East3

In this episode we interview Ken Nishimura aka East3. He is a lifelong writer, hip hop practitioner, designer, multimedia artist, entrepreneur, accountant, and educator. Ken lives in Hawaii and represents the Rock Force Crew.
 
We chat about his inspiring community work with incarcerated youth, the lessons he learned from his mentor Phase2, healing from trauma, why you should not use the G-word, and the evolution of writing as an art form.
 
You can find East3 here: 
www.keepitflowingmedia.com 
www.east-3.com 
www.instagram.com/eastthree 

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Episode Transcript

Unknown (00:05):
Welcome to Souls of hip hop, a podcast for hip hop heads
that aims to bring inspiringpeople together to share their
wisdom, passion, and uniquestories.
My name is Candy,and I'm DJ Razor Cut
And together we are Soulidarity,connecting souls organically.

(00:34):
What's up fam? Thanks for tuningin. On today's show we welcome
Ken Nishimura, aka East3,East3 is a lifelong writer, hip
hop practitioner, designer,multimedia artist, entrepreneur,
accountant and educator. Herepresents Rock Force Crew and
is currently living in Hawaii.
I live on Oahu, it's the mainisland with the state capitol.

(00:58):
How did you get the name East3?
Okay, good question. So my firstname was off of what I was doing
a lot at the time. So my firstname was break 38. And I was
breaking a lot back then. Andthen it didn't really sit with
me, because I was like, What isthe connection here? And at that
time, I didn't see a lot ofAsians in hip hop, especially

(01:21):
like in the later 80s, that didnot existed basically, in
respect of who's being put inthe limelight, right. And that
we practice it as well. Soeastern hemisphere, is where all
the Asians are from. So I wanteda name that represented my
culture. That's where the eastcame in. And then in the mid

(01:42):
80s, my homie in the same crew,he passed away, and his name was
Tria three. So I just thought itwas appropriate, because my last
letter is T. And I want it totake his number. But that
evolved into more of an idealthat three represents balance,
mind, body and soul balance. Andthat translates in the letter

(02:06):
structure too, because if youtaking the E, which could be a
half, eight, and you take athree, which is a half eight,
when you do pieces that balancesout very well. And knowing that
all came into effect,You volunteer a lot of your time
for your community. Can you tellus about the work you do?
My community outreach isbasically by myself. Well,

(02:29):
before the pandemic, I've beengoing into youth incarcerated
schools and just kind of doingthat education with them,
because that's the mostimmediate for me, and then I'm
building all of my data fromthat, to be able to do outreach,
because I figure if I caneducate them and motivate them,
then every other level is acakewalk. Getting a lot of good

(02:50):
data from that. I'm justbuilding all of the things that
I need to do a bigger picturehere.
Was there anything anyexperience where you're like,
these are the groups that I needto work on first?
Well, I think I've donedifferent classes, you know,
like I've done from the ASCprograms in the Department of
Education. I've also doneworkshops where they don't need

(03:14):
that type of assistance, andthey're just general population.
So I've covered all the, youknow, different gamuts of it.
But I think the end result isthat it's really important to
really reach the youth that arein there, because it's their
last chance, if they continueon, they go straight into state
prison or federal prison. Sothis is the last chance for

(03:35):
them. And, you know, just beingable to go in there and say,
Okay, today we're going to dopieces have styles, different
kinds of calligraphy, we'regoing to set up a mural with,
you know, you're getting a paintwith aerosol, they're like, wow,
you know, they actuallyconnecting to it, and it's
helping them through their otherareas of academic learning to,

(03:56):
because they're more inspired.
They're actually getting into aprogram with me, which I'm
volunteering that time. Sothey're actually getting
involved with me where they'reconnecting through something
they're interested in, right?
It's just basically hip hoppedagogy. That's where I find
like, my use most valued,because I do the community
murals. I do different types ofother things that I volunteer my

(04:20):
time in, but this part of what Ido is the most important, I
think, because there's a lot ofHawaiians, and there are a lot
of different Polynesianethnicities. And these are the
underprivileged here. And sothey're all being incarcerated
for things that you know, justmistakes. So they just need to
understand that it doesn'tmatter if you may, because I

(04:42):
made tons of mistakes. I shouldhave been up in there when I was
a youth too. So knowing thatthey just need to have an
outlet. I'm teaching them notonly the art but it's attached
to entrepreneurship, justbuilding models for a bigger
picture like how to get theminto a program after they Get
out immediately into a program,having that this is kind of a

(05:03):
new is a new model, you have tobe able to create that data to
just the file. Now you guysknow, the rest, you know,
how did the authorities reactwhen you first approached them?
Did they have any concerns?
Writing sometimes has thisperception of vandalism, was
there any hesitation on the partof the authorities?

