Franz Cipher
About the Artist:
Hometown: Paranaque City, Manila / Los Angeles, CA
Music Genre: Hip-Hop
Profile:
Franz Neil Arzadon, born on December 9, 1981 is better known by many as FRANZ CIPHER. Franz Cipher is a Filipino-American rapper, DJ, producer and social activist whose writings are focused mostly on ineffable sociopolitical concerns and enlightenment. He was born and raised where the “three Stars and a Sun shine”, better known as the island of the Philippines. Franz Cipher developed his passion for MCing and Poetry Writing in high school. At age 21, his unique style in producing tracks started when he migrated to the States. Transforming his own bedroom into a music studio, this led him to venture into the world of sound engineering and into the playground of DJing.
Known for his unique ability to create beats from different music genres, Franz Cipher’s sample-based music can essentially be described as not only being positive, but also innovative. Interspersed with militant, philosophical rhymes and lyrics, soulful sounds and live instrumentations, his innate creativity naturally flows within him through his experimental arrangements.
As an MC here in Los Angeles, he is regularly invited to perform and share his talent in rhyming and conveying his ability to voice out what many fear to say and cultivate this gift through motivational messages at different social functions within the city. Being that Franz Cipher’s target is not being exposed in the mainstream, many of his performances are arranged in collaboration with the underground music community. His goal as an artist is to be able to draw a multitude of diverse citizens, including immigrants within our multicultural society.
One may wonder about the name, Franz Cipher. Coming from a country with a proud history of resistance, his name is a small depiction of how the fate of his people have been stripped of their identity by its colonizers (Spain – 333 years, United States of America – 40 years), thus resulting in a predestined fate. Born to a middle-class family who lived in the South side of Manila which represented what an urban Third World is, Franz Cipher witnessed the injustice and the failure of a corrupt government towards its people. It opened his eyes and his ears to awaken the cry for justness that have been silenced for many years. Without choice but within reason, as a part of the Filipino Diaspora (the largest since the Jews), he was forced to migrate to the States where he experienced life as not only an immigrant, but also a minority at that. Similar to what many immigrants experience living in a foreign country, a life without family, of constant fear, of struggle for the need to belong, he has become conscious of the many opportunities that have now become well within his reach. An economic refugee, Franz Cipher continues to stand firm for his belief in the power of the working class people towards progression.
As a Gospel message of both the Third World and immigrants here in America, the power of his music is being echoed amongst the mass. Franz Cipher continues to carry with him his passion for Progression and Enlightenment.
FACEBOOK - http://www.facebook.com/franzcipher?ref=profile
LISTEN TO THE SAMPLE MP3s from Franz Cipher's upcoming album on http://www.myspace.com/franzcipher
Click the "Lyrics" icon for lyrics or or go to his Facebook profile and click on the icon "Notes".
