Ishmael Ali

21 year old artist, IshDARR - born Ishmael Ali - is putting Milwaukee, WI on his back & is determined to put it on the music map. Growing up, music was always a passion of Ish's but it wasn't until 10th grade, when both his teachers & classmates caught wind of his talents & encouraged him to take his passion more seriously. With this motivation behind him, he spent the rest of his high school years writing & recording, really aiming to hone in on his sound and his "voice" as an artist. Things really started to take shape for the 17 year old artist after releasing an EP titled The Better Life while a senior in high school with coverage by many major music blogs including The Source, 2DopeBoyz, Hypetrak and UPROXX, to name a few. This lead to his first taste of the stage opening up for Schoolboy Q in his hometown during the rapper's Oxymoron World Tour, which was followed up shortly after with the opportunity to open up for Ab-Soul on his These Days Tour in all Midwest markets. In early 2015, IshDARR began the campaign for his first full length mixtape titled Old Soul,Young Spirit which featured multiple stand out cuts. The success of Old Soul, Young Spirit lead to a productive year for the young MC, traveling the US and Europe performing on bigger stages & larger crowds by the show, working with A-list producers and artists, but most important to Ish; building reputation at home in Milwaukee not only as the IT kid, but as the one who put Milwaukee on the map in music. IshDARR became the first local artist ever to sell out The Rave, the leading hip-hop venue in Milwaukee. In the summer of 2016 he played the local festival "Summerfest" as an opener bringing out seven thousand plus, instantly filling local newspapers as the largest turnout for a local artist in history.