(05:25):
Not at all, they, they invitedme there knowing what I do. And
they also know that I'vepartnered with so many different
other organizations leading tothis. So like, I'm a part of two
youth substance abuse preventionorganizations, one of which is
run by the attorney general'soffice, and the Department of
Health. So basically, what I'vedone is I've built my reputation

(05:50):
through there. So I came highlyrecommended. Slowly, by slowly,
I'm entering the world of, youknow, the influencers, and I'm
able to communicate the artform, and why the terminology is
important to change, becausethen that creates a different
type of dialogue, different typeof attitude, different type of

(06:10):
feeling towards art form, andyou can separate the people who
are just trying to get up perse, from the artists who
actually trying to say somethingthrough their artwork, and
whether it's just selfexpression to build self
confidence, or actually having amessage far beyond that, because
I believe that writing takes youthrough an evolution. So, you

(06:34):
know, at first you're trying tofind yourself and that self
pride, like yeah, I'm adissipated this, you know, it
moves on to like having othervoices within it. So where I'm
at is so far away, and so farremoved from the ego, that I'm
just trying to show them thatthey don't have to do those
steps, because a lot of a lot ofwriters feel like got to get on

(06:56):
the street and prove yourself.
Okay, well, what element of hiphop still lives in the 70s? I
don't see B was robbing peopleto buy gear, because that's what
they used to do. You know, mostwriters out there, I can paint.
See that? You know, like, ifwe're gonna live by those outlaw
codes, well, then everybody DJsbetter get out there and start
stealing records. You know,like, why are we the ones as

(07:18):
writers that still have to havethe stigma of going out there
and doing something they couldput themselves in jail, and the
penalties are real. Now, thereare a lot more real people are
going in, like the way that thecollecting data on you is they
get enough so that they cancharge you at a felony, they
just let you run until you get afelony. And then boom, that's

(07:39):
already automatic jail time,teaching the youth this process
of like, eight doesn't matterwhat people are doing in the
States, we live on an island,our like social culture, and
laws are of aloha first, andthen hip hop. Second, is because
we can't let hip hop in first,because it comes in with a lot

(08:00):
of things that are not about thecity. You know, we have to be
respectful to our communityfirst, like back when I was
getting up the 80s here was, youknow, like, no homes, no
churches, there was rules tothis, like maybe this property,
that property, okay, in a stateof feather, whatever, but not
homes and stuff when people aretagging on churches tagging on

(08:24):
mortuaries, you know, it's justabout the positioning of where
the tag will be. There's no lawabout respect. So that's the
kind of the balance that I'mtrying to bring in the community
to make them understand, like,at this point in a stage, like,
what if the B girl or the B boywas just doing the basic, you
know, windmill to back spin,that's the same thing as going

(08:45):
out there and hitting tags,where's the evolution of the
mind towards the art form aswell, that's the kind of like
thing that I'm educating all theyouth in there. And there's a
lot of writers in there, believeit or not, because I see things
that I don't even have to, likeimprove on. So it's, it's cool
in that way that I can actuallytouch them and say, I'm not the
authority of writing. But I cansay I release you from this

(09:09):
obligation of having to get upto prove yourself instead, if
you want to do fly pieces andbirders Go ahead. Just start
there. I'm not condoning whatyou're going to do in life. But
I'm saying if you're out theredoing that, versus just getting
up and tagging all over theplace. Like that's more towards
what the rules of the islandart, which is to respect

(09:30):
everyone and respect yourneighbors and community, you
know, different rules fordifferent places. I know this,
but for here, that's what I'mtrying to really focus on.
Wow, I have to take a momentbecause that was really
powerful. I don't think thatI've ever heard a writer speak
like that, straight up.
I've been mentored by Phase2since I was 16. Since 86,

(09:53):
there's a difference. It cleardifference because I've observed
a lot of writers in my time. Hewas always on Critical thinking,
and I'm just a reflection ofthat.
Something that I foundinteresting about your mentor
Phase2 was his advocacy of notusing the G word and replacing
it with the term writing, theglobal breaking community had a
similar challenge. They cametogether to educate mass media

