Tarek Funk

Tarek Funk is Syrian Palestinian multi-instrumentalist/emcee/band leader making Arabesque Afrobeat Funk Hip-Hop fusion music. Tarek Funk began his journey as an artist in 2009, and has independently toured Canada from coast to coast, performed in intimate DIY venues as well as large festivals, appeared on college radio charts with 3 LPs and 3 EPs, as well as a number of guest appearances on other artists' tracks. Tarek Funk makes liberation themed music with poetic conscious lyricism and powerful political messages. His background as a an improvisational jazz artist has compelled him towards creating Hip-Hop music with a live band element, slowly growing his sound into a unique expression that tastefully blends Arabic folk, Afrobeat, Funk, and experimental Jazz.

Growing up in Damascus, Syria, Tarek fell in love with music from an early age, obsessing over Ziad Rahbani's jazzy arrangements of classics by the legendary Lebanese singer Fairuz. Years later when his family moved to Toronto in 1998, he was reintroduced to jazz through learning to play the saxophone. That moment sparked an epic three decade journey of sound that took Tarek on independent tours from Halifax to Tofino. His most recent project pays tribute to the music of Fairuz and the Rahbani family, presented by the Tarek Funk Band, assembling into a jazzy quartet formation.