Riff Raff is the stage name of the eccentric American rapper Horst Christian Simco. Born out of Houston, Texas, U.S., the rapper has made a name for himself with his crazy antics and affiliation with Diplo.
Horst Simco’s rap career began in 2005 where influenced by fellow Texan rappers Devin the Dude and Paul Wall, he would record his rapping over existing rappers’ beats. Simco would then hand them out at malls and later utilised the likes of Myspace, YouTube and WorldStarHipHop to get his name out there.
In 2009 Riff Raff appeared on the MTV reality show “From G’s to Gents” and had a MTV tattooed on his neck so he could legally go by the name MTV Riff Raff on his mixtapes. The rapper got eliminated in the second episode but was remembered for his bizarre and extravagant persona. Soon after the rapper collaborated with Dirt Nasty who contacted him after Simco rapped his phone number out in one of his songs.
After a brief stint on Soulja Boy’s label S.O.D. Money Gang Inc. in 2011, Riff Raff worked with Harry Fraud and Action Bronson and produced the song “Bird on a Wire”. The song and video generated lot of online buzz and led to Riff Raff being signed to Diplo’s Mad Decent label although he released his debut album “The Golden Alien” independently.
The rappers follow up album “Neon Icon” was released on June 24, 2014 and was his major label debut. The album received positive reviews with Rolling Stone placing it on their “27 Must-Hear Albums of 2014” and included collaborations with Mac Miller, Childish Gambino and Amber Coffman of Dirty Projectors.
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