George Watsky

Born September 15, 1986, George Virden Watsky is a Bay Area rapper and writer. George started participating in slam poetry at age 15; as a teen, he won a dozen slams in the Bay Area and was on the team that took fourth place in the “Brave New Voices, the International Youth Poetry Slam Festival” in 2005. Watsky attended San Francisco University High School and Emerson College in Boston, where he majored in Writing and Acting for the Screen and Stage. His talents began to receive national and international acclaim in 2006 when he was the Youth Speaks Grand Poetry Champion. In 2011, he broke out as a rapper with his viral video “Pale kid raps fast,” which featured his trademark chopping style. He has released seven studio albums incorporating his personal experiences into his songs. Watsky’s debut essay collection, How to Ruin Everything (Penguin / Random House), was a New York Times best seller. Watsky has been trying to squash the stigma of spoken word poetry by blending poetry, lyrics, and music in a way that the mainstream can appreciate. In May 2020, Watsky set the Guinness World Record for the longest rap marathon to raise money for COVID relief by continuously rapping for 33 hours and 33 minutes. Watsky continues to implement spoken word into his current career as a musician with songs like “Tiny Glowing Screens Pt. 1-3,” "Cannonball," "Springtime in New York,” and “Dreams & Boxes.”