Ali Hammad is featured by FatheR BrotheR Sun as a headliner for Oakland Drops Beats with A Thousand WordZ at Spice Monkey May 9th, 2015.

Oakland Drops Beats

On

Saturday May 9th, 2015

@

Spice Monkey

1628 Webster Street

(CLICK THIS G-MAPS LINK):

ALI HAMMAD

(Photo by Jennifer Dowdy, 2014)

Ali Hammad is a Berkeley, California native, but he spends a great deal of time in Oakland doing music. Among many of his talents, he is one of four lead singers in FRBRS aka

and will be highlighted for his writing and singing genius this Saturday May 19th, 2015. He will headline the evening portion of Oakland Drops Beats in a production of A Thousand WordZ at Spice Monkey in Downtown Oakland. He appears on stage at 9pm, and will be backed by his band FRBRS to share some of his newest songs that have not been heard live before. 

Unknown to many of his listeners and fans, he has been accepted to next falls enrollment at Boston's Berkelee College of Music for performance, so this is your chance to see what they see in him, the greatness that Oakland will miss until his return! 

Ali Hammad has a long career ahead of himself. He has leveraged his experience as first a student of Youth Radio in Downtown Oakland, and secondly an employee there to take himself further. With his initials being A.H., he's had his Ah Ha moment in music, and is writing and recording tracks with groups like the Harbingers, (along with some un-published tunes that will appear before this year is done) playing live with FatheR BrotheR Sun, while learning how to work intimately with a band of 11 players; including himself. It appears he is learning, creating, and aiming for exploring and expressing what he develops and discovers each day, month, and year. So, stay tuned, but first come out and see for yourself, after you have a listen to the tracks below.

Listen to his newest song, 'Sang'.

Listen to Red Rover (ft. Isaiah McLane). 

MORE LINKS:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alihammad510

Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/alihammadart

FatheRBrotheRSun: http://FatheRBrotheRSun.com

Website coming soon!

(Aeron Miller Photography, 2014)

sOuL from the O performs in Oakland Drops Beats with A Thousand WordZ at Spice Monkey

Performing a short set for Oakland Drops Beats

on Saturday May 9th, 2015

@

Spice Monkey

1628 Webster Street

(CLICK THIS G-MAPS LINK):

'sOuL from the O'

EVENT LINK: 

 https://www.facebook.com/events/1594147624197473/

sOuL is captivating in his stage presence and performance. When he grabs the microphone, he engages the crowd like no other. His lyrical content is clear, and his message is both thought provoking and uplifting. In a day when lyricism appears filled with metaphors that glamorize violence, misogyny, and good ole' sex and drugs, sOuL beats his own drum. The craftsmanship in his lyricism is precise, witty, profound, and delivered with an ease, that it always feels like a very intelligent free-style. He uses bass lines and melodies to groove you into submission, and then fills you with stories that one, these days, can only find in books, good magazines, documentaries, or short stories. He has a welcoming command of his words and stage presence! He lives up to his name, sOuL.

sOuL's current body of work is titled, 'The Unspoken Word':

http://s-o-u-l.bandcamp.com/album/the-unspoken-word

"Nobody gave sOuL permission to make his brand of hip-hop, and he likes it this way. Sometimes eclectic, sometimes fierce, pounding on the doors of the establishment, sOuL has been on a collision course for expanding the boundaries of contemporary music for some time now." -11525.com

Links:

Web: www.11525.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/soul11525

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/soul11525/videos

Twitter: sOuL11525

Bandcamp: http://s-o-u-l.bandcamp.com/album/the-unspoken-word

Pandora: http://www.pandora.com/soul-aka-soul-from-o

Oakland Drops Beats - Penny Harncharnvej: Visual Artist

Meet, Penny Harncharnvej

She is installing and exhibiting her newest body of work themed, Beauty and Botanicals for our downstairs show. 

Artist Statement

Penny Harncharnvej's artwork has a distinctly playful character. Birds flying under water, fish swimming through stones, faces emerging from still objects to chatter with themselves... the natural order of life is left to gleeful neglect, as if life were living itself differently, so that the viewer may organize the world from scratch. The visual cues spell out strange and delightful mysteries, mystery that does not demand resolution but delights us as we mingle with it.

Cats are a frequent subject for Penny Harncharnvej. The fondness of feline paintings revolves around the prism that they offer us between our own world. The domestication of these animals have made their actions and behavior obvious to how we understand them. However, being animals, they are still in connection with the instinctive and intuitive. This has been a mixed blessing for the feline in human culture, at one time elevating them to divine creatures (as with ancient Egypt,) and at other times debasing them as familiars of witches (as with the witch hunts of England and Colonial America.

