,[22] and eventually exceeded 25 million views despite later being unlisted by Watsky.[23] He performed a slightly modified version of the rap on The Ellen DeGeneres Show one week later.[24] Being able to match the speed of the song's rapping was viewed as an Internet challenge, spawning covers by fellow rappers such as Mac Lethal,[25] and YouTube celebrities such as Hank Green[26] and Bry.[27]

2012: Nothing Like The First Time and tour

On June 10, 2012, Watsky released a free mixtape entitled Nothing Like The First Time. The mixtape coincided with his first official tour of the same name beginning in July, featuring his touring band Créme Fraîche, with support from Dumbfoundead. It included dates in Chicago, New York City, Boston, Northampton, Jacksonville, Atlanta, and London.

Watsky released Live! At the Troubadour, a fully mixed concert CD of his Los Angeles show from the Nothing Like The First Time tour, in August 2012. He also started a production company with Brad Simpson called Steel Wool Media.[28]

2013: Steel Wool Media, Cardboard Castles and tour

Watsky (left) in 2013.

In January 2013, Watsky announced he would be releasing a new album entitled Cardboard Castles on March 12, 2013. On the same date, he announced tour dates for the Cardboard Castles tour, which included dates in many major cities in the U.S. and Canada such as Austin, New Orleans, Gainesville, Orlando, D.C., Philadelphia, Northampton, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver and New York City. Tour dates for Europe (including the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands) were released shortly after.[29] The first single from the album, "Strong As An Oak" was released through Steel Wool Media on January 22, 2013. The second single from the album, "Moral of the Story" was released on February 5, 2013. The third single, "Hey, Asshole" was released on February 19, 2013, and features English singer Kate Nash.

The album was released on March 12, 2013, through Welk Music Group, topping the iTunes Hip Hop Charts in the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom due in part to a Twitter campaign.[30][31] He then went on his follow-up to the Nothing Like The First Time tour called "Sloppy Seconds."

Watsky made a web-series with YouTube channel LOUD titled Watsky's Making an Album. It consisted of 9 main episodes and many behind the scenes and live videos from the Nothing Like The First Time tour. The web series was restarted on March 12, 2013, with the first episode of Season 2 (entitled Watsky's Releasing An Album), coinciding with the release of his second album, Cardboard Castles.

In November 2013 the Vans Warped Tour was briefly shut down after Watsky made a stage jump from the 35  ft high rigging during the band's performance in London.[32] During the stage jump the audience parted. Watsky and also two members of the audience were injured. Watsky apologized after the event via Facebook.[33] He wrote: 'I have no excuse for my actions, and the only way I can explain my mindset is that it was a huge overreach in the heat of the moment. No, I was not drunk or on drugs.'[34]

2014: All You Can Do

Watsky performing at VidCon 2014.

On January 2, 2014, Watsky tweeted that he was beginning work on his third studio album, then tweeted a link to a picture of a microphone with the caption "The Booth #guardianangel" less than a minute later.[35][36] This was the first sign of new music from Watsky since March 2013, when he released his second album, Cardboard Castles.

On May 21, 2014, during one of his Watsky Wednesday vlogs, he announced that the title of his new album would be All You Can Do, as well as explaining that he wanted to keep his family ties in the album (announcing that his father would be on the cover and that he would like his mother to be on an alternate cover) and that the album would be released in August.[37] He had tweeted earlier in the month that the first single from All You Can Do would be released on June 10, 2014.[38]

The album was made available for preorder on June 10, 2014, on iTunes (with a download of the first single," Whoa Whoa Whoa"); a physical copy and limited edition double-vinyl were made available for pre-order on his website. It included collaborations with Anderson .Paak, Dia Frampton and Stephen Stills among others, and is Watsky's highest charting album to date, reaching number 33 on the Billboard 200. The All You Can Do Tour spanned across North America, Europe, and Australia, consisting of over 60 headlining shows. His live band Créme Fraîche consists of Max Miller-Loran (keys/trumpet), Kush Mody (keys, bass) Pat Dimitri (guitar), Chukwudi Hodge (drums) and others.

