$10 in advance/$12 at the door
9pm doors/9:30pm showtime
21+
Onry Ozzborn:
Michael Martinez, better known by his stage name Onry Ozzborn, is an alternative hip hop artist based in Seattle, Washington. He is a founding member of the Pacific Northwest hip hop collectiveOldominion, and is involved with several collaborative projects, such as Dark Time Sunshine withproducer Zavala,Grayskul with fellow Oldominion member JFK and bassist Rob Castro, and The Gigantics. He is currently signed to Fake Four Inc.
Wool See:
Wool See is a one-man-band with all production, instrumentation, writing, and vocals handled by IAME (Sandpeople/Oldominion/McJameson). In the span of one year, Wool See has released 4 projects (three full-lengths & one EP) as part of his #WoolSeasons set where each album represents a different season of the year.
#WoolSeasons consists of The Winter Worn EP (Winter), Homie Garden (Spring), Shed (Summer), & LifeAlert (Fall).
Dripping with a grimy, intellectual Northwest sound, Oldominion/Sandpeople cohort IAME has established himself as an inventive and prolific solo artist and one of the region’s best kept secrets. He has spent the last decade honing his skills and forging his own lane, even launching his own label in 2012 with Heaven Noise Recordings. Previous albums showcase IAME’s thoughtfulness and are soaked in clever folksy samples and soulful beats. Whether battle-rapping or performing his fleshed-out material, the Portland lyricist is well aware of the weight of words—constructing dirty knockout punch lines and in the same breath acknowledging his own human weaknesses.
Since his 2012 post-swag opus Lame$tream, IAME has taken a break from touring to work on his side projects, Wool See and McJameson. Wool See, a one-man-band in which IAME writes and performs all of the music and lyrics, was unveiled in December of 2014 with the release of the Winter Worn EP – 4 songs inspired by the holiday season, current events, and cold-world realities. McJameson, consisting of IAME and fellow Sandpeople emcee Goldini Bagwell, will be releasing their long-awaited debut album later this year on Heaven Noise Recordings.
Achievements:
IAME’s album I Am My Enemy reached #3 on the CMJ hip hop charts, behind only Mos Def and Eyedea & Abilities.
IAME has been featured on MTVu.com for the Sandpeople video “Hate Aside” and has seen regular rotation on MTV Australia for the video “Roll Call (feat. Sandpeople),” which was a collaboration with Australian producer DJ Bonez.
IAME has shared stages with such notable performers as Wu-Tang Clan, E-40, Lyrics Born, Chali 2na (Jurassic 5), Guru (Gangstarr), Living Legends, Aesop Rock, Mr. Lif, Jedi Mind Tricks, Fatlip, Boot Camp Clik, and has been consistently touring the midwest and west coast with such acts as Grayskul (Rhymesayers), Sleep (Up Above/Strange Famous), The Chicharones (Camobear), Awol One and the Shape Shifters, Boom Bap Project (Rhymesayers), Luckyiam (Living Legends), and acclaimed Australian group Bliss N Eso (Illusive Sounds).