The artwork from Penny Harncharnvej brings the viewpoint closer to the cats, furthering along the continuum between these animals and humans. Moving the lens toward the animal world allows the intuitive quality of sense to be conceived in art in much more coarse, visceral fashion. Because the cat is a domesticated animal, and a friend, their actions are transparent to us. Cats are symbolic of her feelings. Cat fanciers see their pets as being intimate friends. The closeness of cats to humans makes them a bridge between that which we understand and that which we don’t understand. 

-(http://www.pennyartgallery.com/artist_statement)

For more information about Penny Harncharnvej's art work and artistic journey, please check out her website: http://www.pennyartgallery.com

EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/1526457564269046

Oakland Drops Beats - Sarah H. Dot: Intermedia Art

Meet, Sarah H. Dot:

Intermedia Artist

Artist Statement

Sarah H. Dot is an Oakland based interdisciplinary artist and educator whose inspirations stem from majestic and humbling expressions of nature and human curiosity.  She enjoys engaging with patterns in nature, and the alchemy of manipulating materials with a unifying theme of heart and hand.  When repurposing vintage and natural materials, she enjoys the idea that inanimate objects carry the energies of where they have been in the past and the notion that objects are imbued with spiritual resonance from being loved over time. The life work of Ernst Haeckel, cyanotype photography of Anna Atkins and the texts, The Secret Life of Inanimate Objects by Lyall Watson and The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard, are some sources of creative inspiration for Sarah’s work.  

For more information about Sarah H. Dot's work and artistic journey, please check out her website: http://www.delicatematter.net

EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/1526457564269046

Oakland Drops Beats - 'The Legendary Skateboarder', Ron Allen aka MC Intelligence

Introducing, MC Intelligence aka Ron Allen

A Thousand WordZ is especially happy to announce that we have the Legendary Skateboarder, Ron Allen, aka MC Intelligence, opening the live musical portion of our show at 7:30pm. 

Ron Allen was one of the first pro-skaters of African Descent, whose "company Heeterz helped to expand hip-hop’s popularity among the skateboarding crowd by co-promoting with music labels like Hieroglyphics Imperium and Rawkus, packaging skateboards with music CDs."  ~(https://oakulture.wordpress.com/tag/ron-allen/)

EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/1526457564269046

Recently, I had the pleasure of interviewing MC Intelligence about his last tour a few months back, where he visited skate parks along his hip hop tour through Michigan, Chicago, New York, and many other smaller cities. Ron states, he is invigorated by his last trip, and is planning on touring once again, after the holiday seasons, and was very pleased with the tours turn out. He also had the pleasure of interviewing Del The Funky Homosapien along his tour, which was an amazing experience in self-awareness for him. Ron is excited to recall how Del was excited to meet him too. At this stage in Ron's career, he is remembering his impact on the skate world, and realizing that he has a seat at the legends table, and is now focusing on sharing his hip hop with the world as a tool to uplift the same youth he has inspired to skate.

MC Intelligence on stage: 

Ron Allen / MC Intelligence / Michigan Edit 2014 from HStreet Skateboards on Vimeo.

Oakland Drops Beats - DJ Willie Adams

Introducing, DJ Willie Adams

DJ Willie Adams will kick the night off with some funky WAExperiences from Doors @ 6:00pm - 7:30pm, and then help the live music transition until his next set at 11:00pm, where he'll close out the show with his amazing musicology. 

Mixes:

http://www.mixcrate.com/thewaexperience/dj_mixes

"Willie Adams aka "TheWAExperience" aka "Dj Spooky Electronica" is a musicologist and Funk Zealot who travels the world DJing and Performing for the masses spreading Love and Healing Broken Hearts. 

EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/1526457564269046

Oakland Drops Beats - Ruth G. Alden: Intermedia Visual Artist

Artist Statement:

Ruth Gilford Alden

            I am a selector of imagery.  My works are collected fragments, united into wholeness.  The Book of Ruth, in The Old Testament, conveys the story of a gleaner… Ruth finds use in what’s been discarded by others, sustaining herself and her family with what’s been left behind.  In my early teens I was introduced to collage-assemblage art; I have been saving scraps of paper-imagery ever since.  Combining seemingly disparate images allows me to outwardly express the language of my inner landscape. 

In college I studied art as therapeutic process.  I create collage for myself, to heal and release energy that otherwise would remain trapped inside. 

