Azuré

B orn Justin Park in the Bay Area, California, Azuré grew up in a Korean middle-class home in the small town of Pinole. As he entered Junior High, he was introduced to the elements. After taking up and quitting Breakdancing, Azuré moved on to craft his fine-art upbringings by a graphic designing mother to be in tune with Graffiti. Continuously throughout his youth, he was mesmerized by the beauty of wall art. He stuck with casual writing until this day.
At the age of 16, a friend and then emcee, Rasikh Jawaid pushed Azuré into a freestyle circle at their high school after reading verses Azuré wrote in his leisure. After days of embarrassing attempts at being a freestyle emcee, Azuré grew close to his rhyming peers and continued to shape his style and the content of his rhyme. As the freestyle circle began doing short lunch-time battle tournaments, the rookie emcee found his niche. He and Rasikh decided to take a jab at the Bay Area battle circuit and entered tournaments from small club battles to massive competitions including a handful of Hot Import Nights alongside battle champ, Jin. Pursuing a successful battle career was becoming less and less appealing to the pair of emcees so Rasikh and Azuré decided to form a duo group, JuRasikh Park. They cut their first EP mixtape dubbed “3 Mathbooks, 2 Prom Tickets, 1 Hustle” in honor of the mixture of high school financial troubles everyone experiences. Local popularity was decent, but the two wanted to expand their network and take their early careers to the next level. After hooking up with D’Mize and R-Tistik of The Alliez, The Cable Car Stars were born. Azuré decided to take his musical career to a serious note. After enrolling into a production class at a radio station in Berkeley, he was taught by DJ Soleil on the foundations of beat construction and sound engineering. This enabled the newborn CCS crew to make a home studio and cut their first mixtape, Shine Bright under the engineering of Azuré himself. With a potential single, “Hyphy Like Me” during the height of the Hyphy Movement, the CCS crew exploded into the Myspace music scene and embarked on a series of club shows. After the rookie phase of CCS, the four emcees decided to take a different route down Underground Hip-Hop’s philosophical streets. During his first year in college at UC San Diego, Azuré was constantly cooped up in his dorm room with no studio but a sampling keyboard, a stack of 70’s soul records, and his newfound love for beat production. As CCS put together a string of 9 shows throughout the Bay Area in the spring season of ’07, Azuré juggled collegiate level schoolwork, emceeing, and beat production. The Cable Car Stars recently released LP, We Have The Signature Sound contains 4 songs produced by Azuré himself. Today, The Cable Car Stars still strive to be a soulful and deep group of musical young men, now with a solid following, schedule of upscale hip-hop concerts, and now lounging around at a professional recording studio in Oakland. Azuré continues to work in the forefront and behind the scenes.
Recently, the backpacking emcee took up turntablism to complete his rounds in the elements. He still attends UC San Diego and continues to produce, write rhymes, and doodle in his blackbook. He enjoys the warm San Diego weather, sitting around with friends watching Fresh Prince until eyelids get heavy, and singing jazz tunes while strumming a sweet guitar. The 20 year old musician indulges in collecting sneakers and vinyl records of all kinds. Homemade Korean food is always heavenly to Azuré as he shortboards down the sidewalks of San Diego while blasting Kool & The Gang through his earbuds.
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