(10:15):
to use the term breaking,instead of breakdancing. This
term was also created outside ofthe culture. How important is
terminology to you?
The culture cannot be labeled orrewritten by media or any type
of platform, other than thecultures. And that's what hip

(10:36):
hop advocates have done for thenets. Right? Interesting enough.
If you look at the history ofwriting, it was not called what
we call the G word at all. Butyet, in hip hop, we still have
the issue of one thing beingokay to advocate for dads. But
excuses when it comes to gradingthe most common excuse is, Oh,

(10:59):
well writing so common. Okay,well, so his master ceremony
switched into emcee right, andthe DJ was around before Kool
Herc and everything to discodays, right. So like, what are
we really talking about whenyou're saying writing is too
common? It's an excuse, becauseif writing was advocated for the

(11:19):
whole community, then we wouldhave a different viewpoint from
the media pushing. Okay, that'san inappropriate language
because the G word is attachedto a penal code, that penal code
is enforced by law enforcementthat was needed to call the art
form of crime in the judicionalsystem. So what we're dealing

(11:41):
with right now is a whole bunchof youth and elders that are
calling it something that wasn'teven labeled by us. So in that
respect, why are we still doingthat? So there's our stance,
Polsky and my stance isbasically to like, educate and
share where there's an open andmore receiving platform, we

(12:03):
don't try to push it anymore,like how we used to. But in the
end, we're looking in forms ofwriting books, to right the
wrongs to that platform, we'regoing to speak, he's writing his
I'm writing minds, you know,that's part of what we're doing
in this COVID thing, just makingsure that everything that we
learned from phase is going tobe documented to books, because

(12:26):
there's enough authors that arenot from the culture that
observed the culture from thirdparty, and has never even gone
to Bronx River, never evenwalked the path. there even took
the six of the four of town toeven feel it. And they're
writing about it. So we're,we're coming in, and we're going
insane. Well, we did that wedone that we've been mentored

(12:48):
here, and this is what ourviewpoints are. So we can start
to unravel it from the inside.
Because a lot of people arelike, well, this book didn't
say, well, this book wasn't evenwritten by culturalist, we have
to take that responsibility. SoWhat would you say was the
biggest lesson that you learnedfrom Phase2?
Oh, that's a good question. Sowhen I was 16, he released me

(13:10):
from the obligation, he said,you don't have to take what we
did in the 70s. We got up we didit, we had a voice. Your
reasoning is similar in yourdemographic, but he's like,
focus on doing fly burners,focus on the art form, if you
love it, if you love to do ifyou just love to get up, you
don't love the art form, there'san art form. And then there's

(13:34):
getting up. And people have beengetting up from the beginning of
time, whether it was like KilroyWas Here, or whatever. So the
only thing that happened wastechnology, you got a bigger
spray can with the biggernozzle, and you can make bigger
noise with that. But the purposeand the reasoning, so he taught
me, instead of being known to bethe most up in your community,

(13:57):
be known for the guy who focuseson the letter styles, and how to
really get taken to anotherlevel to eventually move out of
doing letter forms. Why does heeven have to be letters? You
know, that's what I'm evolvinginto is more of symbolism and to
look at the piece as a piece ofart. And to let go that it has

(14:20):
to have an attachment toletters, it could be about
symbols, it could be aboutexpression feeling, you know,
when you're looking at it, howdoes it make you feel versus
like, I don't see no E, I don'tsee no A, no S, no T, you know,
that's basically the mostimportant thing he taught me.
Because after that, I reallystopped doing tags all over the

(14:41):
place. And I really dove intofocusing on the culture and
understanding what the art formis. Having him cracking the whip
helped me a lot to telling methat the art form shouldn't make
you feel like you're better thansomeone else. Because in hip
hop, there's an issue that Inthe past, it should, it was

(15:01):
okay. Because you know, I wantto be king, I want to be the
best. And it's like, okay, as itevolves, your mind has to
evolve, and the culture has togrow. And it has to educate
itself that it isn't about beingthe best, it's about being the
best version of you. I agreewith that. But it shouldn't be

(15:22):
where it's like, I want to beatsomebody else, what it boosts
the thought like that, I'm gonnakick everybody's ass in the
world. That's my, that's mymission statement versus like,
I'm just trying to find the bestversion of myself, to be able to
express myself to this martialart form, right, and to learn
and to grow and to share, Iwould say that would be the most

(15:44):
important things, culture,history, all of that stuff. He's
taught to me to blue in theface, or he's blue in the face.
And I'm like death. But I thinkthat all of that should be left
to the people who were actuallythere, no one can talk to me
about the 80s in on the islands,unless you were there, right. So

