Things have happened remarkably fast for PAZ. Like 500,000 downloads of his debut mixtape. Or the mish-mash celebrity admirers including Kanye West and The Black Eyed Peas.
Those things don't happen overnight for most artists, but for PAZ, the stars couldn't have aligned more perfectly. It seems like only yesterday that PAZ, 23, was just a regular college student, making a name for himself playing every rowdy, beer-soaked party that would have him. His trademark sound -- a foot-stomping mashup of hip-hop, rock, and dance beats -- evolved almost by accident.
"I used to stop and start between songs," says PAZ, "but that meant the crowd would stop too. At some point I just started blending my music, like a DJ."
From rap to acoustic, electro to dance rock, PAZ blended and blended, mashing up songs and styles with the ease of a turntablist spinning his favorite records.
And the crowds followed. Word of the crazy kid who could sing, flow and mash up melodies on the spot spread quickly, and soon PAZ was being invited to share stages with some of music's hottest acts, like Girl Talk, Far East Movement, Big Sean, and Mike Posner.
PAZ took his act online to Justin.tv, where he played a weekly "Mashup Show" -- an hour-long freestyle jam of audience requests that eventually grew to over 10,000 live viewers each performance. The show got its name from PAZ's routine of taking song requests from fans and mashing them together. Wiz Khalifa vs. Jack Johnson, Kanye West vs. Afrojack, PAZ mashed them all for the ever growing online crowds that logged on from all over the world to see him perform.
Within months, the Mashup Show eclipsed 1 million live viewers, and PAZ rode a wave of social media fame to one of the largest Facebook fanbases of any unsigned artist.
PAZ's debut mixtape "Young Broke & Fameless" -- a lo-fi collection of fan-favorite acoustic covers and originals -- was downloaded more than 500,000 times in under a year.
His highly anticipated sophomore release "Young Broke & Fameless II", featuring collaborations with Tayyib Ali, Chris Young, and Kimberly Cole, is scheduled for release February, 2012.
Learn more about PAZ at: www.facebook.com/whoispaz
