Tataee

Vlad Irimia (; born October 17, 1976), primarily known by his stage name Tataee (), is a Romanian record producer, rapper, record executive, and music manager. He is one of the founders of the influential Romanian hip hop trio B.U.G. Mafia, also having produced albums and overseeing the careers of many acclaimed Romanian hip hop artists, such as La Familia, XXL & 10 Grei, Mahsat and JerryCo. As a music producer, he is frequently credited as one of the pioneers and key figures in the architecture of the Romanian version of gangsta rap, a style of music that closely resembles its American counterpart but also includes various local influences derived from balkan music or, more recently, electronica.

Tataee began his career in music as a solo artist and he later found fame as a member of the gangsta rap group B.U.G. Mafia with Alin "Uzzi" Demeter and Dragoș "Caddilac" Vlad-Neagu, with whom he popularized the use of explicit lyrics in rap to detail the violence of street life. Their 1998 album, "De Cartier", released under Cat Music in Romania led them to become one of the country's best-selling performing artists, as well as one of the most respected Romanian hip hop groups. Later in his career, he worked with Romanian artists such as Akcent, Andreea Antonescu, Bitză, Cristina Spătar or Adriana Rusu, receiving credit for changing and improving their sound.

Following the success of B.U.G. Mafia's '' Băieţii Buni'' in 2003, Tataee focused on producing music for various other artists. He started his own record label, Legend Audio, in 2002, as he assumed his role as a record producer and music executive. In 2005, he signed Romanian hip hop artist JerryCo who released his debut single in late 2009 following a four-year work period with Tataee on his first album, "Orice E Posibil" (Everything Is Possible), released in 2010 by Legend Audio in Romania.

Early life and education

Tataee was born Vlad Irimia on October 17, 1976, in Sebeş, a city in Alba County, central Romania, southern Transylvania. His father was as a mechanical engineer on various construction sites for hydroelectric power stations in Transylvania, while his mother worked as an accountant. Irimia spent his childhood years in numerous blue-collar working colonies adjacent to the various dams his father was hired to worked on. His mother, an amateur singer, would occasionally perform publicly at friends' weddings and baptism parties, while also encouraging the young Irimia to sing. In 1981, his family relocated to Caransebeș and then to Drobeta Turnu-Severin for the ultimately failed construction project of Iron Gates III, after which, in 1990, his father moved the family to his native Bucharest, where Irimia, the oldest of three children, attended the Alexandru Ioan Cuza highschool in Titan, where he swiftly became acquainted with gang violence, while also gaining an interest in chemistry and geometry.TVR1