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 THE WORDSMYTH - Born and raised on the south side of Chicago, Malik Yusef (professionally known as "The WordSmyth") is one of the country’s premier spoken word artists. This Chicagoan has been honing is craft for nearly a decade, taking poetry to unimaginable heights. Malik got his first big break when Ted Witcher, the Director of the hit movie "Love Jones", recognized his unique style of poetry and hired Malik to coach Larenz Tate. No stranger to the small screen either, Malik Yusef has appeared on the super station WGN’s Morning News Show, ABC Worldwide News, BET’s Rap City and the CBS game show "Know Your Heritage". To top off his Television credits Malik Yusef performed "I Spit…" that aired on HBO’s "Russell Simmons presents Def Poetry". His poetry has also been featured on promotional compilations for ASCAP, Sprite, Coca-Cola, Nike and multiple underground mix tapes across the country. Maliks work has been immortalized on several albums. He was featured with Method man on "Ghetto B.I." on Channel Lives album "Armaghetto" (Flava Unit Records). His classic anthem about Chicago entitled "My City" was featured on Commons Gold album "One Day It Will All Make Sense". Carl Thomas, another fellow Chicagoan, featured Malik on "Trouble Don’t Last…" for his debut multi-platinum album "Emotional". While touring with Carl Thomas, Malik developed a relationship with jazz saxophonist Mike Phillips (Hidden Beach). This collaboration created a poetic jazz masterpiece called "This Is Not A Game", which was selected by Michael Jordan himself to be on the CD-Rom that comes with the red Jordan 17 released August 1st 2002. All these accomplishments have set the stage for his highly anticipated debut album "Malik Yusef presents The Great Chicago Fire…A Cold Day In Hell" (Zoawe/Universal) scheduled to be released January 2003. Yusef couldn’t be happier. "It’s been a long time coming," he laughs. The first single "Get Ready" features Carl Thomas and is currently one of the most requested songs on Chicago’s urban radio stations. The album includes production from Kanye West, Xtreme, DuPee’ Productions, No i.d. and Kay Fingers and features fellow Chicago artist Chantay Savage, Common, Public Announcement, Bigg Nastee’ and K. Foxx. Yusef is glad that urban poetry is coming back to the spotlight. "Spoken word is a treasured artform that mirrors ourselves, " says Malik, " people need to express themselves to see themselves." And that’s what The Wordsmyth Malik Yusef has done for all to see.
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