Biography
Toxi is a former Georgian rapper from Vazisubani (a district of Tbilisi, Georgia). His real name is Jaba Jikurashvili. The origins of his stage moniker are still unknown. Toxi's tracks are also notable for using reverb effect, in fact imitated by the artist himself. His works are also notable for sampling other artists, such as Onyx or Eminem. His rapping style is a partial homage to B-Real.
His demos first appeared in 2006 - through a radio station which received these tapes, but considered them boring and refused to rotate Toxi. Somehow the tapes leaked into the web and caused much controversy. While some of the lyrics dealt with the traditional hip-hop elements, such as homeboys, drugs and "bitches", the others consciously revenged Georgian rock fans ("Fighting with rockers"), who insult local hip-hop fans.
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While the first album, "Vazisubani" (alternative title: "Fighting with rockers", 2006) dealt with the themes of crime, the second one, "Chipolino EP" told more about love and passion, reflecting the significant changes in Jaba's personal life and causing his tracks to sound less hardcore. However, the production appeared to be slightly professional and the critics have also agreed Jaba was definitely improving his style of rapping. While no further albums have followed, two more studio tracks leaked ("Bitch-rocker" and "To bitches"). The record label finally rounded up Toxi's recording career by releasing a lavish digital box-set "Enter Toxi, Exit Chipolino", including both studio albums, a bonus disc "Other Side of Toxi" (including remixes) and another disc "Non-album Singles" - essentially an EP with the recently discovered "Bitch-rocker" and "To bitches".
Jaba's hip-hop career is currently on hiatus, caused by changes in his musical interests.
Toxi also had his own squad, with only part of it participating in his recordings. These included El Moro, Soka, Pushkin, Bekusha, Doné (sounding like Twista), Shrek, Shako and Rapman. The real name of the squad is still unknown, but some state it was "Dedismtkvneli Dzmebi" (Mothaf...Brothaz).
Biography text from Last.fm, available under CC BY-SA.