Sevan Aydinian

Sevan Aydinian (born on November 14th, 1983 in Jerusalem, Israel), also known as Apollo Poetry, is an Armenian American spoken word poet, hip hop artist, filmmaker, humanitarian, and author. He is the founder of The Traveling Poet Project. In 2009, he was named as an official Peace Ambassador of the United States.

Sevan was born in Jerusalem and raised in New Jersey. Since 2003, he is living in Arizona. He became known as a spoken word poet and hip hop musician under the stage name M.C. Apollo (and later Apollo Poetry). He was the first spoken word artist to perform at the Billboard Awards (in 2007). Apollo's major appearances include MTV's True Life, VIBE Magazine, The Wake Up Show, Source's Unsigned Hype, Showtime at the Apollo, along with performances at Madison Square Garden and America West Arena. Apollo has won the NJ Poetry Slam, NY Poetry Slam, Arizona Poetry Slam, and represented Arizona in the National Poetry Slam competition. He also documented the Brave New Voices Youth Slam.

Besides competitions, Apollo has an ACTIVE role in the community, by performing at retirement homes, homeless shelters, and other community based projects. Apollo has worked and is a supporter of Invisible Children, Youth for Human Rights, the Department Of Peace, the Alzheimer's Poetry Project, Peace on Earth Day, PETA, and other non-profits and education-based organizations.

Sevan Aydinian is currently engaged to Hasmik Guschyan and resides in Phoenix, Arizona.

Early life

Sevan Aydinian was raised in Fort Lee, NJ until he was 7. After experiencing two robberies (Sevan's father, Arakel Aydinian, owned a jewelery business), his family decided to move to a safer town, New Milford, NJ

Sevan wrote his first poem when he was 9 years old, marking the beginning of a life-long interest in poetry. At 11, he competed in the National Spelling Bee. At 13, he decided to be a professional magician, becoming the youngest act in an underground society of New York Magicians. He studied under David Blaine's circle and was doing underwater escapes at 14.

At 16, Sevan's family had to foreclose on their house and spend the rest of the year homeless. They would stay in hotel rooms when they could and shuffled between different families. During this traumatic time, Sevan struggled with high school and shortly after had to drop out just before turning into a senior. Sevan spent most of the time in New York (often sleeping on the streets), where he started to develop his hiphop persona, M.C. Apollo. Apollo's first important battle was against Immortal Technique at underground spot, CBGB. After being defeated, Apollo started writing more intensely, appearing in Metro Channel's Studio Y, where he won the battle on live television. During this time, he was in a rap group named the Poetic Prophets with Lord L (now known as J Par). They both were active in battles, often ending up versing each other in the finals. By 17, he performed on Showtime at the Apollo.

Mid-career

At 18, as a high school drop out, Apollo managed to find a job selling surround sound speakers out the back of his van. It proved to be a profitable and comfortable job until he experienced a robbery at gun-point in Newark, NJ, losing the van and the merchandise, feeling lucky just to escape alive.

Apollo decided afterwards to give up hustling and focus on music. He got his G.E.D. and then went to St. Peter's College and lived in Jersey City. He became known by winning all the battles, cyphering with Joe Buddons, and winning first place at the Interscope Records Talent Showcase. However, his career was constantly being challenged by his health. Apollo suffered from anxiety attacks, chronic headaches, and constant stomach issues. That year, he was hospitalized over a dozen times. Due to his health issues, he dropped out of school for a second time, and then went to Bergen Community College, where he dropped out yet again. He came to the conclusion that school wasn't for him, and focused more on his art.

Apollo still did poetry, but he wasn't exposed to the "slam scene" until he worked with Urban Word NYC. Apollo also performed at Madison Square Garden for the NY Knicks.

Late career

In, 2003, when he was 20 years old, Apollo's family decided to move to Arizona to start a new life. He was worried that Arizona had no major record labels, however the risk assumed proved later to be a good decision. After a couple of months of arriving, he learned AbOUT an upcoming MC Rap Battle happening during the AND1 Tour. The top 4 battle rappers would get the opportunity to battle inside of America West Arena during half time. Apollo made it to the Top 4, then he won the competition.

At that time, he met Mattlocks from hiphop station Power 98.3. Apollo built a relationship with the radio station, by appearing on MG'S Morning Madhouse, writing the show's opening song, and appearing on Friday Night Flavaz twice. Apollo also ended up battling on the JX3 show over 12 times until he was finally placed in the Hall of Fame for winning so many times. During this time, VIBE Magazine was doing an article on Phoenix hiphop, and Power 93 recommended Apollo. This, in turn, was spotted by the Rap Olympics. They signed Apollo and put him on the official Rap Olympics team. During this time, MTV was looking to do a show on up and coming rappers and came across Apollo's story. They decided to follow the rapper on his quest to the Rap Olympics and air it on MTV'S True Life. He also became the No.1 voted hip hop artist in the country in MTV2's On The Rise Contest and was the opening act on the Pussycat Dolls & Cassidy Tour, plus the Pitbull tour when it stopped at the After9Events Midnight Run. Apollo also appeared on the front cover of Press Boxx magazine and was featured in XPOZ numerous times.

