Gabriel Teodros

Bio

Gabriel Teodros (born 1981), is a hip hop artist and a member of the groups Abyssinian Creole and CopperWire. He is of Ethiopian, Scottish, Irish and Native American descent, and was raised on Beacon Hill, Seattle, Washington.

Teodros' music often features socially conscious themes, and he was a catalyst in the surge of dynamic underground rap acts from the Pacific Northwest during the first decade of the 2000s. He was born and raised in Seattle, Washington to an Ethiopian mother and a father of Scottish, Irish and Native American descent. His parents met through anti-war organizing in the 1970s, and they split up around the time Gabriel was born.

He stayed with his mother, where he met grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins as they first emigrated to the United States and all stayed in the same house.

His relationship with hip hop culture began at a young age within the South Seattle neighborhood of Beacon Hill. He spent his high school years in Las Vegas, Nevada where as one out of approximately 30 students of color in a predominantly white school, something within him changed. According to him, it was the first time he understood that there was a system in place that wanted kids like him to want to die. And understanding that in high school made him want to live.

The former breakdancer, graffiti writer and closet-emcee finally began to take his career path seriously at age 16, using hip hop to both understand and explain his world. Teodros began his musical career around 1999, when he returned to Seattle and began working with a live band called 500 Years. That same year, he met an MC named Khalil Crisis (better known as Khingz), from the group Maroon Colony.

The two groups began sharing bills together all over Seattle and the two MC's also began working with a community organization called Youth Undoing Institutionalized Racism. In 2001, YUIR sent them to a conference in New Orleans, and it was there that Teodros and Khingz saw how much they had in common outside of music. They formed the group Abyssinian Creole to both represent their peoples and the bridges between them.
In 2001, Teodros released his first solo album entitled Sun To A Recycled Soul.

In 2005, Abyssinian Creole released their debut album, 'Sexy Beast,' a record that gives expression to the post-1990s cosmopolitanism thriving in South Seattle. The album's featured guests include Moka Only, Geologic of Blue Scholars and Macklemore.

What 'Sexy Beast' made apparent was the diversity of Northwest hiphop: It can come from anywhere (East Africa, Haiti) and be about anything (love, immigration, meditation).

Music

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Gabriel Teodros
Stay Present
02:44
SoundCloud
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Gabriel Teodros
In A Post-Apocalyptic B-Boy Stance
03:02
SoundCloud
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Gabriel Teodros
Clarity
02:51
SoundCloud
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Gabriel Teodros
Prayer
01:38
SoundCloud
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Gabriel Teodros
Bole Road
03:08
SoundCloud
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Gabriel Teodros
The City Of Bruce Lee
02:34
SoundCloud
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Gabriel Teodros
Beyond The Shadow Of A Doubt Monster
03:16
SoundCloud
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Gabriel Teodros
Re: Invent (ft. Luam Kidane)
02:31
SoundCloud
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Gabriel Teodros
Frida Kahlo
02:44
SoundCloud
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Gabriel Teodros
Grow Up Before You Blow Up
02:06
SoundCloud
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Gabriel Teodros
Parable Of The Dragon
01:53
SoundCloud
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Gabriel Teodros
24 Hour Layover
03:24
SoundCloud

Photos

ETAddis Ababa, Ethiopia
In operation since: 
1999

Contact

General Manager
Profile added by Stanley Gazemba on 22 Jul 2014
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