Charizma

Born Charles Hicks, the MC who would later be known as Charizma was raised in Milpitas, a small suburb north of San Jose. Influenced by golden age hip-hoppers like <a href="spotify:artist:0rnCjnMc8YqkoELqomHOcz">MC Shan</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:2gINJ8xw86xawPyGvx1bla">KRS-One</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:6futYSDVulYR2PktBjTB5W">Big Daddy Kane</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:22282KfMxDo2PMjnBc82I4">Biz Markie</a>, he began rapping in his early teens and soon competed in high school talent shows. In 1989, Hicks was introduced to the older Chris Manak, who was then going by <a href="spotify:artist:3KjYnDT3cEQ8ngiCLTCIl9">Cut Chris</a> (and later, <a href="spotify:artist:3KjYnDT3cEQ8ngiCLTCIl9">Peanut Butter Wolf</a>) and making a name for himself as one of the innovators and mainstays on the budding San Jose hip-hop scene. The two clicked instantly, and within a few years Manak dropped work with other projects to focus on Hicks, who was then calling himself Charlie C. Manak and Hicks recorded songs on four-tracks and handed them out to local radio stations and at shows. Their efforts paid off when a San Jose radio DJ heard one of their tracks and asked to manage them.

They accepted, and after a few offers, Charizma and <a href="spotify:artist:3KjYnDT3cEQ8ngiCLTCIl9">Peanut Butter Wolf</a>, as they were then known, signed to <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Hollywood+BASIC%22">Hollywood BASIC</a>, home to the likes of <a href="spotify:artist:4trFlc6c04qfpnCGvlqFCV">Organized Konfusion</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:27rwZIUK23TZjvVV7TNvsv">Raw Fusion</a>, and Lifers Group. Although Charizma and <a href="spotify:artist:3KjYnDT3cEQ8ngiCLTCIl9">Wolf</a> thought they would get full artistic control, after a year of writing more than an album's worth of songs, they realized the label had other plans for them. The duo's track "Red Light Green Light" appeared on a 1993 promotional cassette single shared with Lifers Group, but the deal fell through, and Charizma and <a href="spotify:artist:3KjYnDT3cEQ8ngiCLTCIl9">Wolf</a> left with their unreleased album Big Shots in hand. Tragically, before the recording could be shopped to other labels, Charizma was shot and killed, the victim of a botched robbery while stopped at a traffic light in East Palo Alto. <a href="spotify:artist:3KjYnDT3cEQ8ngiCLTCIl9">Peanut Butter Wolf</a> eventually refocused his musical ambition on promoting the talents of others, and in 1996 launched <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Stones+Throw+Records%22">Stones Throw Records</a> with a 12" of his and Charizma's My World Premiere. Big Shots finally saw the light of day when <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Stones+Throw%22">Stones Throw</a> issued it in 2003. Circa 1990-1993, a deeper archival package consisting of 40 tracks, was released by <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Stones+Throw%22">Stones Throw</a> in 2014. ~ Marisa Brown, Rovi