At 21 years old, Apollo was offered a $350,000 deal from Beatlocker Records, making it the largest independent record deal to come out of Arizona's hiphop scene. He recorded his album at Salt Mine Studios. Apollo had DJ Shok & G-Unit producer Taurus Scott on the production side, but chose to make it a solo album. He became the forefront of the Arizona hiphop scene and attempted to connect with all the other top artists. Apollo performed with Hot Rod before he signed to G-Unit. He's also worked with Kavy, The Jokerr, CTL, Pennywise, Sol Camp, and others. Apollo's latest album was produced by Chino D of Zulu Nation.

The label was ran by Tom Curtis, who Apollo felt mis-managed the funds of this deal, after struggling to get the funding that he was promised. Apollo looked for outside resources and funding and was introduced to Ara & Nazreth Derboghossian, the owners of NAZ Enterprises & CBNC Night Club and close friends with producer Swizz Beats. There was a label meeting set up with Swizz Beats producing Apollo's first-single. Ara & Tom got involved with an unknown financial deal, when Beatlocker's lead investor pulled out with most of Apollo's record deal not paid out and Swizz Beats being owed money. The label went bankrupt and Apollo's deal ended. Consequently, in 2010, Ara & Naz were charged with over a 100 felony counts including conspiracy, fraudulent schemes, assisting in a criminal syndicate, theft by extortion, and other crimes, according to court documents.

After the deal felt through, Apollo lost his fortune, and many of his friends. He made an attempt at recovering financially by playing in the World Poker Tour, but lost in 19th place, when the event was only paying the Top 18. Apollo also later beat out over 5,600 players in the WSOP event.

Apollo then got involved in the professional world and became the Director of Marketing for Dizzler.com. Apollo joined the company when they were a startup with only a few thousand members and drove them up to millions by brokering a deal with Tagged.com. The website also had deals with celebrities like Dane Cook, Ludacris, and Willy Northpole.

He was still performing poetry and was part of the Mill's End Slam Team, which won the final Arcosanti Slam and made it to the semi-finals in the NPS Slam (before a controversial ruling that made him shift from the competitive aspect of poetry, to the healing benefits of it). Apollo then moved on to become the Vice President of the Raw Spirit Festival and moved to Sedona (story featured in the book Born To Live in Sedona). He embarked then on a spiritual path, finding the true purpose of his life struggles.

In 2007, Apollo appeared on ABC and performed at the Billboard Hiphop Awards. He then appeared on Sway & Tech Wake Up Show twice in 2008. At this time, he changed his name to Apollo Poetry, and he changed also his message, starting to speak about humanity, spirituality, peace, and education. His second appearance on the Sway & Tech show had over 100,000 views, making it the most viewed video from an indie-artist on the show.

The Traveling Poet

In 2008, Apollo started The Traveling Poet project, it's goal being to travel around the world and promote education, culture, and peace. He entered some contests to try to raise the money. He got second place in Ludacris-endorsed WeMix.com's song-writing contest. He then got second place again in the Name Your Dream Assignment contest, in which the winner received $50,000. However, with his business experience, he managed to get sponsorship from DiscMakers, LaraBar, Raw Revolution, UliMana, InklessMagazine, and a write up in Green Lifestyles Magazine, Indie Travel Podcast, & Matador Nights. He also was interviewed and performed on Arizona Channel 3 and other media outlets. Apollo continued the activities in 2009 and spoke at high schools, colleges, (including the UCSB Symposium Lecture Series & ASU), and other avenues.

He traveled all around America, living out of his van, as he shot a documentary and wrote a book. During his tour, he interviewed Matisyahu at the Harmony Festival, Alex Grey, and Andrew Zimmern from Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods.

Due to his humanitarian efforts, Apollo was named as a Poetry Ambassador in 2008 and an official Peace Ambassador of the United States in 2009.

In 2010, Apollo went back to school for the fourth time. He is now studying Journalism, Education, & Film. He is shooting his first short movie called The Poem, due to be debuted at the PVCC Film Festival. His goal is to get a Masters in Education and change the school-systems from the inside-out to include more physical, emotional, and spiritual health by including yoga and poetry classes in high schools everywhere. He is planning on continuing to travel for the rest of his life and make his project be a life-long one.