Ceza

Ceza — Biography

Bilgin Özçalkan — better known by his stage name Ceza — was born in Üsküdar, Istanbul, on 31 December 1976, though the birth was not officially registered until 1 January 1977. He took his name after rivals in rap battles shouted that "our punishment has arrived," and he also went by Fatalrhymer and Keskin Kılıç early in his career. After eight years working as an electrician, he committed himself fully to music. Following his 1995 group Uslanmaz Çocuklar Senfonisi, his outfit Nefret released Meclisi Ala-İstanbul in 2000, and he followed it with the widely noticed solo album Anahtar in 2001. A 2004 appearance at the RockIstanbul festival raised his profile, and he went on to record duets with Sezen Aksu, Candan Erçetin, Mercan Dede and Yıldız Tilbe. In 2011 he guested on American rapper Tech N9ne's album All 6's and 7's, becoming the first Turkish artist to sing in Turkish on a foreign release. He won an MTV Europe Music Award in 2007, the first Turkish artist to do so, and launched a clothing line, Evin Delisi, that same year. He has continued releasing music, including the albums Suspus in 2015 and Yatay Zeka in 2024; his sister Ayben is also a rapper.