?Ol? Eyez Never Die? Featuring: Dee1 and Ian Vanek (Japanther)
Punk and Rap Artists Collaborate in Celebration of Biggie, Tupac & ODB!
Friday, April 20th / One show only
Doors open from 6:30PM until 10:00PM
$15 Adv/$20 Doors
For advance tickets visit https://squareup.com/store/Airlift/
Advance Tickets in person during shows and public hours in the Music Box Village!
In keeping with New Orleans Airlift?s mission to create collaborative work across genres, modes and cultures, we?re excited to host a meeting of punk musicians, producers, rappers and singers in one unique evening of performance in the Music Box Village entitled ?Ol? Eyez Never Die?.
This project was initiated by Ian Vanek, former drummer for Japanther and currently Howardian, and inspired by a collaborative album created between Japanther and a handful of prominent Bounce artists in 2013 entitled ?Donut Shop Bounce?. It featured the work of the band employing cut-up samples, live drums, bass, piano and more, to create a unique sound with legendary Bounce artists like Cheeky Blakk, Sissy Nobby and the now-departed Nicky Da B.
In this performance, ?Ol? Eyez Never Die?, Ian returns to the Music Box to perform with special guest Dee-1 who?s viral hit ?Sallie Mae Back? made him a household name for using earnings from his music to pay off his student loans. Dee1 occupies a unique place in New Orleans, traveling frequently and appearing on television often, and his persistent questioning of society and success, often tied up with a do it yourself attitude, aligns with the more message-driven lyrics found in punk.
The task of the artists joining Airlift in crafting this performance is to re-imagine the songs of a small sampling of artists who are ever-present in the punk and rap worlds for their iconic, true-to-themselves attitudes and immeasurable talent. All of these collaborators, but especially rappers and poets, will revisit the work of Tupac, Biggie and Ol? Dirty Bastard, seeing them through a modern lens, examining familiar issues in their lyrical content while asking new questions of society and ourselves.
Nola Fam?s DJQ, Bounce producer Jay Diggy, multi-faceted singer Meschiya Lake-Härm, poet Kataalyst Alcindor, Scott Matthew Yoder (formerly of The Pharmacy), Voice Monet, Sheila Santamaria and Karen Wallace (formerly of Jean Eric), Shawn Randles and more artists will be joining us in this genre- and culture-bending event.
Additionally, the 2015 installation of the Music Box Roving Village in New Orleans? City Park featured the ?Drum Kitchen?, a musical house designed by Ian Vanek and collaborators Clayton Stephens and Rob Dowtin, that paid homage to the rap mantra of going ?back to the kitchen?, or ?wood-shedding?, to find the creative voice and draw more from the music. The house itself is a small shack comprised of ?countertops? holding different kinds of drums with all manner of pots, pans and percussive objects mounted overhead.
The Music Box Village is a unique experimental art installation of ?musical houses? - small structures that are also newly invented musical instruments. Musicians who perform in the Music Box work collaboratively with these structures and their own conventional instruments to create new sounds and reinvent the familiar.
Ol? Eyez Never Die
Friday, April 20th / One show only
Doors open from 6:30PM until 10:00PM
$15 Adv/$20 Doors
For advance tickets visit https://squareup.com/store/Airlift/
Advance Tickets in person during shows and public hours in the Music Box Village!
General Info: www.musicboxvillage.com
Our address: 4557 N. Rampart St, 70117
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NewOrleansAirlift/
Contact: info@neworleansairlift.org