MySpace a place for friends

IMC Entertainment presents RaQ Holiday, the next generation in Hip Hop . . . From the heart of the Queen City of Charlotte, North Carolina comes a new day dawning in Urban Music. Citing influences vastly ranging from Biggie Smalls to Chino XL to Kool G Rap to A Tribe Called Quest, Holiday has appeared on the independent music scene and made moves toward the stratosphere and beyond. Born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, RaQ moved around all over the U.S. to scenery as metropolitan as Boston and Baltimore, and as vast and serene as Juneau, Alaska before returning to Charlotte in October of 2003. Witnessing the cultures of different regions and soaking in each subsequent area's flavor, he began cultivating a sound all his own. Fed up with the lack of consciousness rap music began to display, Holiday decided to take matters into his own hands. I got tired of people complaining about the state of music; my mindframe is that if you don't like the music you're hearing on the radio, go out and find something better, or make it yourself. Although I've found alot of great music through searching around, it's much more gratifying for me to do the latter." Methodically blending the lost arts of lyricism with beat production varying from delightfully nostalgic to breathtakingly innovative, RaQ's wordplay, punchlines and flat-out heart prove that more than Crunk Music and Laffy Taffy can be found if you descend past the Mason-Dixon Line. "I could follow trends and rhyme about a bunch of $*%& I don't own and probably wouldn't even buy, but that's not in me . . . I want my music to have INTEGRITY. I've never sat in a Bentley and I'd probably never purchase one, whether I could afford it or not. I view firearms as a last resort, and I'm not the type to pull one in a small altercation. I actually THINK before I make moves, so I put alot of THOUGHT into what I write and rhyme about. Nothing is made up or glorified, everything I speak on is exactly as I see it: intelligently. I want people to know that if I speak about something I'm speaking either from personal experience or from the perspective of someone I know personally. You won't hear me talk about things I have no knowledge of". Holiday decided to take a career as an artist seriously in 2003. Working with a host of producers in Charlotte and the Triangle Area, RaQ has been on the grind to make a name for himself among a sea of Carolina artists ever since. Appearing on various mixtapes around North Carolina and Atlanta, Georgia, he now focuses on his solo efforts. "I plan to put out my own mixtape soon, titled "Unsigned Heroics", so be on the lookout for it; just me with a couple of guest appearances rhyming over whatever tracks I can find, then I'll work towards releasing a studio-quality independent album on my own label, IMC Entertainment, shortly after that. This will be a big step for me; I've gotten accolades from alot of people about my talent, but I want to really see how I do amongst the masses." Driven, focused, hungry and dedicated . . . Look for more from RaQ Holiday in the not too distant future . . .