Check Out Carlos Araujo’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Carlos Araujo. 

Hi Carlos, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Born in Los Angeles on December 2nd, 1983. I was raised in Tijuana MX till I was ready to start grade school then moved to San Diego at age 5. By 7th Grade, I was in and out of foster homes cause my mother went to jail and my father was wanted by the FBI for smuggling immigrants and drug distribution and fled to Mexico. That is around the time I started writing. My mother was released when I turned 13 and we were homeless. I started running the streets and I got heavy into the graffiti scene and started getting involved with the people my father worked for. I recorded my first official song at the age of 18, that’s when I got caught drug trafficking from Tijuana to San Diego and decided to start taking music seriously when released. I had created a buzz in Southern California and was performing heavy, by then I had released my first group project with friends I grew up rapping with. I had my first born in 2006 and started to straighten my life up but was still involved in drug distribution to make ends meet. Till I got into a near-fatal car accident that changed my life entirely. Started going to school when I had my second born in 2013. Since then, I have performed all over the US (LA, SF, Sacramento, Stockton, NY, PA, NJ, AZ, Las Vegas, Seattle, Reno, Lake Tahoe, Salt Lake, San Antonio, Denver, and some) toured South America (Bogota, Medellin, Santiago), Mexico and Europe. Right before I was calling it quits, I got discovered by A&R Matthew “M80” Markoff who wanted to represent me as his artist under “Holy Toledo Prod.” and got me signed to a 5-year deal with the world-famous and most respected hip hop label “FatBeats”. 

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
No, it has been a rough road once the industry converted to social media and algorithms over talent and skill. Along with everyone is a musician or entrepreneur. Image is everything, and it is unfortunate that it has overshadowed the culture cause not many will have the opportunity I have been blessed with. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My first release was as a group I put together at the age of 17 in 2001. Our demo was titled “Apes In English – The EP” which created a huge buzz in the underground scene in Southern California and released our official LP 2 years later titled “Apes In English- The Village Idiots” that became an instant classic in the Southern San Diego region and sold out in all retail locations and on hand. It landed us a lot of opening slots (before people paid or had to pay for presales) with the likes of Wu Tang Clan, Rappers Delight, etc., pretty much any major hip-hop act performing in San Diego between 03-05. That is when I went solo as “2UGLi” (too ugly) and released an EP titled “2UGLi 4 Hollywood – The Free EP” as a free digital download and hyped up for “2UGLi 4 Hollywood – Poor Quality” which was a collective of all tracks I recorded while traveling, features on other projects and fun sessions I never planned to release, which got me over a 100,000 downloads and got the attention of Babygrande Rec in 08. As I started the new LP titled “Back on Broadway” I got in a near-fatal car accident that changed everything, I got dropped from Babygrande, got picked up by Johnny23 Records, and changed album title to “Dios Perdoname (God Forgive Me)” which is titled after my single which recreated my buzz in a more rapid fashion being that it evolved from word of mouth to “Social Media” and had me performing all over the US. Being that it was a true story from my childhood where I found a gun and my best friend shot himself with it on Christmas Eve. I also released “Planetary Alignment”, Poor Quality Vol 2 & 3, an EP titled “Immunoligical Disorder”. In 2016 I discovered the label owner was robbing me, I left the label and took all my music off all digital platforms, and prepped for a new and revamped “2UGLi” under my own personal label, “UGLi Business (Ugly business)”. I released an LP & Vinyl titled “Leaving My Mark” as my final project in 2018, but when the mother of my child left me, depression got me writing again, and released an EP titled “UGLi” in 2020. I just released my new album, titled “My day Begins When Yours Ends” under “Fatbeats Records” and firmly believe this is my best work yet, and many have anticipated. I am currently working on an album with “Young Zee” from the Outsidaz entirely produced by “The Premonist”. 

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Growing up with my family in Chula Vista on Casselman St before 1996. Where I had both parents living under one roof and played with the neighborhood kids. That is when my best friend at the time, before his fatal accident introduced me to my first hip-hop cassette where he dubbed Wu Tang Clan, Cypress Hill, KRS One, etc. That tape changed my life forever. That was the beginning of a wormhole to underground Hip Hop 

Pricing:

• 500.00 for features
• 500.00 for performing, negtotiable
• 15.oo for physical album
• 250.00 for interviews

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/2ugli4hollywood
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/2UGLi
• Twitter: twitter.com/2ugli4hollywood
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/2ugli4hollywood