Fazer (rapper)

Fazer

Richard "Fazer" Rawson (born 5 February 1987) is a singer-songwriter, rapper, producer, DJ and actor popularly known as a member of British hip-hop garage trio N-Dubz. He was born to a Jamaican mother and an English father, and was brought up in Camden Town, London.

Early life

N-Dubz are a MOBO award-winning group that have had a number 1 hit and two multi platinum-selling album, Uncle B and Against All Odds. Fazer first met Dappy when they started attending the same karate class, becoming best friends with him at school. They attended Haverstock School with third member Tulisa Contostavlos (Dappy's cousin) attending the school for a while as well. At the age of 15, his companion Dappy was expelled from school for multiple truancies and fighting: although Fazer was not expelled, he admits he was poorly behaved at school as a teenager.

Fazer grew up in a council flat in Camden Town with his parents and two younger brothers, in the same area as Dappy. Realising they shared so much in common, they started writing a few bars of songs together at the age of eleven years old, but soon the duo decided they needed a female voice and so Tulisa joined the group, who then named themselves the Lickle Rinsers Crew. At thirteen years old they started performing around Camden and soon changed their name to NW1, the postcode for Camden Town, eventually becoming N-Dubz.

N-Dubz

Main article: N-Dubz

Rawson loved music from a young age, making use of his school's resources to produce music. In his work he now writes the occasional lyrics for N-Dubz tracks, however Fazer's main role in the group is to produce the music and master recordings in-studio.

Their first songs were about their lives and how hard it was living on the rough estates and leafy streets of Camden. Fazer also raps about how he was treated growing up as a British-Black in some of their songs such as "Everyday Of My Life" and later singles such as "Better Not Waste My Time". Their early songs such as "Everyday Of My Life", "Girl On Road", "Rolo Tony Brown Town", "Where I'm From" and "Life Is Getting Sicker By The Day" are about Camden Town and all received heavy airplay on pirate radio stations such as Channel U (now Channel AKA). He is sometimes confused with N-Dubz's DJ, Maze. For more information, see N-Dubz or go to their MySpace.

Being a grime, MC Fazer has also worked along side the likes of Boy Better Know, Griminal, Ghetts and Ice Kid, along with Dappy. He made a cameo appearance on K.I.G's 'Head, Shoulders, Kneez and Toez' music video as a dancer and Gracious K's 'Migraine Skank' video along side Dappy.

Fazer released two solo mixtapes with 40 tracks each. They,like Dappy's have songs 2-4 min long. They are called F-A-Take it Easy and My Faze. They contain collaborations with UK artists such as Paper Pablo, Ice Kid, Bashy, Ransom,Giggs, Shalo Kid, Chipmunk, JME, and Griminal.

Personal Life

Along with his N-DUBZ colleagues, he appears in the interactive series, Dubplate Drama, as the character Flames, although his part isn't as big as Dappy's part as Sleazy or Tulisa's part as Laurissa. So far, he hasn't appeared in the third season at all.

Fazer is said to be a keen fisher and has said his favourite group to collaborate with would be Outlandish.

In November 2009, it was reported he had been banned from driving for six months after failing to provide valided insurance, which was later confirmed by Tulisa who said they had been on tour when Fazer found out. He gets teased by his bandmates as Tulisa passed her driving test before he did, despite being younger, and that he has "no sense of direction and some crazy driving skills". In the skit song Public Transport by N-Dubz, the lyrics are:

"Public transport?... Bus? Train? DLR? Bicycle? Don’t be stupid... Do it the Fazer way, No tax, No licence, And no insurance, And earn yourself a one way ticket to jail..."

Rawson has never admitted how many times he failed his driving test.

In January 2010, police raided Fazer's flat in Chelsea, West London looking for a gun that had been allegedly used in a nearby shooting. They also raided Sensible Studio, where N-Dubz have recorded a large amount of their material but detectives failed to find the weapon and no arrests were made. The same happened to Dappy, about a year earlier after someone had reported to Police that he had been making death threats with a firearm. Fazer was involved in controversy in January 2009 after he and Dappy were hauled off a flight to London, following their "disorderly behaviour".

Fazer and Dappy currently write a column for the monthly girls' magazine 'Bliss'..

Fazer is also the oldest of the group, being born on 5th February 1987: Dappy is the second oldest (June 1987) and Tulisa the youngest (July 1988).