Some have described my work as a visual poetic language.  It is my hope that this work speaks to those who view it, and yet I have no expectation of the viewer’s interpretation.  One can be fluent only in one’s own inner language. 

Reflecting on my creative work, the unique cognitive experience of the viewer, the witness, fascinates me.  The experience provoked in the mind of the viewer expands my understanding of the pieces I have brought forth. 

Much of the imagery I select speaks to my own lingering childhood memories.  Imagery from children’s stories of fantasy and adventure remain deeply imprinted in my mind.  I am continuously captivated by tales of female heroines, following their own yellow-brick-roads to Emerald Cities filled with illusion.

It is my hope that these assembled images will communicate to viewers, evoking echoes of the world beyond the veils of everyday perception.

EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/1526457564269046

Oakland Drops Beats - Chloe Jean: Vocalist

Meet the phenomenal singer, 

Chloe Jean:

"A singer/songwriter since the age of 5, Chloe Jean finds inspiration in everyday situations and turns  them into heartfelt, relate-able lyrics. In 2010, she worked for indie label, TMG (Temple Music Group), creating techno-soul records with producer Jay Williams. A pop-R&B artist at heart,  however, Chloe branched out and the first song she ever produced on her home computer was used as the theme song for the TV pilot, Izzy Unleashed. Her work caught the eye of producer Scott Urquhart and currently they are creating undeniably catchy, relevant, and commercial hits.

Chloe Jean is also a professional model signed to Ford and JE Models.  She has had the opportunity to travel the globe and experience many diverse cultures and music.  Her modeling career has helped her expand her musical palette and is now ready to share her music with everyone on her new album titled “Freak”.

Her inspirations include: Stevie Wonder, Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, Janet Jackson, Jack Johnson, India Arie, and countless others." ~ ChloeJeanMusic.com

"Chloe's stage presence is as sweet as her voice. Both the message she shares and her delivery are uplifting and beautiful. She has recently released her newest body of work, 'Freak', an EP that shares a true sense of intimacy through stories. Her songs messages range from honest thoughts of re-awakening fading love to how the media's images of women have an effect on young girls. Chloe uses her unique perspective to explore romance, materialism, and womanhood in a vulnerably powerful and sincere way. She mixes her lyricism and vocals to create stories that are reminiscent of old Mowtown music." ~ A Thousand WordZ

Soundcloud:

New Video:

EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/1526457564269046

Links: 
Website: http://chloejeanmusic.com
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/chloe-jarvis-2
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/chloejeanmusic

Oakland Drops Beats - Headliner: sOuL from the O

Meet our headliner for Saturday December 20th at Spice Monkey in Downtown Oakland:

'sOuL from the O'

sOuL is captivating in his stage presence and performance. When he grabs the microphone, he engages the crowd like no other. His lyrical content is clear, and his message is both thought provoking and uplifting. In a day when lyricism appears filled with metaphors that glamorize violence, misogyny, and good ole' sex and drugs, sOuL beats his own drum. The craftsmanship in his lyricism is precise, witty, profound, and delivered with an ease, that it always feels like a very intelligent free-style. He uses bass lines and melodies to groove you into submission, and then fills you with stories that one, these days, can only find in books, good magazines, documentaries, or short stories. He has a welcoming command of his words and stage presence! He lives up to his name, sOuL.

sOuL's current body of work is titled, 'The Unspoken Word':

http://s-o-u-l.bandcamp.com/album/the-unspoken-word

"Nobody gave sOuL permission to make his brand of hip-hop, and he likes it this way. Sometimes eclectic, sometimes fierce, pounding on the doors of the establishment, sOuL has been on a collision course for expanding the boundaries of contemporary music for some time now." -11525.com

EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/1526457564269046

Links:

Web: www.11525.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/soul11525

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/soul11525/videos

Twitter: sOuL11525

Bandcamp: http://s-o-u-l.bandcamp.com/album/the-unspoken-word

Pandora: http://www.pandora.com/soul-aka-soul-from-o

December 20th Artists: Details Interviewz Coming!