(16:04):
I don't feel like I'm going tocarry on that part of his legacy
in history, I'll let New Yorktake care of that, because I was
not there, it would just be mepushing his truth. And so I
focus on everything that I'velearned through him about art
form, and about hip hop. And thehistorians can go and argue

(16:26):
about all that stuff themselves,because I wasn't there. When you
guys were first exposed to hiphop. And it's that inspirational
feeling that you got theoverwhelming feeling of like,
Wow, this is amazing. But how doyou harness that with the youth?
And how do you give them thedirection from once they get

(16:47):
that interest? And keep it andkeep them on track? on doing it
for the right purpose?
Can you give us sort of a briefsynopsis on the contributions
and who Phase2 was?
a good question, I would say, ina nutshell, Phase2 is the first
generation of what would belater called hip hop. He was

(17:07):
there for all the elements. Anda lot of people don't know that.
I'm not saying he had mastery ofall the elements. But he was
definitely a practitioner of allthe elements, whether it was
dance, DJ, and seeing, anddefinitely the art. So he comes
along with evolving everythingthat led to the mid 70s. Phase2

(17:31):
is someone that has advocatedfor the culture, he's an
imperfect being like all of us,you know, just for the record,
he did get caught in the wave asa youth of calling it the G
word. But interestingly enough,I've dived into the history of
the whole entire journey ofphase. So in 84, he stopped. So

(17:53):
there was a small window when hewas considered a crew called
UGA, United g artists. And hewas also using it in interviews.
However, he gained consciousnessin 84. If you're sitting in a
room with pioneers, and when Isay pioneers, you could say from
the 80s, late 70s, they're gonnahave very little to say if he

(18:15):
was in the room, because he hasthe truths. He had the Choose
recipes. But he he had all ofthe truths. He was very
objective in his history. If hedidn't like you, with you at
fly, and you contributedsomething, he'll acknowledge
that. So he tried to keep thehistory intact for everyone. We

(18:37):
call them true. At or like, youknow, when we do hashtags, we do
true two two two, because herepresented the truth. So as a
pioneer that really cared aboutthe culture, help bring it up
from the first generation, hisviewpoints and his ideals and
everything, they come from themost deepest and genuine place.

(18:58):
Anyone who had the privilege oftalking to him, would understand
that his care for the culture,it went all the way it was 360
degrees, true to himself and theculture, he wouldn't associate
himself for people who aremistreating the culture or
exploiting it, he would distancehimself from everyone. That's

(19:19):
why he had such a small group ofpeople that he actually was
around supported, and reallyshared with in indigenous
culture, they have this idealwhere edit and this goes through
all indigenous where it's anoral history, and it's passed
down, passed down, passed down,you're not going to find a lot

(19:39):
of things and content in books,especially books about the
origins of culture, phases, verymuch like that. I'm going to
share this with the people whoare deserving of knowing that
knowledge. Definitely someonewho had a lot of integrity for
the culture,rest and peace We want to talk a
bit more about you and get toknow like your background a

(20:02):
little bit better. Can you tellus how it was for you growing up
and how the hip hop scene waslike in Hawaii?
So I wasn't born here. I wasborn in San Francisco, and in
and out travel from here to theBay, because my mother was here
and my father was there. I wouldsay, when hip hop really came

(20:24):
into my view, it was the firstelement was popping, seeing
people pop, not so much thelocking, I would say, like I was
about maybe 11, almost 12 scenescene, all of my friends, older
brothers pop in and you know,like, just observing the
culture, and going to see thembattle wasn't quite sure what

(20:46):
that was about. And then I thinkwhen I seen breaking, we didn't
have of course, we didn't haveinternet back then. So we were
very limited in what ourexposure was. So PBS came out
with Style Wars, either caughtit, or you missed it, you know,
there was no DVR that can recordit for you. When I finally did
catch it, it was already wayuntil like, after I got started

(21:09):
in hip hop. The first book thatI got that really was an
inspiration was not subway art.
It was actually the book calledhip hop by Steven Hagar. And
that's where phase put in all ofhis styles, and they call it the
evolution of style. And fromthere, that's what caught me
because my mother was an artist,and I was already doing art. So

(21:31):
the visual arts really caughtme. No course I was breaking
back then to as a youth and justtrying to do anything. Just
seeing right, just stimulated bythis whole culture moving
forward. And I got to skiprocks, because this is like so
long, we're talking about, like,early 80s, right. So, you know,
being mentored by faze beingtaught all of these, you know,

