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Genre: Hip-Hop/Rap

Torrian Ball

**All shows 21+—valid ID required**Doors: 7:00 PMShow: 7:30 PMTorrian Ballhttps://www.torrianball.com/ 

Crow Billiken ~ Ceschi Ramos

**All shows 21+—valid ID required** Doors: 6:30 PM Show: 7:00 PM Crow Billikenone had to find new methods of operating outside time. rap’s positioning as a mouth form, the acquired slickness and the dusty ridge of the bap’s boom are my native tongues. but what of the yawp’s origin? i’m from chicago. my blood line traces its way to the city of broad shoulders by way of arkansas like many other great migratory palm road riders. my grandfather would hambone and howl, he liked music played in minor pentatonic motions on acoustic instrumentation. getting your first pair of cowboy boots was a right of passage in my family, you’d go for a drive out west and come back with somn supposedly reptilian; dyed and stretched, pointy at the appropriate places, 1 inch taller. cold blooded.  we a blues people. it’s all in the hokum and the bop. my lazy eye and my drawl, my drawers and my teeth. no longer did i want to play the blues as a metaphor or an intimation of a style. the blues is not an evocation. it is breathwork and shadow play. cross colors at the crossroad crawling king snake moan. calloused on the tips of every finger and the sides of the thumbs.  i wanted to learn songs that predated the music industry and everything that means, songs that are older than recording, than amplification, songs that are older than electricity in every home. it consumed me. a stream of ideas became a mighty river. what did Black American music sound like before white American business practices began to steal / shape our rhythms? my mind itched constant.  enter crow billiken  a bad character. a tennessee hustler. student of lightskin hopkins, learned the blues from samuel james up to biddeford, maine.  the old style, skrong mojo hand, sharp dress.  acoustic country blues from the delta quadrant  hill country  memfis to tejas rhythm and lead slide and singin good for a 30 minute set wherever you need meIG & Twitter: @crowbilliken Ceschi RamosCeschi Ramos’ music was created within the worlds of underground Hip Hop, Hardcore Punk & Folk. His version of songwriting may include machine-gun-speed-raps or emotive ballads inspired by Latin American troubadours. Over the last decade he has toured North America, Europe, Asia & Australia. In 2008 he started his own independent label called Fake Four & has amassed a cult following worldwide. Although it’s difficult to describe the type of music that Ceschi makes, it is not difficult to feel the ferocious heart that is behind it all.  Twitter @ceschi IG @ceschiramos ceschi.bandcamp.com

MC Frontalot ~ Mega Ran ~ Heroes For Hire ~ Magnetic The Shaman

**All shows 21+—valid ID required** Doors: 7:00 PM Show: 7:30 PMMC FrontalotMC Frontalot (née Damian Hess) is the original mastermind of Nerdcore Hip-Hop and still its Final Boss. Front was born in San Francisco and grew up in Berkeley. He was tall and scrawny, had trouble breathing, and could not see well. A special teacher was called in to help him attain basic competence on the monkey bars, another to give him standardized tests meant for older children. Thusly, he was the most popular kid in his elementary school. Just kidding! He got pushed down a lot and called “nerd.” Did he maybe even deserve it? I mean, really – who strikes out at kickball? He spent the next twenty years or so trying to get over it. And kind of succeeded! Flash forward to 1999: the dotcom bubble is maximally inflated; nerds everywhere imagine themselves to be popular and/or hip. Damian is getting overpaid to code web pages, which leaves him free in the evenings to play with audio software. A longtime idolizer of rappers, he has been committing his own esoteric hip-hop compositions to four-track tape since high school, revealing them to nobody. But, suddenly! Multi-track desktop studios, cheap pro-grade recording hardware, skyrocketing bandwidth, semi-anonymous web publishing: these factors converge on Damian’s rap hobby like a flock of winged monkeys. He posts an MC Frontalot web page, dubbing his output “Nerdcore Hip-Hop” because his audience is composed of several Star Wars figurines who live on his desk (and also random internet people who click on his MP3s by mistake).https://frontalot.bandcamp.com/Mega RanRandom, aka Mega Ran, aka RandomBeats… Teacher, Rapper, Hero. Guinness World Record Holder. When LA Weekly said that Ran’s “fanbase and niche audiences are growing at a rate not seen since Tech N9ne,” they meant it. A former middle school teacher, Mega Ran (formerly Random) blends education, hip-hop and gaming in amazing new ways, penetrating the farthest reaches of the galaxy with his unique rhyme style and electric performances. Ran cut his teeth in the city of Philadelphia as a moonlighting emcee and producer, performing, freestyle rapping, producing and later engineering at a studio. After relocating to Phoenix, competing in the Scribble Jam emcee battle championships and taking an early exit, Ran almost quit before he was even started, when a creative lightning bolt struck, and a fire was lit. Video games, comic books and pop culture, all such huge factors in Ran’s upbringing, would begin to seep their way into his musical output, and the results were stunning. Ran’s music and story have been shared on stages across the world, on television (ABC/NBC News, ESPN, Portlandia, Tosh.O, WWE Wrestling) and on Billboard, where four of his albums have placed on the Top 200 list, including 2021’s “Live 95” debuting at #6 on the Hip-Hop Charts. His musical resume boasts collaborations with legends like Del The Funky Homosapien, MURS, Kool Keith, and Young RJ of the group Slum Village. Today, Mega Ran is no longer a teacher by title, but maintains a rigorous touring and recording schedule, traveling the world to entertain and educate through the gift of rhyme.https://megaranmusic.com/Heroes For HireMagnetic The Shaman

Call Me Karizma ~ Astrus ~ FAANGS ~ Letdown

**All events 21+ — Valid ID required for entry**CALL ME KARIZMAMorgan Parriott, known professionally as Call Me Karizma, is an American singer-songwriter and rapper from New Prague, Minnesota. His music tends to be within the hip hop and punk genres.http://www.callmekarizma.com/ASTRUShttps://open.spotify.com/artist/1CyAtnOmpHpo7OcTqkLMnRFAANGSBrimming with swagger and biting lyrics, 22-year-old pop powerhouse FAANGS has arrived on the scene with a strikingly futuristic take on pop music, finding her voice somewhere “between trap, rock star shit, and pop”.https://open.spotify.com/artist/2UlXIWBLOjskz5esa7ec2j LETDOWNhttps://instagram.com/foreveraletdown?igshid=NTlmMWMyMzg=

Homeboy Sandman ~ Deca ~ Darko ~ Torito

**All shows 21+ – valid ID required for entry**Doors: 7 PMShow: 7:30 PMHOMEBOY SANDMANHomeboy Sandman is an MC from NYChttps://homeboysandman-mmg.bandcamp.com/album/anjelitu-2DECADeca is a Hip-Hop/Rap artist from Colorado, currently based in NYC.https://deca.bandcamp.com/DARKO Darko the Super is the weirdo rap superstar alter ego of Evan Souza. Born in the bosom of suburbia in 1993, Darko the Super wrote his first song at the tender age of 5. A prolific mad genius on the beats and microphone, also the mastermind behind indie label, U Don’t Deserve This Beautiful Art. Darko has collaborated with the likes of Lil B, MC Paul Barman, Homeboy Sandman, Open Mike Eagle, and Mr. MFN eXquire. His favorite album of all time is “Hello Nasty” by the Beastie Boys. Darko has stated his biggest inspirations in life are Bill Hicks, Frank Zappa, and Andy Kaufman. Other influences on his style are E-40, Kool Keith, Del the Funky Homosapien and Ghostface Killah. As a producer, J Dilla, Madlib, and MF Doom have had the biggest impact on Darko’s production technique.https://darkothesuper.com Torito Whether in his grungy basement studio or on the shoddy stage of a local watering hole, Torito provides a deluge of multisyllabic wit, absurdist imagery, personal musing, and societal reflection. It’s a bit like observing a psychotherapy session in which the shrink foregoes the typical elevator music/Yanni/nature sounds playlist in favor of a carefully curated beat set, and the patient attempts to keep a partial grasp of reality, voices all of his thoughts in complex internal rhyme schemes, and wears a leather bull mask. After self-producing his previous two albums, 2018’s “Fabric Scraps” and 2020’s “Meat Circus”, Torito collaborated with Philly producer Small Professor for 2022’s “Soiled”, out 7/29 on U Don’t Deserve This Beautiful Art.   https://toritorhymes.bandcamp.com/

Jarren Benton ~ Oswin Benjamin ~ Nazeer Art’aud

**All events 21+ — Valid ID required for entry**Doors: 7 PMShow: 7:30 PMFour years after being voted in by fans as the People’s Choice selection for XXL’s 2014 Freshman Cover, JarrenBenton is starting over. He’s a seasoned veteran doubling down on the lyricism he made his name on, but his new music experiments with new emotion and bottles up the last few years of his life. In 2012, the Decatur emcee began making a name for himself on the outsider indie label Funk Volume, where he carved out a unique brand of ferociously lyrical, tongue-in-cheek horrorcore. At the label, his early mixtapes carried titles like Huffing Glue with Hasselhoffand Freebasing With Kevin Bacon, equal parts comedy and terror, like a goofy slasher flick come to life. Benton’s time with Funk Volume was punctuated by a debut album and a follow-up EP (My Grandma’s Basementand Slow Motion Vol. 1), national and international tours, and then, in 2016, the label’s sudden fold. Ever since, Benton has been reinventing and reintroducing himself. “People were introduced to me as the ‘Skitzo,’ guy” he says, harking back to his breakout single nearly seven years ago. “They had a certain expectation that was very outlandish, very lyrical. Lately its’ been more personal.” Benton has been a prolific mixtape artist and voracious rapper throughout his career, but his albums have been heavier and more carefully tuned. Last year he released The Mink Coat Killa, an album-length homage to the gritty New York hip-hop sound Benton grew up admiring from afar. Benton’s new music also looks ahead by nodding back, rekindling a working relationship with his longtime producer Kato—the executive producer of his new album—and throwing his styles in a blender: part lyrical attack, part journal-like reflection, still a little disturbed. “I think when people listen to an artist from Atlanta, they have certain expectations of what they’re gonna hear,” Benton says. “My shit is very left from the artists from Atlanta, but it still embodies that sound.”OSWIN BENJAMINhttps://www.instagram.com/oswinbenjaminNAZEER ART’AUDNazeer Art’aud is an independent artist from Philly who began rapping at the age of 12. His earliest vivid memory of falling in love with hip hop, is cruising through Philly in his Uncle June’s green hoopty listening to Gimme the Loot by The Notorious B.I.G. Alex Smith of WXPN described his style as “the epitome of the street stories and outre metaphors of late ‘80s to early ‘90’s hip hop, exhibiting a lyrical quality delivered in the cadence of peak Biggie Smalls but drunk watching Saturday morning cartoons.” Art’aud wants his music is to entertain audiences via dope storytelling, and in return, he just wants them to feel something while traveling on the musical journey that he takes them on. https://linktr.ee/nazeerartaud

Quelle Chris ~ Cavalier ~ Darko the Super

QUELLE CHRISWhen an artist consistently creates at the forward edge, there are no guardrails. Quelle Chris has been comfortable at the boundaries, leading Hip-Hop since he started.    Quelle’s vision extends beyond genre or format. He continued broadening his creative ambitions even beyond his own legendary four album run (BYIG, Everything’s Fine, Guns, Innocent Country 2) and worked with Chris Keys to compose part of the score for the Oscar-winning film “Judas and The Black Messiah” with director Shaka King.The new album, “DEATHFAME,” is a sonic treatment produced by Quelle himself, along with Chris Keys and Knxwledge. The record carries on like an incredible lost tape found at a flea market. It explores, unflinchingly, every moment of the trials the early 2020s has brought to all of us. Guests Navy Blue and Pink Siifu lend brilliance to the dynamic and unexpected new album coming May 13th on Mello Music Group.https://quellechris360.bandcamp.com/CAVALIERhttps://www.instagram.com/cavwins/DARKO THE SUPER Darko the Super is the weirdo rap superstar alter-ego of Evan Souza. Born in the bosom of suburbia in 1993, Darko the Super wrote his first song at the tender age of 5. A prolific mad genius on the beats and microphone, also the mastermind behind indie label, U Don’t Deserve This Beautiful Art. Darko has collaborated with the likes of Lil B, MC Paul Barman, Homeboy Sandman, Open Mike Eagle, and Mr. MFN eXquire. His favorite album of all time is “Hello Nasty” by the Beastie Boys. Darko has stated his biggest inspirations in life are Bill Hicks, Frank Zappa, and Andy Kaufman. Other influences on his style are E-40, Kool Keith, Del the Funky Homosapien and Ghostface Killah. As a producer, J Dilla, Madlib, and MF Doom have had the biggest impact on Darko’s production technique. Darko played his first live show at a college in Lancaster, PA. He cleared out the dance floor and made $47. That was the genesis of his career as a professional musician. Shortly after, he started landing gigs and performing all over Philadelphia or anywhere that would have him, and eventually connected with independent cassette label, Already Dead Tapes in Kalamazoo, MI. Later, Darko took a bite out of New York City, linking up with collaborators Steel Tipped Dove and Harvey Cliff, who became two pivotal pieces of the U Don’t Deserve This Beautiful Art stable. Harvey Cliff became to Darko what Art Director Jeff Jank would be to Stones Throw in these formative times for everyone involved in the label.https://darkothesuper.com/

Pink Navel ~ SB the Moor ~ Vastness ~ godfieri

**All shows 21+—valid ID required**Doors: ?? PMShow: ?? PMPINK NAVELPink Navel is a non binary rapper originally based out of the South Shore of MA, but has relocated to Maine to join Ruby Yacht at their headquarters. As a self proclaimed Nintendo and Disney collector, Navel’s music tends to blend the carefree cadence of cartoons with introspective lyrics on gender identity and mental health.https://pinknavel.bandcamp.com/SB the Moor SB the Moor AKA Christian McLaurin is a cali born and raised artist, weirdo, and psychonaut. Known for their enigmatic presence and inability to be pinned down, their art is a synthesis of personal experience and observation. Their projects are unbound by genre, skipping over boundaries and rules like a child does in hopscotch, and include records, zines, clothing, prose, and comics, all utilized to share thoughts, feelings and emotions. Currently a music educator for all ages, they reside in Sacramento, CA working on their Bachelor’s of Arts in Psychology. Ruby Yacht forever!  https://sbthemoor.bandcamp.com/VASTNESShttps://www.vandalvast.com/godfieriGodfieri is a producer/artist/multi-instrumentalist based out of the northeast suburbs of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Formerly known as yungworldconqueror, Godfieri has worked hard at crafting a unique blend of lofi hip hop, soul-hop, and boom bap to create a timeless feel to his sound.https://godfieri.bandcamp.com/album/space-boy 

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