K'Reem - West Oakland

Kareem was born February 15th 1981 in Berkeley, California in Alta Bates Hospital. He was the third son of Shomari Mustafa and the second son of Linda Williams in a household of seven children. Raised in West Oakland, California, his parents didn't have a lot of money. His father was more focused on trying to get them into a better living situation, while his mother was taking care of all of the children.

All the influence on him, including his parents, which apparently was not enough, and all his friends on the street, Kareem says, “was enough to create me into the person that I am today.” He had a daughter, when he turned 20 years of age, she is now five-and-a-half-years-old, which he LOVES to death, and he had his family, his friends, and his music; which is all a part of him now.

He grew up kick'n it around all the drug dealers and the so-called-thugs. But he says “that he always had a good idea of who he was.” “I never thought I was just like them, I always thought that I COULD be a little better.”

“Not saying that I think that I’m better than anybody but, I felt like none of my friends really had any goals or ambitions and I didn't want to be like that. Besides, my parents didn't raise their children to not do anything with ourselves.”

Kareem grew-up listening to rappers like 2Pac, Eminem, Ice Cube, Yukmouth, Nas, Jay-Z, C-BO, and many more. He says that they influenced him to try to write songs for himself.

“So me, my brother, and a couple of our friends got a kareoke machine. We used to take instrumentals from other people's songs and make our own” Kareem said.

They decided later on that they should split up into two separate groups and compete against each other on who can make the “cleanest songs,” or tapes. After a couple of years Kareem and some of his friends met a man, named Reggie Thomas, who was part-owner of a studio called ROLAR.

Reggie seen the potential in the group and offered to give them free studio time to record their music. They completed almost two albums before ROLAR had to relocate. The group lost contact with Reggie and the rest of the owners of Rolar; so other than their personal copies of their music, the originals was lost.

After years and years of more practice and doing shows, Kareem finally decided to make his own solo album, which he is working on now.

Every kind of music. I get influence from everywhere. Every sound, every instrument, every genre.

My computer, a mic, Cooledit 2.1, and fruityloops.

I just want people to feel my music as much as i do because it comes directly from my heart. And that's where it will always come from...