Malik Yusef

Malik Yusef is one of the Country’s premiere spoken word artists. This Chicago-based Grammy Award winning poet lyrically blends melodies with words that express his wisdom, love and pain over a backdrop of jazz, hip-hop and neo-soul instrumentals. His prose allows listeners to enter a world of style that is both esoteric and true.

Malik has been using words as his entry into the hearts and minds of fans for quite some time. He got his first big break when the director of the movie “Love Jones”; Theodore Witcher, recognized his unique talent and recruited him to train Larenz Tate for his starring role in the movie. Since then Malik has continued to shine his poetic light via numerous television appearances on top rated shows such as WGN’s Morning News Show, ABC’s Worldwide News Show, BET’s Rap City and the CBS game show “Know Your Heritage”. His thought provoking performance of “I Spit…” on HBO’s Russell Simmons presents “Def Poetry Jam” is still being talked about.

Malik’s poetic prose has been featured in promotional compilations for ASCAP, he has dropped “lines” for national advertising campaigns for companies such as Sprite, Coca Cola, General Motors, Chrysler, Verizon, Miller Brewing Company and Nike in addition to his numerous inclusions on underground mix tapes by some of the hottest DJ’s in the Country. Malik has also guest starred on several recent albums including the multi-platinum “Emotional” by fellow Chicago artist Carl Thomas, Common’s Gold album “One Day It Will All Make Sense” and Channel Live’s “Armaghetto”. It was during the world wide tour with Carl Thomas Malik developed a relationship with jazz saxophonist Mike Phillips which led to a collaboration that created the poetic jazz masterpiece “This Is Not a Game” which impressed Michael Jordan so much that he featured the track on the CD-Rom that accompanied his Jordan 17 sneakers in August of 2002.

With all of these experiences encompassed, Malik set forth to create his own recorded project which gave birth to the highly anticipated debut album; Malik Yusef presents “The Great Chicago Fire… A Cold Day in Hell” The album is a eclectic mix of intellectual, passionate, heart warming and thought provoking words blended together by an artist whose talent can only be described as magical. Malik describes his renderings as expressions of experiences and aspirations.

Malik is proud to have been featured on the Grammy Award winning “Late Registration”; the renowned second release of artist Kanye West. His poetic stylings were included on the “Crack Music track” which Malik has recently been performing while touring with Kanye both in the United States and Europe on his “Touch the Sky Tour”. This has helped to expose him to a much larger fan base and give current fans another sample of what he has to show the world ! 2006 will stand as an exciting and electrifying year for Malik and his team as he has several new ventures on the horizon including a new release that will continue to provide his fan base with enlightening entertainment while saying something to the world.”