In December 2014, Watsky's YouTube channel was listed on New Media Rockstars Top 100 Channels, ranked at #51.[39]

2015: Meaner Than The Average Tour

On May 30, 2015, Watsky announced through social media that he would be releasing All You Can Do: Live From The Regency Ballroom, the live album that he recorded during the All You Can Do tour, on June 2 on BitTorrent, Bandcamp, Spotify, iTunes & Soundcloud. He also announced that he would be embarking on a monthlong club tour, called the Meaner Than The Average tour, with Créme Fraîche, A-1, and Mikos Da Gawd in late July and August. The focus of the tour would be to hit cities that he didn't get to on the All You Can Do tour. He also said that many of the shows would be in various Canadian cities that he's never performed in.

In January 2016, he announced through various YouTube videos[40] that he would release an album due sometime in the summer.

2016: x Infinity, The Hamilton Mixtape

On July 8, 2016, Watsky announced a new album titled x Infinity, as well as an upcoming tour (in America and Europe) on Twitter and Facebook. The album's lead producer is long-time collaborator Kush Mody, while Def Jam Recordings co-founder Russell Simmons was an executive producer. It was released on August 19, 2016, and included Josh Dun, Julia Nunes, and Chaos Chaos as collaborators. The album's bonus track "Exquisite Corpse", referencing the poetry game, features seven guest verses rapped by Dumbfoundead, Grieves, Adam Vida, Wax, Rafael Casal, Daveed Diggs, and Chinaka Hodge.[41] Watsky embarked on his x Infinity tour on September 2, 2016 in Phoenix, Arizona, and was slated to finish in Los Angeles at the end of November, but he later added stops in Anchorage, Alaska on December 1, and his final show in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 10, 2016.[42] The album reached 58th on the US Billboard 200.[43][44][45]

In December 2016, Watsky contributed a song to The Hamilton Mixtape, a project of Lin-Manuel Miranda, for whom Watsky previously performed in 2015 at a #Ham4Ham event.[46] On the mixtape, he performed "An Open Letter" with the artist Shockwave. This was an adapted form of a rap cut from the song "The Adams Administration" in the original show, in which Hamilton refutes insults and rumors spread about him from President John Adams.

2018: Regrouping with Invisible Inc., Complaint

In March 2018, Watsky regrouped with his band Invisible Inc. for their ten-year anniversary. The group released a single entitled “Fine Print” and went on tour.[47][48] It was announced that their next album would premiere on March 30, 2018.[49] The album "Fine Print" was released on March 30, 2018.[50]

In August 2018, Watsky released a single entitled 'Welcome to the Family'. He announced at a show in October that his next album, “Complaint,” would be released in the upcoming months.

Acting

Watsky has portrayed and rapped as British playwright William Shakespeare (left), Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor of Doctor Who (center) and American writer Edgar Allan Poe (right) for Epic Rap Battles of History.

In May 2013, Watsky appeared in season 4 of Arrested Development as Chris Kazmierczak, the "semi-original series" released on Netflix.[51]

Watsky has documented the process it takes to create albums in a couple TV series.[52] Watsky has also appeared in several Epic Rap Battles of History videos, rapping as and portraying one of the battling characters. To date he has played William Shakespeare, the Fourth Doctor (of Doctor Who), and Edgar Allan Poe.[6]

Watsky is set to appear as Tanner in the film Blindspotting, which is in post-production and will be released in 2018.[53]

Writing

In June 2016, Watsky published a collection of his essays in a book entitled How to Ruin Everything. It entered the top ten in The New York Times Best Seller list,[7] and received public praise from Lin-Manuel Miranda, John Green, Russell Simmons, Hasan Minhaj, Jeff Chang, Adam Mansbach, Rhys Darby, Myq Kaplan, and Chinaka Hodge.[54]

Discography

Studio Albums

Extended Plays

  • Guilty Pleasures (2010)
  • A New Kind of Sexy (2011)
  • Watsky & Mody (2012)
  • Nothing Like the First Time (2012)

With Invisible Inc.

