Haqq Shabazz has his life in order: faith, family and work. His faith is Islam, yes, he prays five times a day. He's been married 35 years to wife Beverly. They have one child, Brea, an honor student at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, an aspiring dancer/singer who hopes to be another light of creativity in the Bay.
Her father is a music producer who has worked with the late Tupac Shakur, East Oakland's Too Short and jazz artist JLP. Born in and raised in Oakland, he graduated from Oakland Tech and attended San Francisco State University. He comes from a musical background. His mother, Constance Hewitt, is half sister of Mary Wilson of The Supremes who toured with the Motown Review.
As a child, he spent time behind scenes accompanying his mother on road trips and tours. He learned a lot about the music business through these experiences. Working with Tupac allowed Shabazz to connect with Inner Scope Records in the early 90's. He started his own label Ham-A-Lot Records and later Lock Records which produced compilations generating sales across the nation.
Currently Shabazz is the CEO and founder of Village Life Entertainment5. Village Life Entertainment 5 LLC is a Mind Seed Label which has Sony distribution. VLE5 currently has four main artist and signing more. Some of the artist are Jazz JLP, Rap J-Loc and R&B Dancer, Brea Nicole Shabazz.
With several prior successful business ventures, he is looking forward to acquiring Mindseed Records, owned by his mentors, Edwin and Joann Anderson. Mindseed has the multi-media equipment necessary for the Digital Age. When he first met Ed and Joann, he listened to Ed for three and a half hours, getting the full scope on the record business. Ed is known for his loquaciousness , but he is also known as a Renaissance Man well versed on a variety of subjects. His studio is top of the line multimedia, video and audio recording. Acquiring Mindseed will take Shabazz to the next level.
Shabazz's other dream is to unify California rappers and entertainers, teaching them how to network rather than ego trip, how to be independent of the mega record companies who exploit them royally. He wants to give them tips on how to upgrade their business acumen to take full advantage of the new technology so they can transcend selling from the trunk of their cars.
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