Event Info
A Revolutionary Rapstravaganza & Backyard Dance Party
Raising funds for SPHR Queen's and the Gaza Sunbirds
8:00pm - 11:00pm Doors at: 7:30pm
10-20
Event Description
Featuring, from Rhymethink:
Lee Reed
Kay the Aquanaut
Cee Reality
Tarek Funk
And special guest Garbage Face,
Followed by dancing w/ DJ Club Anarchy
All proceeds to support local organizing against the genocide in Gaza and for a Free Palestine by SPHR Queen's and on-the-ground humanitarian work by the Gaza Sunbirds (gazasunbirds.org)
$10-$20/PWYC, No One Turned Away for Lack of Funds!
Note the backyard is not accessible via a wheelchair. Contact AKA on instagram for access needs!
About the artists:
Lee Reed is Kanadian Hip Hop's oldest and grumpiest revolutionary rap loudmouth, and a respected veteran of the nation's indie music scene.
For over 25 years he's been stomping stages and studios, spewing his fiery brand of anti-capitalist rant-hop.
Saskatoon veteran KAY THE AQUANAUT is one of Canada’s most prolific and hardworking independent HipHop artists. With a career spanning 2 decades, his catalogue is thick - with a collection of 19 releases between 1999 and present (11 solo LP’s, 2 collaborative LP’s and 6 EP’s). He was frontman for the legendary Saskatoon band Reform Party, and a member of the critically acclaimed Metropolis Now project. He has collaborated with some of underground HipHop’s most notable names (Ceschi, Sole, Factor Chandelier, Def3). His work has been repped by some of alternative HipHop’s best loved labels (Fake Four, and Fake Four sister company Circle into Square, Side Road Records, Hello L.A. and Phonographique). And he has toured extensively across Canada, Europe and South-East Asia.
In a HipHop scene crowded with style-aping copycats, the Aquanaut brings a refreshing originality and a voice and flow that is distinctly his own. Moving effortlessly between hard-hitting HipHop MC and matured singer/songwriter, the Aquanaut’s body of work has always defied easy categorization. Intelligent, innovative and captivating, his poetry is dense and begs multiple listens; weaving the personal and the introspective, with a solid progressive politics that gets the radical left fist up.
For over 15 years, Emcee/ Producer/ DJ CEE.REALITY has been rocking mics, stages, blockades, encampments and protests. One half of the infamous anarchist Hip-Hop duo TEST THEIR LOGIK, and a founding member of the RHYMETHiNK collective, CEE is a movement music veteran-known for big bumping beats, making heads nod and getting fists lifted.
Syrian Palestinian MC Multi-instrumentalist HipHop Funk Afrobeat artist Tarek Funk (aka Mother Tareka) is a manifestation of the blending of different cultures and genres of liberation music. His pen is inspired by Levantine poets like Mahmoud Darwish, Nizar Qabbani, and Khalil Jibran. His horn is a ripple in time continuing the vibrations of John Coltrane and Fela Kuti. His style and presence channels the energies Jill Scott, the wisdom of Black Thought, and the melodic touch of Yasiin Bey. He has shared stages with many internationally acclaimed artists such as Femi Kuti, Raekwon of The Wu Tang Clan, Yasiin Bey, Bahamadia, C.L. Smooth, Georgia Anne Muldrow, Lord Finnesse, A.F.R.O., R.A. The Rugged Man, Ikebe Funk, as well as Canadian talents like The Souljazz Orchestra, Shad, Kimmortal, Abdominal, Lex Leosis, Terra Lightfoot, The Vaudevillian, Haolin Munk, KC Roberts and The Sunshine Band, Canadian Winter, Kojo Easy Damptey, Persons, Emay, and Afterfunk.
He has built a sound uniquely his own, a testament to People Power, biting at the oligarchical structures of neocolonial capitalism. Along with his Rhymethink collective comrades Lee Reed, Test Their Logik, Kay The Aquanaut, and Praxis Life, he continues to push the limits of lyrical HipHop speaking uncomfortable truths few dare to. Sonically his creation is blending Arabesque melodic elements, with Afrobeat polyrhythms, heavy basslines, hard boomBap drums, huge funky horn lines, and smooth jazzy guitar licks. Mother Tareka is fierce spirit, one part radical MC, one part jazz saxophonist, one part JamesBrown/FelaKuti band leader, all parts musical enigma.
Garbageface (aka karol orzechowski) is a musician, writer, and sound installation artist based in Peterborough, Ontario. Through over a decade of projects and community-building activities, he has built a body of work that explores subjects both deeply personal and political.
Since 2009, he has put out more than a dozen releases, ranging from ambient, digital-only field recording EPs to conceptual rap LPs about Eastern European folklore. In that time, he’s also toured the U.S. and Canada numerous times, clocking over 335 shows at present.
DJ Club Anarchy is a local, Kingston-based amateur DJ who will spin an eclectic, can't-help-but-dance mix of sounds influenced by hip hop, funk, EDM, cumbia, neo-soul, African club beats and more.
*AKA has an a barrier-free entrance and barrier-free, single-stall bathroom. Please don't wear scented products or take photographs at the
AKA*
Venue
75 Queen St
Open / Operational