Graves 33:
GRAVES 33 IS AN EVER EVOLVING RECORDING ARTIST FROM SEATTLE WASHINGTON. HE WAS RAISED IN A MUSICALLY ROOTED FAMILY. HIS FATHER, WORLD RENOWNED GUITARIST RANDY HANSEN, BEST KNOWN FOR HIS GUITAR WORK ON THE SOUNDTRACK OF FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA'S HIT FILM "APOCALYPSE NOW" IS PARTIALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR INTRODUCING A YOUNG 4 YEAR OLD GRAVES TO A SET OF DRUMS. GRAVES'S MOTHER, STRUGGLED TO PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE BUT WAS ALWAYS VERY SUPPORTIVE OF ALL HIS AMBITIONS. HIS FAMILY HAD TO MOVE AND AT AGE 13 (AROUND THE TIME HE STARTED LISTENING TO RAP MUSIC) HE WAS FORCED TO SACRIFICE THE COMFORTS OF A PERCUSSION FILLED GARAGE FOR THE CONFINES OF A 8'X10' BEDROOM IN WEST SEATTLE SO HE DECIDED TO SAVE FOR A SET OF TURNTABLES. GRAVES WAS A PASSIONATE SKATEBOARDER AT THAT TIME AND GREW UP WONDERING THE SEATTLE STREETS WRITING GRAFFITI AND EXPERIENCING INNER CITY CULTURE FIRST HAND. YOU COULD SAY HE FINALLY FOUND HIS PATH THE DAY HIS FRIEND KING KHAZM, FOUNDER OF SEATTLE CHAPTER OF ZULU NATION SHOWED HIM HOW TO SAMPLE AND MAKE BEATS ON AN MPC 2000. THAT WAS THE YEAR 1998. AFTER YEARS OF DABBLING AND RECORDING 4-TRACK DEMOS WITH HIS EARLIEST CREW "MIXED MEDIUMS" HE STARTED MAKING TIME FOR HIS SOLO CAREER IN MUSIC. THIS WAS AROUND 2008. A FULL DECADE FROM THE YEAR HE HAD FIRST LEARN TO PRODUCE BEATS. IN 2007 HE RELEASED AN ALBUM VIA MYSPACE AND MASS CD-R BURNINGS BY THE NAME OF "SECTION HATE" ALTHOUGH THERE WERE A HANDFUL OF SOLID TRACKS ON THIS ALBUM, GRAVES LACKED THE INDUSTRY CONNECTS AT THIS TIME TO COMPLETE A REAL MEDIA PUSH SO IT KIND OF WENT UNDER THE RADAR. THEN IN 2009 HE DROPPED HIS FIRST REAL MANUFACTURED SOLO ALBUM TITLED "THE COST OF LIVING" WHICH HE ENDED UP HANDING OUT ALL 1,000 COPIES HAND TO HAND AT SHOWS IN THE SEATTLE AREA WITHIN A YEAR. THIS ALBUM TAUGHT HIM A LOT AND ULTIMATELY SERVED AS A WAKE UP CALL TELLING HIM THAT THERE WAS STILL TONS OF HARD FOOTWORK TO BE DONE BEFORE HE COULD CLAIM HIS SPOT AMONG SEATTLE'S FINEST HIP HOP ARTISTS. IN 2010 HE GREW ROOTS WITH BLACK LAB PRODUCTIONS AND THIS IS WHERE GRAVES SAYS HIS CAREER AS A SOLO ARTIST ACTUALLY FIRST TOOK SHAPE. "IT ALL STARTED WHEN I RELEASED THE ALBUM "CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF", STATES A RELAXED GRAVES SITTING WITH HIS FEET KICKED UP ON THE COFFEE TABLE. UPON ITS RELEASE HE WENT ON HIS FIRST EVER WEST COAST TOUR. ON THE TOUR, ACID REIGN AND PROJECT BLOWED'S OWN GAJAH AND ELECTRONIC BEAT PRODUCER NATHANIEL ERAS JOINED HIM AS THE HEADLINING ACTS. HE MADE TONS OF WAVES AND THE SUPPORT STARTED SHOWING A BIT. AFTER THIS TOUR HE OPENED HIS MIND TO ELECTRONIC MUSIC AND DECIDED TO PRODUCE AND PEN THE FIRST SYSTEMS REVOLUTION ALBUM WHICH DISPLAYED A NEW AND UNEXPLORED SIDE OF GRAVES. HE ALSO WORKED ON MANY ONE OFF EP'S WITH OTHER ARTIST INCLUDING BARFLY OF CANDIES 22, TRU ID AND SARX + STAYED VERY BUSY OPENING UP ON BILLS WITH SUCH ACTS AS WU-TANG CLAN, ARTIFACTS, DAS EFX, ACID REIGN, SOLE & THE SKYRIDER BAND, MYKA9, 2MEX, CESCHI, LIVING LEGENDS, ELIGH & AMPLIVE, EXISTEREO, AWOL ONE, QWEL & MAKER, DARK TIME SUNSHINE, K-THE-I???, DIRT BAG DAN, MAC LETHAL, OPEN MIKE EAGLE, OLDOMINION CREW, AESOP ROCK, ORKO ELOHEIM, KIRBY DOMINANT, FACTOR, OPIO, ASTRONAUTALIS, J.PINDER, THADEUS DAVID, MACKLEMORE, FATAL LUCIANO, BUSDRIVER, JEL, SADISTIK, AND MANY MANY MORE. IN 2012 HE RELEASED A NEW FULL LENGTH SOLO ALBUM CALLED "BANNER FOR BOXED IN" AND OVER THE CORSE OF THE LAST FEW YEARS WENT ON TOUR WITH THE LIKES OF MYKA 9 OF FREESTYLE FELLOWSHIP, PARANOID CASTLE, CESCHI AND CHISME AND HE AT THE END OF 2013 FINISHED A US TOUR WITH GRAYSKUL OF FAKE FOUR & RHYME SAYERS ENT. HE HAS RECENTLY RELEASED MULTIPLE MUSIC VIDEOS AND RECORDING PROJECTS. THERE ARE MANY MANY ALBUMS, EPS AND MIXTAPES BEING RELEASED THAT PEOPLE MUST HEAR FEATURING GRAVES 33. HE HAS BEEN DOING EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO GET IT TO YOUR EARS. HIS INDEPENDENT JOURNEY IS NEVER ENDING. "WALK WITH ME."
