Rizik is the artist project of Los Angeles musician and producer Hisham Dahud.

 

A self-taught multi-instrumentalist since childhood, Hisham has long been influenced by a wide range of musical styles, but put his creative ambitions on hold for a decade while working as a digital strategist music legends like Richie Hawtin, DJ Shadow and Junkie XL. Unable to ignore his own call to create, however, he hit an emotional breaking point in 2019.

 

“That was never what I was after,” he says. “I will always cherish that time but I fell into that world because, frankly, I wasn't brave enough to commit to music itself. I lived adjacent; a textbook example of a 'shadow career', but all that's changed."

 

After a decade of supporting artists, the time had come to step out of that shadow and carve his own path.

 

"As far as we know, this is the only life we have... I'd rather take a chance and fall on my face saying 'oh well' than asking 'what if' for the rest of my life."

 

Hisham adopted the name Rizik, which loosely translates to the Arabic word for "blessing", as a way to commemorate his new path forward.

 

“Rizik serves as a reminder to me, and hopefully others, to fully embrace an innate ability that makes you feel complete," he says. "This has been a cathartic endeavor and hopefully it can serve as a ray of light to anyone stuck in the shadows of their own self-doubt."