(21:54):
things I never even seen orheard about. And back then we
were pen palling because thephone costed too much. So a lot
of things were like visuallearning, right, like reading
and then seeing his photos orpieces and learning from him
that way, which would lead tohim coming here, painted a huge
mural. It was a total of 250feet. I did a super burner, or

(22:18):
what we call Pyrogliphics. Hedid one I did one. And we did
these Japanese superheroes inthe middle, which led to that,
and another project that wouldhave been the source magazine.
So the second project was mepainting artwork for Dr. Dre and
Snoop Dogg's concert that washappening here, which led to a
writer from the source magazinethat happened to be here during

(22:41):
that time to cover it. And he,he, he had heard that, I guess I
was the only writer around thatwhole concert. So he wanted to
focus in on a segment of writingabout the islands. And he
focused on me, so he learnedabout the face to connection.
And he wrote a whole article,interesting enough, Summer of

(23:02):
93, prior to like, in the springof 93. Crazy lakes goes into the
source magazine in New York. Andhe's like, yeah, I'm going to
Hawaii and the writer namedLouis romaine said, hey, look, I
just wrote up this article aboutHawaii should talk to us too.
And from there, you get a coldcall from legs, which is like,

(23:24):
yeah, this home phone like youjust think it's a prank. So I
thought he was I didn't think hewas who he was. So after that
whole dialogue, he said, youknow, we got to meet and they
came here it was Miss mess. Andlike cuber, Apollo, and Gremlin
legs and Wiggles, they came herein 93. Wiggle saw my book, he

(23:47):
said, they recruited, no battleneeded, you're recruited,
started to do all the RockSteady anniversary artwork. I
think the last one I did was2010. Fast tracking, of course,
had an amazing journey in NewYork. I've learned from so many
different pioneers, so so manyviewpoints, instead of doing the

(24:07):
nightclub thing on the islands,paid my money and traveled to
New York, went to the B boysummit. So you know, I could
learn the balance of West Coasthip hop in East Coast hip hop,
and, you know, fast tracking tomost recent days. I representing
the Rock force crew, withPolsky. No difference, so no

(24:28):
comparisons in both crews. It'sjust Polsky and I developed the
friendship for over a decadefirst. And so this feels like
family. That's where I thinklike now we have within rock
force crew. We have four or fiveeducators. And we're all going
in that direction. So it justfit right in line with creating

(24:51):
social justice or education orawareness for the youth like
it's just part of The viewpointand belief system of rock force.
And as you know, we're not alonein this, this movement, but it
just was fitting to connect topeople who really believe in
that and want to advanceculture. And also make sure that

(25:13):
the youth are very much involvedand can learn from our wisdom
and our past and hopefully don'tmake the same mistakes again,
like we did.
How would your parents describewhat you do?
Rest in peace, I think all ofthem, yeah, all of them. Because
I had a mother who passed awaywhen I was young, her best

(25:33):
friend adopted me and my fatherpassed away. So I think
initially, they thought I wasnuts like everyone else, every
other parent rights in some wayyou're gonna do this does not
going to make you any money, youknow. But I think like, the
passion for it, and thededication for it in time, just
like any parent, they come to apoint where it's accepted, and

(25:56):
then it's supported. Becausethey see that there's forward
movement. And at that time, toparents, they're like, hip hop
was in and out, when you getcaught in something that's just
wasting time, you know, theydon't see it, right. And the
reality of it is, we allcouldn't see it, we all didn't
know how far this was going togo. But because of our passion

(26:18):
for it, here we are in 2020. Sowe have to prove ourselves, you
know, like I had, at least I hadto, I had to prove myself, to my
dedication to the due diligenceand through learning, I think
the key things that my momespecially saw was like how Kpop
translated into a learningprocess. Because in 94, I had to

(26:42):
realize like a digital age iscoming. And if I don't learn how
to transfer my art into theseart programs that I'm going to
be left behind. So I learned theart programs by like throwing a
sketch of a piece in there andlearning that way, instead of
like, at that time, it wasPhotoshop and Illustrator for

(27:03):
Dummies. Right? Those books, Ilearned that through just
throwing a tag in there, how doI make a cool business card with
my tag in there? How to clean upmy tag, you know, like, how do I
do this? How do I outline thewhole piece in the computer so
that I can blow it up to thelarge you know, create vector
art and listen, so it became alearning tool that transferred

