Qadir

Born Quadir Ibn Lateef Habeeb on November 22, 1981 in Houston, Texas. Q was home schooled for the majority of his educational career. Raised a devout Muslim, Qs Imam, (spiritual counselor/mentor) Fajri Ansari, a two-time class B and C basketball championship-winning coach, recognized Qs raw talent and continued to develop his athleticism at Turner Carroll High School for his junior year of high school. After only one year on the team, Q was recruited by a private school and spent his senior year of high school there where he was scouted and received a full basketball scholarship to St. Bonaventure, a private college in upstate New York. When Qs coach, Jim Baron, accepted a new position, Q returned to Buffalo and received his associates degree in Science at the Erie County Community College. Q then received a full basketball scholarship to Howard University. However, at Howard, Q began to find his writers voice creating intense soul inspiring poems. Q began to perform his original spoken word pieces in the Washington, DC area where he spent alot of time as a youth. He was sought out by student organizations, sororities, and professors for paid performances. Tavis Smiley (formerly of BET) chose Q to host the poetry section of his very first Youth to Leaders National Summit which was aired on C-SPAN in 2003. At the age of 23, Q left Howard to pursue his career in spoken word poetry and rap music. He published his first spoken word cd entitled Words of Awakening, which included a fiery political base of commentary. The year 2003 proved to be a pivotal year for Q. He performed for Russell Simmons at the Annual Black Face Awards, which led to his performance for the Jam Master Jay Commemoration where Russell and Danny Simmons personally requested Qs audition for the HBO Def Poetry Jam. After performing before Dr. Ben Chavis Muhammad, Q was invited to perform at the Pre Tony Award show for the Def Poetry cast. Q then joined the BET All Stars Tour, performed for Chuck D, and as a result was invited to work in his private studio. In February of 2005, Q partnered with The Polygon Group (a music publishing & production co.) and soon released his first underground hip hop cd entitled The Unheard of: Volume 1. This CD received much press in upstate New York, where Q is from. Q was featured in Artvoice magazine as the Artist of the Week and on NBCs local news show. In October 2005, Q showcased his talents in front of a celebrity packed audience at Reeboks Tenth Year in the League Anniversary party for NBA superstar Allen Iverson. His performance was chosen to be included in a segment to be televised nationally on Comcast Def On Demand in February 2006. June 2006 proved to be a fruitful year for Q as he relocated to Jersey City to be closer to the New York City music scene. This move paid dividends immediately as Q entered a music showcase with some of the hottest emcees in the tri-state area. In front of industry A&R execs and DJs judging the showcase Q put on a performance that earned him $1000 dollars cash and 1st place honors not to mention future meetings with label representatives that were in attendance. Recently Q has worked with DJ Green Lantern on an upcoming mix tape entitled: THE UNHEARD OF: The Block The Devil The Deen which features production from in house producers Carolina Blu, Da Artz, & Thugzmen, Ill Tone plus the likes of Chad B & Black Jeruz (G-Unit producers), Marie Ben-Ari, King James, Green Lantern, and DJ S&S. For more information on Quadir aka Da Poet, please visit www.myspace.com/qboogieakadapoet Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.