  • Invisible Inc. (2007)
  • Fine Print (2018)

Tours

Headlining
  • Nothing Like the First Time Tour (2012)[55]
  • Cardboard Castles Tour (2013)[56]
  • All You Can Do Tour (2014)[57]
  • Meaner Than the Average Tour (2015)[58]
  • x Infinity Tour (2016)[59]
  • Welcome to the Family Tour (2018)
Co-headlining
  • Hug a Hater Tour (with Wax) (2013)[60]
  • Low Visibility Tour (with Invisible Inc.) (2018)

Bibliography

  • How to Ruin Everything (2016)

References

  1. ↑ Ian Atkinson (March 21, 2006) Watsky perfection at teen poetry slam. Oakland Tribune, The (CA)
  2. ↑ According to the State of California. California Birth Index, 1905–1995. Center for Health Statistics, California Department of Health Services, Sacramento, California. Searchable at http://www.familytreelegends.com/records/39461
  3. ↑ Sher, Allyson (January 28, 2011). "WU-SLam gears up for 3rd annual Grand Slam". Student Life. St. Louis: Washington University Student Media, Inc. Retrieved February 3, 2011.
  4. ↑ Smart, Gordon (January 20, 2011). "Is this the world's fastest rapper?". The Sun. London. Retrieved February 3, 2011.
  5. ↑ "The Georgia Straight presents Watsky at the Rio". The Georgia Straight. July 9, 2016. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  6. 1 2 Durham, Trevor (September 16, 2016). "My Night with Watsky". Uloop. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  7. 1 2 Levine, Tom (June 23, 2016). "Watsky book on New York Times Bestseller list". LinkedIn. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  8. 1 2 George Watsky: Jewish Side of the Family on YouTube (November 12, 2011). Retrieved on August 25, 2012.
  9. 1 2 Hustvedt, Marc (April 26, 2011). "George Watsky: YouTube's Poet Rapper Breaks Out". Tubefilter. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  10. ↑ He's not Michael Cera | SF Bay Guardian. Sfbg.com (December 31, 2008). Retrieved on August 25, 2012.
  11. ↑ Eifler, Emily (April 22, 2013). "Watsky, a Hopeful Rapper on a Shining Trajectory". KQED-FM. Retrieved March 11, 2015.
  12. ↑ Mogilevskaya, Regina (March 28, 2013). "Music Q&A: Hip-Hop Artist and Spoken-Word Poet George Watsky". Boston Magazine. Retrieved March 11, 2015.
  13. ↑ "George Watsky | Emerson College Student Showcase". Emerson College Student Showcase. April 2, 2010. Retrieved July 4, 2011.
  14. ↑ Rutherford, Kevin (February 12, 2011). "Social Climber". Billboard.
  15. ↑ Johnson, Chip (April 21, 2006). "Local poets lift voices at nationals". San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco. Retrieved February 3, 2011.
  16. ↑ Atkinson, Ian (March 31, 2006). "Watsky perfection at teen poetry slam". Oakland Tribune. Oakland, California. Retrieved February 3, 2011.
  17. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=212iH9jckT8
  18. ↑ Bayer, Sarah (January 22, 2008). "Spoken word show a grand slam: VOCAL 2008, a benefit concert featuring nationally renowned slam poets, raised money for a local community center. The sold-out show electrified the audience, despite its over four-hour run time". The Justice. Archived from the original on August 7, 2011. Retrieved February 3, 2011.
  19. ↑ Brown, Joel (December 4, 2009). "Plugging into poetry as a media platform". Boston Globe. Boston. Retrieved February 3, 2011.
  20. ↑ WATSKY! (March 5, 2013), Watsky- Tiny Glowing Screens Pt 2 [Cardboard Castles], retrieved October 17, 2016
  21. ↑ Disc Jockey (August 12, 2014), Watsky - Cannonball (feat. Stephen Stills), retrieved October 17, 2016
  22. ↑ "How Rapper Watsky's Major YouTube Video Went Too Viral". VideoInk. August 22, 2014. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  23. ↑ Haughton, Vanessa (July 11, 2014). "Pale Kid Raps Fast: The Rise of Watsky". The Observer. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  24. ↑ "George Watsky: The Ellen DeGeneres Show". The Ellen DeGeneres Show. Warner Brothers. January 24, 2011.
