MC Router

MC Router
Background information
Birth name	Kristin Nicole Ritchie
Also known as	"Router"; Krisje; Abedah-Kristin Ritchie
Born	(1986-05-06) May 6, 1986
Origin	Fort Worth, Texas, U.S.
Genres	Nerdcore
Occupation(s)	rapper, associate producer at Game Circus, translator
Years active	2004–2009
Labels	Unsigned
Website	Archived October 27, 2009, at the Wayback Machine.

Abedah Ritchie (born 5 May 1986), is a former Nerdcore rapper, formerly Kristin Nicole Ritchie and better known by the stage name MC Router. In 2009 she worked in the Netherlands under the new stage name Krisje before leaving hip hop altogether. Ritchie later converted to Islam, changing her given name to Abedah, and became a translator. Her conversion has caused problems with her family.

Hip hop career

Ritchie, as the self-proclaimed "First Lady of Nerdcore"^[1] founded the group "1337 g33k b34t" with friend Tanner Brown (aka "T-Byte") in 2004.^[2] Although the two are still friends and occasionally collaborate musically, the group disbanded in late 2006 to leave each of them to perform as solo acts.^[3] Late 2006 also marked the birth of "Tri-forc3", a joint effort between MC Router, Beefy, and Shael Riley.^[4] After Wired Magazine published an article on the Nerdcore scene in late 2006,^[5] she wrote a letter to the magazine editors and composed a song entitled "UNwired", explaining why she felt that the Nerdcore scene was misrepresented in the article.^[6][7]

As year 2007 began, Router released another new track entitled Trekkie Pride,^[8] which is known as "The First Nerdcore Song of 2007".^[9][10] The song appeared on a Drown Radio podcast less than a week later.^[11] She has also performed with such notable Nerdcore artists like MC Frontalot, MC Lars, Beefy, YTCracker, and mc chris.

As of the end of 2007, MC Router left the nerdcore scene due to a friendly disagreement between her and her producer. T-Byte and MC Router are still friends and continue to work on their own music separately leaving T-Byte moving on to work with other Nerdcore artists and with MC Router no longer doing Nerdcore or nerd related music at all.

At the end of 2009, after doing a show in Amsterdam with Nerdcore artists at Club Panama for Glitched ^[12](w/ Beefy, MC Lars, YTCracker) Router began working on new music in the Dutch language with a new DJ from the Netherlands as well as a new stage name by the name of "Krisje". MC Router has gained considerable press among the Dutch crowds, especially for her music video ^[13] and song for Paul de Leeuw, as it was featured on one of the most popular TV news channels in the Netherlands.^[14]

In January, 2012, she appeared in the first nerdcore novella, Zombie Killa.

Conversion to Islam

Ritchie converted to Islam and changed her given name from Kristin to Abedah, which means "Worshiper of God" in Arabic, sometime shortened to "Abby". She said in an interview with Muglatte that before Islam she was a Christian but never took religion seriously. She also said that she converted to Islam because she found logic in it.^[15]

On March 3, 2014, she appeared on the Dr. Phil show with her mother, Darlene, who was concerned about her daughter's new Islamic beliefs.^[16]

Since January 2012 Ritchie has worked as a translator for Strictly Saudi.^[17]

References