Intelligent Hoodlum

混乱的皇后区一直就是一张繁殖硬核说唱的巨大温床。Kool G Rap，Nas，Cormega，Mobb Deep，Big Noyd……对于Hip Hop歌迷而言谈到Queensbridge这些名字应该都会直接闪现，但也许Tragedy Khadafi（另有艺名Intelligent Hoodlum）不一定会出现在每一个人的名单上。可是你若真是不折不扣的Hip Hop head请不要忘记还有那么一个为自己取名“悲剧”的战士！！
 
职业生涯的开始：
 
Tragedy本名Percy Chapman，同当时大部分的黑人孩子一样，出生并成长在政府提供的所谓公共计划房屋，在那样压抑，危险，肮脏的环境中，小Percy甚至没能感受过父爱，一直是由母亲一人抚养。但好在一直有音乐的陪伴，并在他八九岁时，自然地接触到了刚刚诞生的Hip Hop，而真正对他产生影响的却是在1985年，Percy听到了当时也仅17岁的LL COOL J的debut，同时也是说唱界经典专辑――“Radio”！！从此小Percy就决定了自己要要成为的就是一名rapper！他为自己取艺名Jadeski，与另一艺名叫Hot Day的DJ组成一个叫The Superkids的二人组，1986年他们自己已经完成了一些原创的歌曲，并吸引了同是来自皇后区的制作人DJ Marley Marl的注意！当时的Marley Marl已经混出了名堂，自己成立的Cold Chillin’唱片公司已经是人才济济，初步成立了一支叫Juice Crew Allstars的团体，并依靠Marley的制作才华，已在当时的Hip Hop界只手遮天！Marley看中了这位艺名Jadeski的少年，并挖他进了自己的唱片公司，让他成为了Juice Crew Allstars的一员。就这样Percy Chapman开始了自己正式的饶舌生涯！
 
铁窗生涯:
 
加入了Juice Crew的Percy取艺名为Tragedy并很快参与进了Marley Marl自己的首张专辑“In Control Volume 1”的制作中。作为嘉宾MC出现在“The Rebel” ,“Live Motivator”两首歌中。但他却出人意料地在这张唱片发行之前就被关进了监狱，当时的他年仅16岁。而原因是他涉嫌犯有抢劫罪。他在Elmira监狱服刑两年多，而正是着两年多的服刑经历改变了年轻的Trag，同时也影响到了他日后的音乐，甚至使他自己获得了又一个艺名……
 
在被称为全美最糟糕的州立监狱的Elmira监狱里16岁的Trag遭受到的境遇可以想象 ，他形容自己在里面必须变成一匹狼，因为你的任何物品甚至生命都可能被夺走！而你反抗，战斗，他们就会敬畏你，你也就能融入他们。在那样残酷并现实的环境中，尚未成年却坚强的Trag意志获得了更多的磨练，他进入了不曾想象过的世界，不同的狱友都给予他不同的启示与灵感，Trag回忆说有一个比他大2，3岁的的狱友对他影响是最大的，他教会Trag在那样的环境中“how to eat to live instead of living to eat”。他影响Trag用新的眼光去认识世界，去认识自己种族的历史，与此同时Trag也开始阅读一些关于黑人运动领导者如Martin Luther King, Jr.以及Malcolm X的书籍，而那个对Trag产生深远影响的人由于入狱前的帮派背景以及常戴着眼镜，被Trag私下称为“Intelligent Hoodlum”。而Intelligent Hoodlum也就是日后Tragedy发前两张个人专辑时所用的艺名！
 
Intelligent Hoodlum时期：
 
经历了两年多牢狱磨练的Trag获释后并没有回唱片公司，他选择了进入社区学院进修，目的是想要获得更多的知识以及加深对黑人历史的了解。他依旧喜爱Hip Hop，但此时的他已经不再打算继续自己的职业音乐生涯了！而正是在这段事业空白期的积累使得日后他可以在debut中写出超越年龄的有思想的歌词！而Trag再次拿起mic是一直到遇见了当时在纽约混得有声有色的白人DJ——Joe Fatal,两人在一次活动中认识，Joe Fatal说服了Trag，让他重回说唱圈。不久，在Marley Marl的帮助下，戴着眼镜，20不到却已有服刑记录的Percy Chapman将自己艺名改成Intelligent Hoodlum签在了A&M唱片公司。1990年，这个经历了涅磐的Intelligent Hoodlum发行了自己的同名专辑,由Marley Marl负责全部制作，而当时年轻的Large Professor也参与了其中两首的制作。1993年发行第二张个人专辑“Tragedy: Saga of a Hoodlum”（本人至今没有听过也就不加祥述，但似乎可以和第一张有得一比，甚至有评论这张里I.H.的表现更牛X）。而在这张以后I.H.整整蛰伏了8年…
 
