SAN DIEGO BASED RAPPER
TIMZ
LAUNCHES HIS AMERICAN DREAM WITH “IRAQ,”
THE INCENDIARY, POLITICALLY CHARGED FIRST SINGLE
FROM HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL, STEREOTYPE BUSTING INDIE DEBUT
‘OPEN FOR BUSINESS’
On his fiery debut CD, TIMZ—aka Tommy Hanna, an American born rapper of Chaldean and Iraqi descent--gets right up in our faces, mixing explosive, Middle Eastern tinged beats with incendiary rhymes in an effort to shatter those ugly stereotypes that have plagued people who look like him since 9/11 and the start of the Iraq war.
Make no mistake, the title of his powerful, outspoken and heavy grooving 14- track collection—a nominee for Best Hip-Hop Album at the 2006 San Diego Annual Music Awards—says it all: the San Diego born and bred artist is Open For Business. “The concept of the album is a day in the life,” TIMZ says. “That’s what I am, open for business all the time. I am at work and if I wasn’t at work I was at school and if I wasn’t at school I was in the studio rapping.
TIMZ is on an intense mission to help Americans understand that Chaldeans, who are Catholic by faith, date back to Iraq since the ancient times of Mesopotamia and the flourishing times of Babylon. “The only remnants from that Iraq and the Iraq that we see now are the rivers. “That’s it, everything else has changed,” he says.
“They lump us into one big group of Bin Ladens and Saddam Husseins walking around. But we’re hard working people who love this country.”
While TIMZ—a recent graduate of University San Diego-- has been the pride of his hometown’s 20,000 Chaldean community for years, the reaction to “Iraq” across the country is giving him some well deserved cred as a national artist.
In 2007, TIMZ released the politically charged video for the critically acclaimed single “Iraq.” In no time, the controversial music video was garnering international media attention from the likes of MTV News, FOX News’ Hannity & Colmes, Mancow’s Morning Madness, Al Jazeera, French TV, Russian National TV and over 20,000 internet and blog sites. Along with being a featured on YouTube.com, the “Iraq” video was recipient of much success and received many awards in 2007 including the award for Best Music Video at the 2007 Hollywood Film Festival. “Iraq” also was the winner of an MTV show titled The Freshmen where viewers were asked to vote for their favorite new video. After a week long of voting, TIMZ’s video (the only video from an Independent artist) was the winner.
Early 2008, TIMZ is finishing up a new album titled TIMZ for President, which will be released on election day 2008. With the mega success of his debut album and its music video for “Iraq,” TIMZ and his manager, Alvin Shamoun, are looking forward to a very promising 2008-2009.