Event Link: 

https://www.facebook.com/events/1526457564269046

Oakland Drops Beats: FatheR BrotheR Sun (FRBRS)

April 19th, 2014

@

The Spice Monkey

1628 Webster St, Oakland, CA 94612

8pm - 10:30pm

A Thousand WordZ 

Presents:

FatheR BrotheR Sun

(Funk/R and B/Rock/Soul and Hip Hop or Funk-Rock-Soul-Hop) 

Biography:

FatHeR BrotHeR Sun is a band formed out of mixed musical interests and a continued support for Atiim Chenzira's Music. This band has come out of  various incarnations; from FRENDZ (2005), to SupaFRENDZ (06'), to then splitting musical genre sounds and becoming the Funk inspired Hip Hop band Bomani Musik (08'), and the Rock inspired Soul band Dragon Spit 22, to the now consolidated FHRBHRS. Much like the lead singer, Atiim Chenzira, these projects have had a great deal of personality, and time to find the right sound.  FatHeR BrotHeR Sun (FHRBHRS) has finally arrived! With the Jimi Hendrix reminiscent guitar of Kenji Matsui, and the Funk Bass licks of Oscar Urcuyo, who have been in many band versions since 2005, to the new blood of Alpha Lewis (son of  the great Aura Lewis), who holds the drum sticks and keeps the pocket filled. 

Photography by Aeron Miller

(https://www.facebook.com/aeron.photo)

FatHeR BrotHeR Sun is a serious band. With the support vocals of Chloe Jean, Kamilah Shuaibe, and Ali Hammad, they are set. However, the word is, they are seeking a full time keys player, and a horn section, so stay tuned, for this band is still evolving, and ready to blow your socks off. 

Links:

@FRBRSun
Facebook/FatheRBrotheRSun

"This event is part of the larger Oakland Drops Beats music crawl in downtown Oakland.  The first ODB event is happening on Saturday, April 19th and includes 10 venues, over 20 Oakland-based acts, 1 outdoor stage, and lots of community engagement.  

FREE. All day. All ages.

Go to www.oaklanddropsbeats.com for more information on the event."

Oakland Drops Beats: JahniahOmi (Spoken Word/ Singer/ Songwriter)

April 19th, 2014

@

The Spice Monkey

1628 Webster St, Oakland, CA 94612

7:30pm - 10:30pm

A Thousand WordZ 

Presents:

JahniahOmi, Rasta Style Flower-child from the Bay.

(Spoken Word Artist, Musician) 

Biography:

Jahniah Omi Bahari: spoken-word artist, musician, singer/songwriter, dancer, photographer. The Jackie of all trades, Rasta style Flower-child born in B-town raised in Oak-town. Blessed with the Lords gift of music and it lives my soul forever. Art and Music has always been in my family's home and will always sustains my inner being.  My father the late and great Saa'lyd Bahari was a musician/artist and my beautiful mother Indirah is an artist/dancer; they told me to always have a creative spirit and to express my self. As a youth I listen to mostly Oldies/Soul and just couldn't keep it out my reigns.

After a course of years of moving around I felt like I was losing my true self, so coming back to my town was the best way for my music and Life in general. I love Oakland and my people; we are faithful people and share a deep struggle. My dream is to share our struggle and strength to the world giving Jah all the thanks and praises always. You all have prepared and elevated Me, and the time to shine and show you Me, JahniahOmi, Blessed to Love and Blessed to be. Love conquer all.

Please find me on:

https://soundcloud.com/omi-bahari

https://www.facebook.com/omi.bahari

https://twitter.com/boogaboo20

http://boogaboo20.tumblr.com/ 

"This event is part of the larger Oakland Drops Beats music crawl in downtown Oakland.  The first ODB event is happening on Saturday, April 19th and includes 10 venues, over 20 Oakland-based acts, 1 outdoor stage, and lots of community engagement.  

FREE. All day. All ages.

Go to www.oaklanddropsbeats.com for more information on the event."

Oakland Drops Beats: Tabu (Spoken Word)

April 19th, 2014

@

The Spice Monkey

1628 Webster St, Oakland, CA 94612

7:30pm - 10:30pm

A Thousand WordZ 

and

Presents:

TABU

Tabu aka Ayana to most, is a butterfly ready to emerge from her chrysalis. A native of Oakland,CA and self taught artist/model currently resides in the Bay. She's been classically trained in dance, writes poetry,paints, draws, and does photography in her quiet little chrysalis for years and now this butterfly is ready to spread her wings and share her talents with the world. She is inspired by the things God has created around her, Blythe dolls, love and life. 

This eclectic, vintage, hip hop, boho rock-chic artist does whatever she puts her mind to, her motto "for nothing is impossible with God."

You can check her out here:

http://instagram.com/ayanamaia

https://www.facebook.com/ayana.boykin.9

About Event:

"This event is part of the larger Oakland Drops Beats music crawl in downtown Oakland.  The first ODB event is happening on Saturday, April 19th and includes 10 venues, over 20 Oakland-based acts, 1 outdoor stage, and lots of community engagement.  

FREE. All day. All ages.

Go to www.oaklanddropsbeats.com for more information on the event."