Brainpower
| Brainpower | |
|---|---|
Brainpower rapping in 2007
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Gertjan Mulder |
| Also known as | Brainpower |
| Born |
February 5, 1975 Antwerp, Belgium |
| Origin | Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands |
| Genres | Nederhop |
| Occupation(s) | Rapper |
| Instruments | Vocals |
| Years active | 1998–present |
| Website | www.mcbrainpower.nl |
Gertjan Mulder, professionally known as Brainpower, is a bi-lingual rapper, who writes, records and performs in both the English as well as the Dutch language. He was born in Belgium and grew up in the Netherlands. He started making music in the eighties, and spent his time making a name for himself in the 1990s. Since 2001, he released six solo studio albums, one Live album CD/DVD set, a book/DVD set, a Greatest Hits Box Set, and a few other successful side projects.
Gertjan Mulder aka Brainpower is a multiplatinum artist/songwriter & producer from Amsterdam. He was born in Antwerp, Belgium as son of a progressive Dutch Reverend and a Dutch mother. He was raised in Alphen aan den Rijn in the Netherlands, where he became a fan of hip hop and rap. He started rapping in the mid eighties, imitating heroes like Run DMC, and Eric B & Rakim. He wrote his first rap song in 1988. He moved back to the place where his mother was born, Amsterdam, in the early 1990s.
He started practicing his freestyle skills in the summer of 1990 and honed his skills as a battle MC from that moment 'til the late 1990s and basically until way after he signed a record deal and produced major hit records. In the eighties stage shows were mostly 'talent shows' and school performances. He starts to gradually perform more after a first 'real' show at 'Locomotion' in Zoetermeer in 1990. Throughout the 1990s he builds a rep and basically shows up at every open mic session in the Benelux. (Today, he's still known as one of the most prolific lyricists the country of the Netherlands has ever seen.) With 10 Top 100 album/EP projects Brainpower is one of the most successful dutch MC's ever and remains a prolific bilingual lyricist (in dutch & in english) to this day. Several producers and parties offer contracts. Not feeling the way these offers are set up, Brainpower is determined to start out on his own.
In 1998, he entered the Grote Prijs van Nederland—a national talent show in music—in the categories R&B and hip hop, winning in four out of five categories, including both the grand jury prize and the public's appreciation prize. He also snatches up Best Rapper Award and his DJ, DJ TLM, the award for Best DJ. Brainpower appears on many underground projects, including 12-inches, mixtapes and Albums. In 1999, he had his first Top-40 hit together with several other Dutch-language rap artists, all featuring on the Extince track Zoete Inval ("Sweet Incursion"). In 2000, Brainpower was both seen and heard in the video clip of the song Als niet Als ("If not If"), by the renowned pop /reggae musicians of classic Dutch supergroup Doe Maar. In that same year, he had his first solo hit-song and video, Door Merg en Brain ("Through Marrow and Brain").
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