My name is Omid Malek and my rapping name is CATALYST. I was born on August 8th, 1987 in Montreal, Quebec. I lived downtown for a couple of years before moving to the suburbs in Brossard, Quebec. I learned from an early age that nothing in life should be taken for granted as his mother died of breast cancer when he was only five years old. To make matters worse my older sister who will be turning 24 next year, suffers from cerebral palsy, which makes her intellectual ability as limited as an elementary school student. My father had to quit his high paying job in Ottawa and become a single parent in a very difficult circumstance. To this day, I consider my father my hero and my mentor. Although I have experienced a difficult and traumatizing childhood, the name of hope (Omid means hope in Persian) has stuck with me. I stand for improving my family’s current troubling financial situation and to leave my mark on society. Excelling at competitive chess, I have become one of the top players for my age category and also in the top 35 of all chess players in Quebec. My father taught me how to play chess shortly after my mother died and thus, this success with my natural talent at the game has been very encouraging for me. However, a rapping career never dawned upon me until a few years ago when I discovered my hidden talent in poetry thanks to my grade 7 and 8 English teacher in high school. Using this new found powerful tool of expressing my emotions on paper, I felt that maybe I could express his talent vocally and reach people. In addition I love listening to hip-hop music, to the point that I began memorizing and reciting songs of other artists in order to practice. Finally, I began to record on the computer at houses of different friends. The summer of 2005 has been a good stepping stone for me as I have recorded 6 solo tracks of date. With a close friend of mine who is making very original beats, I will have several new tracks recorded shortly so stay tuned!