Zedbazi

Zedbazi
Zedbazi performing in London (2006).
Background information
Origin	Tehran, Iran
Genres	Hip hop, rap rock, trance, dance, electronic
Years active	2002–2014 (de facto)
Members	Mehrad Hidden Saman Wilson Sohrab MJ Alireza JJ Sijal Nassim

Zedbazi (Persian: Zedbāzi – زدبازی‎‎) is an Iranian hip hop band from Tehran. They are known as the pioneer of gangsta rap in Iran, and are also credited with marking the beginning of a new movement in Iranian music.

The band has been suspended since October 2014, and the members have been divided into two groups.

Foundation of the band dates back to early 2002. It was started up by Saman Rezapour (Saman Wilson) and Mehrad Mostowfi Rad (Mehrad Hidden), who were friends in a high school in Tehran. Despite having older experiences in musicianship, formation of the band as in a hip hop style was motivated by Saman's cover of Eminem's Without Me, which was performed with a matched vulgar lyrics written in Persian. After moving to London, they met Sohrab Mostavafi (Sohrab MJ) in a summer school, where he joined the band after collaborating on Kal Kal (کل کل – Kal-kal, "Argue"), a cover of D12's Rap Game.

The first collaboration of Siavash Jalali (Sijal) and Alireza Jazayeri (Alireza JJ) with the band's earlier members was Berim Faza (بریم فضا – Berim Fazā, "(Let's) Go to Space"), produced by Alireza JJ in 2005. Siavash and Alireza were best friends in Paris, where they had also met Nassim Parize, an Iranian finalist at the French reality TV show Star Academy (Season 5) with her twin sister, Neissa.

The three future band members officially joined Zedbazi by releasing Tabestoon Kootahe (تابستون کوتاهه – Tābestun Kutāh e, "Summer is Short") in September 2007. They brought a new style into the band, as Mehrad Hidden remarks in Ardeshir Ahmadi's Zedbazi Documentary. "The formula they brought was different than ours. Our formula was necessary for the inception, theirs was necessary for the continuation."

The name Zedbazi (زدبازی – Zedbāzi) consists of the words zed ("Z", the first letter of zakhar) and bāzi ("play" or "action"). Zakhar (زاخار – zāxār, "old") is an old and non-common word in modern Persian language. It is what Saman and his friends used to call each other in high school, and according to the band, it can mean both "an old and close friend" and "an old-fashioned and fusty person"; it depends on the purpose. Therefore, Zedbazi can be translated as "the zakhar acts."