Ennis Zeneli (Endawg)
Intro -
Ennis Zeneli aka Endawg was born on January 4th, 1994 in Tirana, Albania. At age 4 he and his family were forced to moved due to civil war and spent 8 months living in Bosnia before his family immigrated to Toronto, Canada in 1998. Ennis went to Fairbank Memorial Elementary school before moving to Markham in 2002 where he attending E.T. Crowle public school. He went to Markham District High School for a year and graduated from Brother Andre Catholic High School where he attended for 3 years. Playing competitive soccer for most of his life, Ennis also played volleyball, the guitar,competitive COD, competed in cross country and was a recreational snowboarder. In 2012 he went to Ottawa to study Psychology at Carleton University and this is where he began freestyling and meeting other recording artists.
Musical Influence -
Ennis grew up listening to classic rock and heavy metal. The first ever music he listened to at the age of 9 were Eminem and 50 cent which he listened to religiously, and John Lennon + The Beatles. At the age of 13, he began to play the guitar and get into heavy metal and post hardcore rock and formed a band with a few friends. It wasn't till late in high school where him and his friends would smoke and listen to artists like; Wiz Khalifa, Big Sean and Mac Miller that he began to like rap music again. Around this time his friends would freestyle cypher for fun at parties and after being pushed into the circle and rapping, Ennis discovered the feeling of making people listen/laugh while rhyming and began writing so he could have better lines for the next party freestyles.
In May of 2012, Ennis and a few friends took a road trip to windsor where his best friend Dave played the 1997 BigL freestyle + some other rap classics in the car and Ennis fell in love with the art of emceeing and writing. With influences such as Eminem, John Lennon, Dallas Green and Bob Dylan, Ennis realized the words and writing are deeper than the music. Considering he's always had an interest in language, and his father writes for a living + speaks 5+ languages, it shouldn't come to a surprise that Ennis has the lyrical passion that he possesses.
Musical Career -
In 2012 in Ottawa, Ennis participated in his first Rap Cyphers + Rap Battles across from carleton University at the Rideau Canal where students would meet late night to smoke and rap. Here he met lifelong friend Alomar, and other artists/producers such as Trey Timeless, Viviace and 4AM. Throughout the years at Carleton he recorded a few demo songs in residence + at Tre's studio while continuing to study the rap game and master his flow.
In 2016, Ennis Released his first songs on soundcloud under the name "Endawg". The songs included a collab with local rap group "Attack the Block", a collab with childhood friend CeeZhure aka Roc Cousteau (same friend who showed him Big L and who is now producing beats), a collab with university friend Alomar along with a few freestyles, a diss track and a few other songs.
By 2018 Ennis had dropped a couple mixtapes on soundcloud (17 songs total) and was now an artist on Spotify where he dropped his first song called "voluntary Assignment" produced by elementary school friend Brandon Mints (big House artist now). His first soundcloud mixtapes (six years + the EZEP) included features from; February Blaze, Alexis, CeeZhure, Alomar, JeffyKnows + Renaissound. In 2018 Ennis also launched his Youtube channel where he dropped 2 freestyles (one in a studio and one off the top live at a karoake bar).
In 2019 Ennis was starting to make a name for himself as he had his first show at a local bar. This was the first ever Rap show in Markham Ontario and Ennis brought a lineup of Rappers and singers from around the GTA whose talent were on display. As the host, he introduced local artists on stage and showed his stage presence for a 95+ people crowd that he promoted himself and as the main event he emceed his mixtape + acapella freestyles. He also dropped his first spotify mixtape (Silent Suffering -5 songs) which accumulated 5k+ streams in its first 6 months. He also dropped 2 more youtube freestyles and his first music video "Chofta" which combined got over 5.5k views. Finally, Ennis featured on his first albums in 2019 as he appeared on 3 of February Blaze's songs.
In 2020 Ennis Hosted and Rapped at his second show (also at local bar Mains Mansion in Markham) where again he introduced more local talent during another successful night. Ennis dropped his first Studio Album "The Double Agent" (11 songs) on spotify in the summer of 2020 which included features from rappers Jayy Global, Lil E$$o, Roc Cousteau and Alomar. He also released music videos for songs "Peace Among Worlds", "Home Alone", and "Albanian Life" which have collected a combined total of 18k+ views on youtube since their releases. In the Fall of 2020 Ennis dropped another Youtube Freestyle and featured on 2 more albums (Roc Cousteaus + February Blazes).
References[edit]
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