  25. ↑ Mermis, Elke (January 24, 2011). "[Updated] Mac Lethal raps faster than that pale George Watsky kid". The Pitch. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  26. ↑ Bradshaw (January 29, 2011). "George Watsky: How Does That Pale Kid Rap So Fast?". Bradshaw's Blog. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  27. ↑ O'Reilly, Brian (November 25, 2012). "New video! IRISH COUPLE RAPS FAST". Tumblr. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  28. ↑ "Steel Wool Media". 2012. Retrieved January 24, 2013.
  29. ↑ Cardboard Castle Tour Dates | George Watsky's Official Website. Sfbg.com (December 31, 2008). Retrieved on August 25, 2012.
  30. ↑ Twitter / gwatsky: #CardboardCastles is #1 in. Twitter.com. Retrieved on November 19, 2013.
  31. ↑ Twitter / gwatsky: #1 on hip hop #10 overall on. Twitter.com. Retrieved on November 19, 2013.
  32. ↑ Baggs, Michael (November 17, 2013). "Vans Warped Tour halted after Watsky + Wax stage accident". Gigwise. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  33. ↑ Watsky, George (November 18, 2013). "This is news to some, but many of you may have heard about the incident today at Warped Tour London". Facebook. Retrieved November 18, 2013.
  34. ↑ "'I made a bonehead decision that got people hurt': Watch the moment a rapper breaks a woman's arm after jumping 35ft from light rigging during concert". Daily Mail. London.
  35. ↑ "WATSKY x INFINITY on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
  36. ↑ "Instagram photo by @gwatsky • Jan 3, 2014 at 2:43am UTC". Instagram. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
  37. ↑ George Watsky (May 21, 2014), Final Watsky Wednesday (for now!), retrieved October 17, 2016
  38. ↑ "WATSKY x INFINITY on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
  39. ↑ "The NMR Top 100 YouTube Channels: 75-51!". New Media Rockstars. Retrieved January 6, 2015.
  40. ↑ Taryn Southern (January 19, 2016), COCKROACH COCKTAIL CHALLENGE w/ WATSKY! | Party Fun Times Ep. 7, retrieved October 17, 2016
  41. ↑ Granovsky, Brooke (August 30, 2016). "'x Infinity'". The Justice. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  42. ↑ [url=http://georgewatsky.com/tour/]
  43. ↑ "WATSKY x INFINITY on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
  44. ↑ Desk, BWW News. "New Watsky Album 'x Infinity' Gets August 2016 Release". Retrieved October 17, 2016.
  45. ↑ "Tour - George Watsky". George Watsky. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
  46. ↑ Tube, Stage (September 12, 2015). "STAGE TUBE: Watsky Raps for the Crowd at Ham4Ham". Broadway World. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  47. ↑
  48. ↑
  49. ↑
  50. ↑ Fine Print by Invisible Inc., 2018-03-30, retrieved 2018-07-14
  51. ↑ Kurp, Josh (May 26, 2013). "Here's (Nearly) Every Single 'Arrested Development' Season 4 Guest Star". Uproxx. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  52. ↑ "George Watsky". iMDB. Retrieved October 17, 2017.
  53. ↑ "Blindspotting". iMDB. Retrieved October 17, 2017.
  54. ↑ "How to Ruin Everything ESSAYS By George Watsky". Penguin Random House. 2016. Retrieved April 28, 2017.
  55. ↑ Shreekumar, Advik (April 27, 2014). "George Watsky: Rapper and Slam Poet". Harvard Political Review. Harvard Institute of Politics. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
  56. ↑ della Cava, Marco (May 24, 2013). "Watsky to aspiring rappers: You can do this, too". USA Today. Gannett Company. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
  57. ↑ Mester, Amanda (September 16, 2014). "Slam poet and rapper Watsky to headline two shows in NYC, November 4 & 8". AXS. Anschutz Entertainment Group. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
  58. ↑ Kyles, Yohance (June 15, 2015). "EXCLUSIVE: Watsky Talks New Live Album, The Phoniness Of The Industry & White Rappers Using The N-Word". All Hip Hop. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
  59. ↑ Gomaz, Adrian (September 2, 2016). "Hip-hop artist Watsky touring in support of 'x Infinity' album". Albuquerque Journal. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
  60. ↑ "Im November auf Deutschlandtour" [In November on a tour of Germany]. Warner Music Germany (in German). Warner Music Group. July 8, 2013. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
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