Ryszard "Peja" Andrzejewski (, born 17 September 1976 in

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

) is a Polish

rap music Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

ian,

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

and producer. He is best known as the frontman of the Polish rap group

Slums Attack Slums Attack is a Polish street rap, rap and hip-hop group, founded in 1993 in Poznań by Peja Peja or Peć, ), is the fifth most populous city in Kosovo and serves as the seat of the Peja Municipality and the District of Peja. It is locat ...

. Peja was the recipient of the

Fryderyk The Fryderyk is the annual award in Polish music. Its name refers to the original Polish spelling variant of Polish composer Frédéric Chopin's first name. Its status in the Polish public can be compared to the US Grammy and British BRIT Awar ...

prize in 2002. In 2001 he played a role in the documentary movie "Blokersi". He has been featured in

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

and

The Source The Source may refer to: Film and television * ''The Source'' (1918 film), 1918 American drama directed by George Melford * ''The Source'' (1999 film), a 1999 documentary film about the Beat generation * ''The Source'' (2002 film), a 2002 scienc ...

. The Slums Attack broke up in 2016. Peja has collaborated with such artists as

Onyx Onyx is a typically black-and-white banded variety of agate, a silicate mineral. The bands can also be monochromatic with alternating light and dark bands. ''Sardonyx'' is a variety with red to brown bands alternated with black or white bands. ...

Jeru the Damaja Kendrick Jeru Davis (born February 14, 1971), known as Jeru the Damaja (/'jeiru: ðə ˈdæmɪʤə ''JAY''-roo thuh ''DAM''- ''ih''-juh), is an American rapper and record producer. He is known for his 1993 single " Come Clean" from his debut al ...

Masta Ace Duval Clear (born December 4, 1966), better known by his stage name Masta Ace, is an American rapper and record producer from New York City. A lead member of Mr. Magic's hip hop collective Juice Crew, he is best known for his guest appearance alo ...

, AZ,

Ice-T Tracy Lauren Marrow (born February 16, 1958), known professionally as Ice-T (or Ice T), is an American rapper and actor. He is active in both hip hop music, hip hop and heavy metal music, heavy metal. Ice-T began his career as an underground r ...

and

Sweet Noise Sweet Noise is a Polish alternative metal band. The group was formed in 1990 in Swarzędz. They have released eight CDs (included two international versions) and appeared three times at the Przystanek Woodstock festival with the special show in ...

Personal life

Andrzejewski was born on 17 September 1976 in the Jeżyce district of Poznań. He was raised in a

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

family, his mother died when he was 12 years old. As described by Peja on the track "Doskonały Przykład", his father, Waldemar, was a life-long

alcoholic Alcoholism is the continued drinking of alcohol despite it causing problems. Some definitions require evidence of dependence and withdrawal. Problematic use of alcohol has been mentioned in the earliest historical records. The World Hea ...

and violent abuser who invited other addicts to party in their home. Peja's early life was marked by violence, as well as interventions by the police and social care. His father died in 1996 of a tumour. Inspired by the

1988 Seoul Olympics The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and officially branded as Seoul 1988 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. 159 nations were repres ...

, Ryszard took up

judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...

training and trained as part of the

Olimpia Poznań Olimpia Poznań is a Polish multi-sport club from Poznań. It has athletics, archery, basketball, boxing, kendo, judo, swimming, tennis, and triathlon sections. The sections are formally independent of each other, sharing the history and nam ...

club in the years 1988–1995. Ryszard became a Polish Youth Judo Champion two times, in 1991 and 1992. In 2005, he received a silver badge from the

Polish Judo Association Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

for his contribution to the sport in the country. Since he was 15 years of age, Andrzejewski has been an ardent supporter of

Lech Poznań Kolejowy Klub Sportowy Lech Poznań S.A., commonly referred to as KKS Lech Poznań or simply Lech Poznań (), is a Polish professional football club based in Poznań and currently competing in the Ekstraklasa, the nation's highest division. ...

, becoming active in the hooligan scene in the 90s.

Discography

Studio albums

Music videos

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peja 1976 births Gangsta rappers Living people Musicians from Poznań Polish male rappers