Ayben

Ayben — Biography

Ayben, born Ayben Özçalkan Ülkü on 22 September 1982 in the Üsküdar district of Istanbul, discovered rap music at a young age. Encouraged by her older brother, the rapper Ceza, to see that the genre could be written in Turkish, she began writing her own lyrics and made her first professional recording on a 1998 album by the group Nefret.

She launched her solo career with the 2005 album Sensin O, establishing herself as one of Turkey's pioneering female rap voices. She has recorded collaborative tracks with artists such as Ceza and Killa Hakan, and appeared in the 2005 documentary Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul. Her family originates from Çankırı, and she married producer Atıf Ülkü in 2011.