After losing his father during the First Gulf War, Ardalan Afshar (September 20, 1984) emigrated with his family to Austria, settling in Vienna. There, he became infatuated with hip-hop and started writing his own rhymes under the pseudonym Nazar. Afshar launched his career in 2006 by uploading a couple of tracks to his streaming channel that quickly gained traction in Austria as well as in other German-speaking countries. Preceded by the single “Streetfighter Part 2,” Kinder des Himmels, his studio debut, arrived in 2008 and became something of an overnight sensation as the rapper won a Golden Penguin Award for Austro Star of the Year. He followed up with the albums Paradox (2009) and Fakker (2011), which climbed to Number 6 on the German charts thanks to Afshar’s appearance in the documentary Schwarzkopf. Narkose (2012) and Fakker Lifestyle (2013) fared even better in the charts, hitting Number 5 and 2 in Germany, respectively. The latter earned the Austrian MC his first Amadeus Award and paved the way for Camouflage, released in 2014 via Universal Music. Featuring a star-studded lineup, the album stayed at the top of the German Albums Chart for 8 consecutive weeks and obtained gold certification shortly after. He scored yet another Number 1 record with Irreversibel (2016) and reached Number 2 with Mosaik (2018), his seventh full-length. DNA dropped in 2020 and spawned the single “No Go,” which peaked at Number 71 on the Ö3 Austria Top 40 chart.