Myke Bogan:
Our gifts are embedded within us at birth, it’s the day we realize what they are that’s important. For emcee Myke Bogan, that epiphany came during an unlikely time.
Born and raised in southern California’s city of Lancaster, Myke wasn’t raised in the stereotypical way a rapper is thought to be brought up. Instead of an early life surrounded by desperation and crime, Bogan was surrounded by those who saw to it that he was well mannered, well spoken, and respectful: a babysitter named Anne who was an older lady who treated Myke like her own until she passed away when he was ten, and his hard-working parents who stressed the importance of academics. Myke speaks on a memory of his mother’s spelling lessons: “She would tell me to sit in front of her with a pencil and piece of paper the say ‘I'll give you five dollars if you spell half of these words right.’ She would grab the dictionary, flip through a few pages, and choose the most difficult words for me to spell. I rarely left with any money in my pocket,” he recalls. Those vocabulary lessons would prove to pay off later on.
As a child, Myke looked up to his uncle, who was a teenager at the time. They would watch Yo! MTV Raps after school, and his uncle’s taste in music planted a seed of passion in Myke. Artists like The Fugees, Biggie, Wu Tang Clan, Nas, and Pac remained in Myke’s psyche as influences as time marched on. Taking up sports in high school, Myke earned a football scholarship to the University of South Dakota, quite the culture shock for a black kid from LA, but he loved the contrast; he learned the white kids had the same interests he did: beer, weed, and most of all, hip-hop. Although he had never written a rap verse in his life, that would soon come to an end. During a football game, a hip-hop song played over the loud speakers and the crowd went wild. Standing on the field at that moment is when Myke realized that if that particular artist could get that response, then he could do it better. Not satisfied with the recent state of hip-hop, that same night, Myke wrote his first verse from a Youtube beat, and is yet to put down the pen.
Since then, Myke has been pursuing his budding rap career, material thus far consisting of his first mixtape So Long South Dakota and the his latest Monkeys on the Beach. Between the two projects, his personal and artistic evolution reigns ever apparent. So Long chronicled his life while in college, the struggles he encountered as a student, athlete, father, and the grind of pursuing music all at the same time. Monkeys on the Beach is about leaving that chapter behind while portraying his dueling lifestyle. “Monkeys on the Beach comes from one side of my life being my vacation; the weed, the partying, the drinking, the music. That's my getaway,” he explains. “The other side of my life (my kids, the issues I go through with my baby mom, my family, my struggles, my addictions) is the crazy side, the jungle animal in me, the monkey," he continues. And therefore, Myke Bogan’s artistic and personal growth continues, chronicled in the package that is Monkeys on the Beach.
