IQ (rapper)

Oleg Verov was born in Moscow in the Otradnoye district. He began to rap in the late 1990s. The first track was recorded in 1998. In 2001, together with Leo Dee, he founded the White Shadows group. The musicians made all the recordings on their own, distributed them on cassettes and disks. In 2003, the album "White Shadows" was released, but later the team broke up.

In 2004, IQ began a collaboration with the label “Lion Rights Sound”. In the mid-2000s, the rapper performed many times in various cities of Russia, took part in the Emmaus festival, was on the same stage with such foreign performers as Method Man , Ghostface Killah , Jeru The Damaja and others. The year 2009 turned out to be the most fruitful in Oleg’s work: two albums were released (Levpravhop and The Most Magical Flow together with YG), and in April the rapper took part in the Battle for Respect 2 television show, which was broadcast on the Muz-TV channel . At this show, IQ lost in the qualifying round to St. Petersburg player Kazhe Oboyma , who reached the quarter finals with a margin of 3 votes.

Since 2010, IQ began work on his solo album, O-Street. According to the rapper, she should have “only classic swing hip-hop” ^[2] . Soon, the first video clips for the singles from the album appeared: “O-Street”, “Consciousness” and “Secret”. In 2011-12, the artist appeared at various concerts: at the MIR festival, in the Moscow clubs Izvestia Hall and 16 tons, in Hamburg at the Hip Hop Academy ^[3] . In parallel, IQ was engaged in a debut solo album. DJ N-Tone agreed to finalize the sound of the album; joint tracks with invited artists were also recorded.

As a result, O-Street was released on May 28, 2013 ^[4] . It included 19 tracks, work on the album lasted for 3 years. The disc is unmistakable in the form of a ten-page color comic strip from Cap Art. Denis KOKA beats was responsible for the recording and mixing. In support of the new clips were shot: "School" and "Outro". Among the guests on plastic were Fuze, Marat, Panda, Check, BMB, Vitek, Korob and a former partner in the group Leo Dee. Oleg Verov spoke about the album as follows:

I present to you my first solo album! That is what I have been going for 15 years, developing and gaining experience. During this time, hip-hop changed, I collected and crumbled several groups, recorded many songs ... This is my step forward - the transition to the next step and curtain for the previous ones. I dedicate the album to my house - Otradnaya Street. With this place I have very many and important events taking place in my life. I dedicate to everyone with whom I grew and grew up, who stayed and who left. The album shows the taste, so I see hip-hop in Russia ...

- IQ. O-STREET

In 2015, IQ became a member of the Beats & Vibes television rap contest, which was broadcast from December 1, 2015 to January 12, 2016 on MTV Russia , where the musician reached the semi-finals. The songs “Face on the Poster”, “Normal Boy” and “Games”, which were written for the show, a little later IQ released on the EP “Four Sides”. In 2016, IQ changed its pseudonym to IKYA , and in many ways changed its musical style. The rapper began to write melodic songs, in which he began to sing more. In the same year he began work on the new album "Antagonist". According to the artist, in the process of creating the album some songs were eliminated. So the separate tracks “Silk”, “Curtain” (together with ST) and “Magic Night” came out.

In 2017, HAYKYU began to collaborate with the label "Istoria Music", which was founded by rapper ST. Performances at major festivals such as Big Rap and Winter Games in Luzhniki resumed. On May 26, 2017, an album called "Antagonist" was released. It included 11 tracks, and live musicians as well as famous beatmakers such as Roman Bestseller, 4EU3, Primestars and others took part in the work on the album. For the first time, female vocals and backing vocals, performed by singer Patricia Diallo, began to sound in the compositions of AIKJU.

In the same year, the song “We Can't See Them” appeared ft. ST , Nasled & Lars, which got into the rotation of DFM radio stations, Hit FM , Like Fm. The clip for this song entered the rotation of the music channels Muz-TV , Russian Music Box, TNT MUSIC , Music of the First, RU.TV and got into various charts and tops.

• According to the rapper, he always responsibly approaches any performance, even if it is free and there is no full hall ^[5] .
• A distinctive feature of many of his video clips are effects with the eyes of the rapper, which change at certain points in the shooting ^[6] .
• In 2003, he wrote the anthem of his native district of Otradnoe ^[7] .
• He performed covers of songs by Bob Marley and Linkin Park at concerts.

As part of the White Shadows group

• 2003 - White Shadows

Studio Albums

• 2013 - O-STREET
• 2016 - Four Sides EP
• 2017 - Antagonist

Collaborative Albums

• 2009 - Levpravhop (together with the artists of the label LevPravZvuk)
• 2009 - The Most Magical Flow (together with "YG")

Singles

• 2010 - Purple Balm (with KOKA, Leo Dee)
• 2011 - O-Street
• 2011 - The Secret
• 2013 - Impact (with Sadat X , Leo Dee)
• 2016 - Silk
• 2016 - Everest
• 2016 - Curtain (shared with ST )
• 2017 - Magic Night
• 2017 - Grew and Became a Rapper
• 2017 - We Do Not See Them (with ST , Nasled & Lars)
• 2017 - Your Name (shared with Nasled & Lars)

• 2008 - The Most Magical Flow
• 2009 - Choose Yourself
• 2011 - O-Street
• 2011 - Consciousness
• 2011 - The Secret
• 2013 - “School”
• 2013 - Outro
• 2013 - Impact ft. Sadat X (Brand Nubian), Leo Dee
• 2014 - Aquarium ft. Leo dee
• 2015 - Centrifuge ft. Check, Miko
• 2017 - The Bullet
• 2017 - “Move On” ft. ST
• 2017 - Do Not See Them ft. ST , Nasled & Lars

• IQ Biography
• IQ is the name that listeners of Russian hip-hop have known since the beginning of the 2000s.
• IQ Interview on Hip Hop Culture
• Official page - IQ VK