Tragedy Khadafi时期：
 
这之间的空档，艺名再次被改为Tragedy Khadafi，开始与更多艺人合作，并帮助了许多当时出色的新人，包括为初出茅庐的Mobb Deep做顾问，而且就是他发掘并带出了著名团体Capone-N-Noreaga，CNN在97年发的硬核大经典“The War Report”中就得到了他的大力帮助。而他的个人事业却一直没见起色，本来以Tragedy Khadafi名义发的个人专辑“Against All Odds”原定99年发行，最后竟然还拖了两年才姗姗来迟，但依旧的高质量仍然使得这张迟来的专辑成为公认的地下经典。并且Trag的个人活动也频繁起来，2003年“Still Reportin”2005年“Thug Matrix”而在2007年发行了新专辑“The Death of Tragedy”。
 
Percy Chapman IV (born August 13, 1971, in Queens, New York, USA), known by his stage name Tragedy Khadafi, and formerly known as Intelligent Hoodlum, is an American rapper and producer who hails from the Queensbridge Housing Projects in Queens, New York,[1] who helped spawn other hip hop artists such as Cormega, Mobb Deep, Capone-N-Noreaga, Nas and many others both through production and influence. His name is a reference to the former leader of Libya, Muammar Gaddafi.[citation needed] According to an editorial review on Amazon.com, he was responsible for coining the term &illmatic& in 1988, nearly 6 years before Illmatic, multi-platinum rapper Nas's debut album.
 
He began his career as half of the duo Super Kids, along with DJ Hot Day, releasing the single &Go, Queensbridge& in 1985. It was this output that caught the attention of Marley Marl, who produced in 1986 the duo's next single &The Tragedy (Don't Do It)&, with Chapman also being made a junior member of the Juice Crew alongside artists such as Big Daddy Kane, Kool G Rap, and MC Shan. In 1987, he appeared as MC Percy in the B side of the 12& &Juice Crew All Stars& and also on the last Super Kids single, &Hot Day Master Mix&.After a conviction that year (he was only 16 years old) for robbery charges followed by serving time in the Elmira Correctional Facility, Chapman became a Five Percenter and began working under the alias &Intelligent Hoodlum&.
 
Chapman continued to record throughout the remainder of the 1990s. One of his last recordings as Intelligent Hoodlum was the title cut for the motion picture soundtrack of Posse, a Hollywood Western that told the story of an African-American gunslinger posse. This song marked the end of Chapman's overt focus on Conscious hip hop, Black history and political commentary in his verses. Working with Capone, Noreaga and Mobb Deep, recording &L.A L.A& a response to Tha Dogg Pound's &New York, New York&, Intelligent Hoodlum then began working under the name Tragedy Khadafi in 1997.[3] He also worked on Capone-N-Noreaga's debut album, The War Report, on which he actually appears more on the album than Capone. When the latter returned to prison, Noreaga severed ties with Tragedy. In 1998, Tragedy formed the group Iron Sheiks along with his lifelong friend, Michael Butler a.k.a. Imam T.H.U.G., who was also from Queensbridge, releasing an EP, which contained the underground classic &True Confessions&.
 
Khadafi's third album, Against All Odds, was scheduled for release in 1999, but conflict with his label stalled the release, finally being released in 2001, which was also the first appearance of emcee HeadRush Napoleon, who continued to work with Tragedy on future recordings. On the album, Tragedy dissed Noreaga and accused him of stealing his rhyming style on tracks like &Crime Nationalist& or &Blood Type&.Noreaga kept the animosity going with his track &Halfway Thugs Pt. II.&This was followed by Still Reportin'... in 2003. In 2005, he released Thug Matrix independently and also released an album as a member of the group Black Market Militia. Khadafi's latest releases, Blood Ballads and Thug Matrix 2, were both released in 2006.
 
He also starred in a documentary known as Tragedy: The Story of Queensbridge about his life and his struggles, growing up, his being a junior member of the Juice Crew, the numerous times he was incarcerated, and the toll a hard life has on a poor African-American child growing up without a father and with a mother addicted to heroin.
 
On December 27, 2007, Tragedy was convicted of selling narcotics and sentenced to a maximum of four years in prison. Although originally scheduled to be released on January 21, 2011, Tragedy was granted early parole, and released on June 23, 2010.