(27:26):
over into, like, how do I learnthese are programs and with it
will inspire me and keep meinspired to learning? And that's
exactly what I'm replicatingnow, is that type of connection
on? Okay? You may not want tolearn how to do illustrator, it
looks boring from an outside, orwhat if you were able to do
this, so that that could turninto a shirt, or you could wear

(27:49):
you know, create embroidery,that's a way more effective way
of reaching the youth, gettingthem to do it in that form
versus like, this is the blackcursor that does that. That's
the white cursor that does that,Okay, everyone, this is what a
mark, he is not gonna reach,what the way I educate him,
okay, this thing does thisthing. You can call this thing,

(28:13):
whatever you want to call it,pointer arrow, whatever, that's
that thing, that I just try toconnect with them using that.
And I think that's the mostimportant thing is that the art
of learning, or the pedagogybehind being able to transfer
that that learning process andthe dedication because as a as

(28:34):
a, whether you're a dancer, DJ,whatever you are you spending
thousands of hours in practice.
And so that learning processthat dedication, you can
transfer that over to enhanceyour career, or to even develop
it into something totallydifferent. any of my students, I
tell them straight off, I said,I don't expect to be an artist,
I just expect you to beinterested in what you do

(28:55):
through the learning lessonsthat I provide, which will give
you inspiration and confidenceto be able to transfer that type
of dedication to something elseif you want to. If you want to
be a doctor, if you want to be anurse, you know, say I can do
it, then that's the pedagogythat I'm trying to dry behind
it. I don't need to have anotherprotege. It's impossible to have

(29:18):
a class of 30 or 40 and havingall become good writers, but I
can have them understand thatthey can build confidence off of
it, learning and provingthemselves that they can
accomplish it.
So obviously, you've masteredyour craft, but what do you do

(29:39):
to continue learning and stayingon top of your art?
I'd say always questioning andevaluating. You got to evaluate
you know, whether it's in yourpersonal life, your business
world, your artistry, you haveto evaluate. You have to be the
person who is your best critic.
Your worst critic, right? That'show I move forward. It's like,

(30:02):
okay, I haven't painted my namein three years until my homie
slick told me like his pain andyour pain in your name. But
other than that, like, I kind oflet go making my own name. And
that was part of a decision thatit was like, this art form is
not about me anymore. So I'm notgoing to keep doing the same

(30:22):
thing. And that's a evaluationfor me, like, I'm going to go
right back to not painting myknee. Once in a while, I'll
celebrate it, because I do haveself confidence. And I do
appreciate everything that isgiven. So once in a blue moon, I
will, but for the most part, mylatest evaluation was, and that
was three years ago, like, paintother words, that your styles

(30:45):
speak for you versus like, Oh, Ican tell that's a nice piece
because it says these mean, buteven on that level, like, Who
cares? For me, it's, it's noteven about wanting to be
recognized for my element. Mygreatest work comes from what
I'm doing with the community.

(31:06):
That's where my mind has evolvedto, I'd rather see a young cat
shining versus me, I'm just hereto express myself at this point.
And make sure that the nextgeneration understands that they
don't have to follow thefootsteps and the mistakes that
they can learn from them. Anddefinitely keep young cats out

(31:28):
of jail. misdemeanors, they goright through the judicial
system in and out. So they'relike, well, we're gonna wait to
get you. And that's where it'slike, No, nobody, of any
ethnicity or culture should bein that prison for any reason.
That's where I'm like, trying todo my work and the critical

(31:49):
work. That's where I think it'sevolved to and that's how my
thought process is, am I doingwhat I need to be doing right
now reflecting on my artistry?
So it's, it's a lot to do witheven self help and self work,
right? Being able to understandyou have to have a balance
everything in order to behealthy and everything you have

(32:10):
to understand and evaluate,like, Where am I at in life? And
how am I feeling? Am Iemotionally connected? Or am I
gonna be reactionary and justspontaneous? Like, you have to
be able to evaluate your ownmental and physical health? And
all of that comes into play asan artist for me.

(32:33):
Since you mention this; Iremember seeing one of your
posts talking about Dr. Sato.
Oh, yeah, yeah,I'm a massage therapist. A lot
of my work has evolved tohelping people with trauma. So
I'm curious to hear about yourexperience.
Okay, you guys are kind ofgetting the first view of this
because I never really talkedabout this in-depth. So as a

(32:55):
male growing up to thegenerations that I've grown up
in, especially in the 90s, thehip hop mentality was just man
up to ignore your emotionalhealth. Something goes wrong,
you tighten up the screws, youknow, talking about this stuff
is just you were perceived aslike weaker, when in actuality,

(33:16):
you're stronger for being ableto express emotional health. I
went through decades of justlike, through hardships and
everything lessons, justignoring that bottling it up and
hoping it'll go away. Because noone really knows when it all
comes crashing down. Whatexactly happened? I started to

(33:36):
get dizzy, like I was gettingseasick. Last year. I was like,
Well, I don't know what this is.
But that comes and goes,whatever. But it started to get
worse and worse. And as it wasgetting worse, anxiety got
worse, became to the point whereI was like, Whoa, this is too
crazy. So I was diagnosed withbppv, which is a certain type of
vertigo. The doctor said thatthis was just the crystal in my

(34:01):
ear that was dislodged, and thatcauses seasickness type of
field. So I was like, Wow. Sohow do you put it back? And they
gave me the exercise physicaltherapy. But as I read about it,
it was no cure. Your I was gonnahave to live with this, right? I
was like, Whoa, this is crazy. Ican't be on a ladder painting
murals doing all this stuff andhaving the seasickness and fall

(34:23):
off, right. So I went tophysical therapy to try to fix
it didn't work. I tried to doother things in work. So
finally, I decided to go to thisdoctor named Dr. Sato. And what
he does is energy work. And he'sa licensed chiropractor. So in
short, what he does is heassesses your your history, you

(34:43):
have to divulge it and talkabout it. So he has a minor in
having experiencing clinicalwork. So he's basically a
clinician as well. After Idisclose he tells me this areas
in your body that are carryingchildhood trauma In your muscles
that won't allow the blood toflow, what you have to do is you
have to address these traumas.

(35:08):
And he also said, there's alsoancestral trauma that's in your
body as well. He said,basically, here's what I'm going
to do, is what you're going todo, he gave me a whole bunch of
exercises to have to reallythink about, a lot of writing
was involved. And what he did onhis side was to assess where the
trauma was, to tell me where itis, and where it is usually

(35:31):
attached to something. So I wasable to understand where the
trauma was coming from. And as Iwas doing the work at home, what
he was doing was releasing thetrauma in my body, so that the
blood could start flowingthrough it, which was affecting
my health, through that process,my work at home, and his work

(35:52):
was helping me to understand howto not let the bottle up, open
things up and express myself ina way where it was like bringing
all of that trauma, for example,like let's just take abandon, if
you have that, which most peopledo, everyone has a little bit of
something, right? When you havethat onion goes unresolved, it's

(36:14):
this particular part of yourbody that has the trauma stuck
in that particular muscle group.
And anytime you get triggered,what happens is, it's like a
supercharged battery pack. thatignites it, and then your whole
body goes through stress andshock. And that's what they call
being triggered, right. And thenthe panic attacks happen, then

(36:36):
all of that. And so what hedoes, is through the work that I
did at home, and the reading, Ihad to do it, he was able to
work with me on releasing thattrauma, psychologically and
physically. So that when I doget triggered, I don't have a
battery pack charging anymore,which he received through the
physical world goes into yourmind charges that particular

(36:59):
part, and then your body goesinto shock. what he's done is
just letting the body flow, thework that I did on the exterior,
which is writing and readingthat helped me understand, okay,
when I feel this way, where'sthis coming from? And how big of
a problem is this really. Sodifferent types of exercises

(37:19):
that you practice to be able toguide yourself through that
process, I was able to get tothe point now, where I don't
have that bppv. And I'm workingon just other things in my life
now and for overall health.
Because when I told them, I hadthat vertigo, he was like, we
get rid of it. Eight monthslater, it's pretty much one,

(37:42):
it's not even there.
Amazing. I really appreciate yousharing that. I think a key part
is the fact that you are doingalso the work.
Oh yeah. And I usually associateself help as similar to people
who go to church, if you'regoing to go to church on Sunday,
but you're not going to practicewhat the church had actually

(38:04):
told you through Monday throughSaturday. And you're just hoping
for a miracle cure by physicallybeing at church, you're not
spiritual person, notpracticing, you know. And that's
the same thing. If you're goingto go to chiropractor, when you
go to condition, you're going togo to them for help. And all
you're going to do is receive,but you're not going to execute

(38:26):
and take responsibility forthat. 1, 2, 3 years later, still
in the same boat. It's reallyabout the work that you do.
Because ultimately, you can beguided, if you don't go that
route. Just going to be back tosquare one.
I can see how important thatlesson can be for the youth, in
particular at risk adolescence.
What is your approach toeducating the kids you serve?

