George Watsky

George Virden Watsky (born September 15, 1986), known mononymously as Watsky, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, poet, author, and illustrator.

George Virden Watsky was born in San Francisco, California, on September 15, 1986, the son of librarian Clare E. (née Miller) and psychotherapist Paul Norman Watsky.

His maternal grandfather was Democratic politician Clement Woodnutt Miller.

He has a twin brother, Simon Jay Watsky, who is a helicopter pilot.

He has described himself as "half Jewish" on his father's side.

Watsky attended San Francisco University High School and Emerson College in Boston.

He majored in Writing and Acting for the Screen and Stage, a program he designed through the Interdisciplinary Studies Program at Emerson.

As a teen, he won around a dozen slams in the Bay Area, and was on the team that took fourth place in the national contest in 2005.

Watsky's poetry incorporates political and social themes.

His talents began to receive national and international acclaim in 2006 when he was the Youth Speaks Grand Slam Poetry Champion, and was also named Brave New Voices International Poetry Slam Champion.

Watsky started slam poetry at the age of 15.

In 2006, in the midst of a lively performance to a sold-out crowd, Watsky likened politicians' behavior to a common bar pick-up line, and won the night's top score.

He also appeared in Season Six, Episode Two of Def Poetry Jam that year, performing his poem "V for Virgin."

Reviewing a 2008 performance at Brandeis University, Sarah Bayer wrote, "Skinny, quirky George Watsky was next, with the night's most innovative piece. Watsky, a sophomore at Emerson College and a member of the grand prize-winning team from San Francisco at the National Youth Poetry Slam in 2006, adjusted the microphone to different parts of his body, imitated the sound of rewinding tape and recited binary code (a trope that caught the eye of headliner Saul Williams) in an altogether amusing performance."

He has released seven studio albums: Watsky (2009), Cardboard Castles (2013), All You Can Do (2014), x Infinity (2016), Complaint (2019), Placement (2020), and Intention (2023).

He performs live shows with a backing band called Créme Fraîche.

In 2009, he was also profiled in The Boston Globe; the Arts section reviewed his one-man show "Where the Magic Happens" favorably, and called him a "poetry-slam star."

Watsky continues to implement spoken word into his current career as a musician with songs like "Tiny Glowing Screens Pt. 1-3", "Cannonball.", “Springtime in New York” and “Dreams & Boxes”.

In 2009, Watsky produced a 15-track hip hop album titled Watsky.

The next year, he released the album Guilty Pleasures, which he made available as a free download on his website.

Produced by Procrastination (San Francisco musician Tobias Butler), Guilty Pleasures contains mashups between popular songs and those from his first album.

Watsky broke out as a rapper with his viral video "Pale kid raps fast" in 2011, which featured his trademark chopping style.

On January 17, 2011, Watsky uploaded a video entitled "Pale kid raps fast" to YouTube, in which he performed a humorous original rap with rapid delivery over the instrumental of "Break Ya Neck" by Busta Rhymes.

The video went viral, partly due to support from Reddit and Philip DeFranco (Watsky's music can be heard in the background of DeFranco's news series and SourceFed channel).

It accumulated four million views within two days, and eventually exceeded 25 million views despite later being unlisted by Watsky and the title being changed to "Watsky raps fast."

He performed a slightly modified version of the rap on The Ellen DeGeneres Show one week later.

Being able to match the speed of the song's rapping was viewed as an Internet challenge, spawning covers by fellow rappers such as Mac Lethal, and YouTube celebrities such as Hank Green and Bry.

On June 10, 2012, Watsky released a free mixtape entitled Nothing Like The First Time. The mixtape coincided with his first official tour of the same name beginning in July, featuring his touring band Créme Fraîche, with support from Dumbfoundead.

It included dates in Chicago, New York City, Boston, Northampton, Jacksonville, Atlanta, Toronto, and London.

Watsky released ''Live!

At the Troubadour'', a fully mixed concert CD of his Los Angeles show from the Nothing Like The First Time tour, in August 2012.

He also started a production company with Brad Simpson called Steel Wool Media.

In January 2013, Watsky announced he would be releasing a new album entitled Cardboard Castles on March 12, 2013.

On the same date, he announced tour dates for the Cardboard Castles tour, which included dates in many major cities in the U.S. and Canada such as Austin, New Orleans, Gainesville, Orlando, D.C., Philadelphia, Northampton, Boston, Denver, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver and New York City.

Tour dates for Europe (including the UK, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands) were released shortly after.

The first single from the album, "Strong As An Oak" was released through Steel Wool Media on January 22, 2013.

The second single from the album, "Moral of the Story" was released on February 5, 2013.

He is also known for his appearances in episodes of Epic Rap Battles of History, and as an author following the publication of How to Ruin Everything in 2016.

On May 7, 2020, Watsky set the Guinness World Record for longest rapping marathon, rapping for 33 hours 33 minutes and 19 seconds.

Also known for his slam poetry, he was featured on Season 6 of Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry.