Yes.. at times I am all of these vocalist/beatboxer, prolific composer, musician, lyricist, poet, rapper, master collaborator ..and sometimes several at the same time. I work primarily as a songwriter, music producer and performer. The music I create is a self styled blend related to Hip-hop, Jazz, Rock and other forms of contemporary and improvised music.

I think the moment I realized as a teen that all my favorite artists were very original and seeking ways to make personal statements in music ... that was the moment my path was set. ISWHAT?! has been a series of steps along that path … I wanted to have a Hip-hop band that was adventurous as the Hip-hop I grew up on and was not a duplication of anything already being done .. and yet understood the spirit history and foundation of Hip-hop culture …

Your musical ambitions fuses the realms of hip-hop with free-jazz, integrates rock and soul, honors those who have come before while also engaging the critical terrain of our cultural, political, and social perspectives - in terms of where we are at as a society, in terms of community, our concept(s) of freedom(s), our concepts of resources, of agility and resilience, our humanity – was this an always an objective?

Yes .. again the artists that touch me the most seemed as much activists as artists ...
I really find it more difficult to write or create in a without a connection to the culture, politics or social perspectives that impact me on a personal level.
In fact when something touches me personally it almost seems as if the experience or the feeling does the creating, I am just adding detail.

How do you gage success throughout your endeavors, what are those things that you have found most challenging, either on a personal level or professionally ?

When I see that people are touched by my music that’s the moment I recognize it as personal success. It’s professional success as I’m able earn the income to pay my bills and continue to invest in personal success.

There have been so many thrilling and eye opening moments...

I think one of the greatest was the expansion of my project, A Riot Called Nina to include about 65 young people from the north-east suburbs of Paris. A Riot Called Nina celebrates and honors Nina Simone without becoming a “tribute” ... this liberates the artists involved, empowering them to make the expression of Nina Simone more personal and relevant. When you add the pure expression of young people to such an objective AND top it off with the great teachers they had working with them … BREAKTAKING!

I will never forget when I heard their version of “Ain’t Got No” ... I was really moved because the meaning of the song was doubled ... hearing these children that are far from know privilege singing such a liberating song with so much conviction. I am really grateful to have been a part of that moment in time and in the lives of these people.

I think I have fulfilled my purpose at different points in my life... I also think that a life of meaning is as full of seemingly small purposes as it is full of great purposes... There have been one on one conversations away from the stage,.. some are quiet with more meaning than a crowd of thousands. Of course concerts and shows are meaningful; I don’t get on the mic or record my voice without having something to say, but somehow it seems conviction enough that change for the better happens in a quiet place of the soul ... No matter how loud or violent a force is that pushes us to that quiet place, willful submission to become whole is found when we answer that Still Small Voice … So I think my purpose has more to do with listening, feeling, relating, touching and being touched... and less to do with rapping and beat-boxing.

What is your current mission – do you have one?

My current mission is to create music that competes with pop music through creativity and passion instead of yielding to the gimmicks rampant in mainstream urban music at the moment.

Is this your life’s work, mission, and/or both?

Yes, I can’t imagine myself living without creating some sort of sound, writing songs or poetry.. I think I will always do it in one way or another. I find that I am opening different chapters with different events in my life, changing all the time. My life’s work feels like a catalog of songs, rhymes and compositions that chronicles a different perspectives on what I felt or seen.

In terms of your projects and process, what is it that you are most excited about at the moment?

The thing that makes Cincinnati an ideal place to live and create for me is the personal investment I have here, from living here and knowing this as home. There has been tension in Cincinnati from as early as I can remember. There has been tension between black and white, between developers and community activists, between advocates of free-speech and censorship. That tension fueled a lot of my early writing. Right now, however, I feel the city I as unified as I can remember and a great place for artists to inspire each other.

What is the role of community in propelling your work forward, ahead, and into the world, the role of technology, of exchange, of passion, ultimately the role of being a social being?

It’s interesting I really enjoy the opportunity to exchange ideas with people around the world, getting and giving feedback on new projects.. even sometimes as new works develop. I also enjoy interacting with people via social networks in a similar way to how I connect with people on person.

I’m constantly dreaming of under-dog justice. I dream of beating the odds by understanding the rules of so well that I work and play beyond the rules. I dream of being loyal to the end and winning in spite of all the betrayal I see. The philosophies that have nourished me are several passed down from my parents. They were raised in the south. They didn’t believe in using so many short cuts that modern society seems to thrive on. One thing I recall my father saying, “don’t be a liar, cause if you will lie you will steal, and if you’ll steal then you’ll kill…” so the anti-short-cut to not being a liar was don’t do anything that you will find yourself having to lie about .. or as they’d also say, “always keep your nose clean”

What is your current perspective on global affairs, the concept of a global community, and our future sense of ourselves, if any?

I’m grateful for today, this moment, this hour, the to ability make choices and speak my mind. I lot of people have been, and continue to be censored, tortured and/or murdered because they don’t belong to the right groups or they won’t be quiet about something. Seeing this, I realize that perhaps humans have not moved ahead as far as our inventions may suggest. I’m not really sure about our future. This makes me even more grateful for today. It makes me even more intent to speak my mind and to strengthen my understanding so I can have a mind worth speaking.