Born in California and raised between working class Detroit and the constantly evolving political and cultural landscape of Oakland, Palestinian producer, multi-instrumentalist and MC Tarik “Excentrik” Kazaleh is best known for his oud and percussion-driven beats, political vitriol and passionate lyrics. Considered one of the early founders of Arab-American Hip-Hop, his diverse discography includes the revolutionary Hip Hop group Arab Summit (alongside Omar Offendum, Narcy and Ragtop), multiple film scores, the experimental Jazz trio The 3 Mohammads, and many more. Excentrik’s last solo album, Now Here, Nowhere is a multi-genre attempt at diversifying what Arab Hip Hop has been defined as. The record features Excentrik on nearly every instrument. He produced Naima Shalhoub’s debut studio LP, “Siphr” released August 2020. Longtime collaborators, Naima and Excentrik’s experimental studio chemistry is evident throughout the album with special performances by Marcus Shelby and Ed Baskerville. Listen here.

In 2022/23 Excentrik will release a trove of previously unheard music from his last two decades of production, composition and improvisation titled, “The Audiobiography".”

The Excentrik Audiobiography is a compilation of the last 23 years of production, improvisation, beats, poems, weird shit and hip hop. The Anthology comes in two parts- from 1997-2002 entitled "War?" and from 2002-2012 entitled "rubber bullets". An LP of new material will coincide with the release. Past collaborations feature a diverse group of artists and musicians from Narcy, Omar Offendum, Ragtop, Iron Sheik and Hed-Roc to Naima Shalhoub, Mitch Gibson, Dante Lasalle, Rithmatik, and many more.

"War?" Traverses a period of adolescent angst and confusion but gives way to exploration, experimentation and a freedom of prose and composition only an unafraid naivete could forge. The majority of work here is strongly rooted in Hip Hop and Jazz and the political and cultural references are vague and undeveloped at best. However, the rawness of the delivery and the passion with which it's created and meticulously produced shines. "War?" ends with a poem that describes an incident that marked the end to innocence: the moment Kazaleh was shot with a rubber bullet in Palestine.

"Rubber Bullets" sees much more organized composition; deliberate themes, balance of tonality and careful recordings though at the same time, a much stronger understanding of improvisation and free wheeling theory. It shows growing maturity. Diversity of genre and timbre is apparent throughout these years. From Indian Raga to Free Jazz, from Hip Hop to soulful House, from Oud Taqasim to punk rock. This era also featured seminal collaborations with Iron Sheik, Narcy, Omar Offendum and other Hip Hop luminaries.

The impetus for it's release is actually it's imperfection. I've sat with this music, some of it obviously unfinished and raw, collecting digital dust for far too long and I figured "fuck it." Why not release it to the world and give back some of the soul the earth has lent me... It's essentially a musical autobiography, which is why I chose to call it an "Audiobiography" for surely if I ever did decide to write a book, it would be dropped on wax.