Voices of America: Azad Right, Iranian-American Hip-Hop Artist

Описание: My name is Azad Naficy, I go by the name Azad Right. I'm from Los Angeles and I'm a song writer, producer, artist.

Azad is actually my real first name. It means freedom in Farsi and it's something my parents didn't have.

My father Majid Naficy is a well known poet from the Iranian community. He's also a political activist. Both my parents were exiled before the revolution. They traveled to France, to Turkey, and then finally ended up here.

"Right." I always like to write. I didn't like the way w-r-i-t-e looked. One day we were just sitting and, just switch it to r-i-g-h-t. Your music is positive. It looks better.

I just graduated last year, now I rap.

My father definitely has a big influence on my life. I wouldn't necessarily say that he is the reason that I do hip-hop. But definitely because of him, I've been very interested in reading and writing from a young age.

I started writing my own music, my own raps, to be specific, in ninth grade. So I was 13 years old.

Some of the topics I talk about in my music -- family issues, things that are going on in my current life, relationship problems.

You know, I've seen a lot of comments on the YouTube videos and on the blog posts, "Yo, this kid, when I first saw him, his image on the site -- I didn't expect him to rap."

Tons of people have come up to me and been very proud that I've been able to break that barrier down.

Being on stage is the best part about this. Being able to see these kids and these people's reactions to your music, then you see people like "wow, like this is really really good, I can relate to this," that's what makes me tingle.