Reen

by Marisa BrownReen, also known as MC Rene, was born Rene El Khazraje in Braunschweig, Germany, on September 11, 1976. Interested in hip-hop, he first started freestyling when he was just a teenager, issuing his first single, "Reimenergie," in 1993 on MZEE. In 1995 his debut full-length, Renevolution, came out, but following its release the MC, disregarding the occasional live appearance, pretty much stayed out of the spotlight, though in 1999 a kind of label sampler, Reneflektion, to which he contributed, hit shelves, and in 2000 an official album, Ein Album Namens Bernd, was released. This marked the end of his contract with MZEE, however, and along with the fact that he felt the label was pushing him in a direction he didn't want to go, Reen decided to strike out on his own, working as a DJ on a popular hip-hop radio show and eventually moving to Improversum, which issued his Scheiss auf Euren Hip Hop in 2002. Shortly after, now going solely by Reen, the MC started his own label, Marraca$h Music, and set to work on his next full-length, Der Letzte Marokkaner, which came out in 2005