CMJ:
Christopher Michael Jensen has no alias. He lacks a fake persona. His music tackles everyday struggles, relationships, politics, and his own personal demons. His songs are at times self-assured and confrontational, and at other times vulnerable and soul searching. Through it all, however, he truly embodies the DIY philosophy and mantra of “living hip hop 24/7.” A student of the culture for more than half his life, Jensen began rapping in the year 2000 when he was just 13-years-old. Born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Chris has been an extremely active member of the highly renowned Twin Cities hip hop scene. He has shared the stage with hip hop legends and vets like Slick Rick, Cage, Joell Ortiz, 2Mex, Sadistik, Ceschi, Sapient, Kosha Dillz, and Soulcrate Music, as well as many local stars including DJ Abilities, Lizzo, Dem Atlas, Toki Wright, Kristoff Krane, Carnage The Executioner, Kill The Vultures, No Bird Sing, Guante, and Metasota. In 2015, he also toured the midwest on the Ain’t No Hold Up Tour. Music Emissions remarked that Chris is “’true-school’ hip-hop in the vein of old school acts such as A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, The Pharcyde and the likes” and that he has “got the flow…the thought-provoking—often introspective—lyrics, and obvious passion.”
Immersing himself in the art form, the Minneapolis native spent years honing his skills as an emcee, performing at talent shows and school functions and making homemade CD’s for people in his younger years. In 2009, shortly before graduating from the University of Minnesota with an English degree, Christopher Michael Jensen released a lo-fi project to the Internet as a free download called Lyrical Combustion: The Mixtape. In 2010, he released his official debut album, entitled There’s Meaning Underground, in stores and online. 2011 saw the release of The Chris Tape, Volume One, before being followed up with The Chris Tape, Volume Two in 2012. Both projects were well-received, garnering praise from critics and fans alike, and rotation from stations like The Current, Radio K, and KFAI. Shortly after, Jensen forged together with fellow emcees Panash and .dB to form a group known as EQs-Men. Their debut release – The EQs-Men EP – came out in 2013. In 2014, Chris finally released his latest solo album CM Cool J. A day after releasing it, he got the surreal opportunity to rap on Sway Calloway’s “Sway In The Morning” show on Serius XM’s Shade 45 network to a worldwide audience (something he would do again the following year).
CM Cool J is Christopher Michael Jensen’s most fully realized and focused work to date. Each of the 13 tracks on the album contain production from a different Minnesota beatsmith, with features from recent Rhymesayers signee Dem Atlas, as well as Liz Harper, Ashley Seeler, North Star Wisdom, and Lydia Liza of Bomba de Luz. In a review, Reviler.org commented that “what’s great about Chris is that with each release, he raps with a bit more confidence, and vocally he raps very conversationally, with almost a cynic twist, which definitely sets him apart,” adding that CM Cool J is “a lot more than meets the eye on the surface.” RapReviews.com said at times on the album Jensen “sounds like the Twin Cities meets The Coup,” and during other moments “is a little bit Marshall Mathers.”
Christopher Michael Jensen has also been heavily involved with several charitable endeavors, playing a benefit for the Make-A-Wish Foundation in 2011, and the following year performing in support of international organization Oxfam and their fight against the West African food crisis. 2012 also saw the beginning of “Rap For Life” – a benefit series spearheaded by Jensen and his friend Ashley Seeler that has raised thousands of dollars for many life-or-death causes including suicide prevention, chemical dependency awareness, domestic abuse awareness, mental health, and at-risk youth. Other causes Chris has been involved with include benefits for the homeless, AIDS patients, children with autism, charter schooling, the fight to end sex trafficking, LGBTQ pride, and the troops and veterans.
North Star Wisdom:
Drawing influence from the distinct styles of MF DOOM and Wu-Tang Clan to the poetic lyricism of Eyedea and Sage Francis, North Star Wisdom has found a voice in complex wordplay with personal undertones over sample-heavy boom bap style beats. Since entering the scene at 16, North Star has shared the stage with established artists in the Twin Cities Hip-Hop Community for the last three years. With an often dark and thought-provoking style of music, North Star's goal is to make songs the listener can apply to their own lives and interpret in a way that is unique to them.