(38:51):
Well, first, I share with them ABrief History of the art. Now I
don't go into like names, dates,and places just more of the
mentality of why it started. Andthe purpose of it at the time
and how it's kind of evolved.
And then I go into like myprocess of teaching how to do
basic lettering styles, whichdon't intimidate the youth. It's

(39:15):
very simple. And I've broken itdown to be able to start with
hand styles. There's certainways they've developed where and
styles can be looked at. If youjust can kind of follow the
visual explanation is like, ifyou're doing a hand style, and
you're doing it in a way whereit's just all broad lines,

(39:37):
there's no thin areas, whatyou're doing is if you can
create simple font based off ofthat, that could be looked at as
doing a piece without anoutline. And if you're able to
control the positive andnegative space by doing basic
funk letters, then they can seehow it's supposed to flow. So A

(39:58):
lot of times when cats practicepiecing they dry each letter,
right. But if you start with ahand style, you'll get the feel
of it. And you'll be able tounderstand how it flows, then
you'll understand how to dry. Soa hand style done in a certain
way through my program actuallygoes and educates the youth on

(40:20):
how to make the letters flow,right. And then from there, then
I teach them how to dry. Justimagine if they were to draw
pieces in one day, andunderstanding their skill level
of not even understanding how todraw a font, even, maybe the
youth would do one or two,right. But if they learn how to

(40:42):
do the hand stuff properly, theycan do hundreds in one day, and
get the flow. It's just likedancing to like, you gotta
understand the music andunderstand the brakes, and
understand what song is what andthe history of that. And to
understand that first, or, atthe same time is going to help

(41:02):
you nansen immensely. So it'sthe same thing, it's like, I'm
just teaching them how to dosomething, or it's going to fast
track them. Because like I said,you draw one piece, or two
pieces the kids gonna give up.
But if you teach them how to dothis kind of stuff. So it's time
to look really clean, it'sreally dope. And it's just

(41:23):
simple basic. And you know, allthe tilts and the angles they
need to draw, they want to seeit like chess. And so I always
and I also encourage them, ofcourse, from the beginning, not
to write your name, right,everything along with their
name, but not just the four or567 letters that it's attached
to, you will, you'll growfaster. And you'll learn more,

(41:45):
if you check the ego at thedoor. That's kind of the
learning process that I do for,for the youth to help them
evolve. And they learn prettyquickly. A lot of them are
writers and kind of just finetune some things here and there.
But the overall goal of myworkshop is to is to make sure

(42:06):
that I'm releasing what theyhave their potential not to say,
No, no do do the angle this way.
I'm trying to not be that personat all. And just let them kind
of like Oh, you like reallycurvy stuff. Oh, cool. You're in
tissue, doing 3d stuff. Okay,cool. Whatever it is. And I will
still policy This is like, Iwant to see the new generation,

(42:29):
rewrite the culture, because hiphop basically evolved off of all
of us breaking what was common.
This is not art school, this waslike yo, a whole bunch of people
just inspired to do it. And, youknow, 80s and 90s. It was like,
it would be taboo, as an artistor an emcee to sound like

(42:52):
another emcee, you know, betaboo to be like, Oh, he breaks
like so and so and so and so hedoes his routines and cuts just
like this. Do you know? So ithas to be something where I
don't stick them to a formula.
So you got to do it this way.
This is the old school way. veryprogressive in terms of like,
hey, do something that I want tofollow? I don't know. He asked

(43:15):
me what do I think? What do youthink making them think about it
instead of just like, this isthe way it is, and this is what
you got to do.
You've had so manycollaborations, and I was
wondering which collaboration isone that like really stands out
for you or means the most toyou?
Well, we of course, I'm going tosay the time that Phase2 came
here in early 1993, I say late92, I was able to get him here,

(43:41):
because there was a record labelhere that was doing hip hop
mixes at the time. And it'sinteresting, because I just
spoke to this guy, yesterday, wecame full circle, and we're
going to start collaborating onsome new things. But they flew
him out here. And I hosted himand he went far beyond the
project. So phase actually endedup living with us for about

(44:03):
almost a year. And that is thetime where he taught me so many
things. And that educationaltime was priceless. And so the
the project and thecollaboration in terms of like
working with anyone was beingable to go to the wall every day
for like, over a month with daysand just painting with him and

(44:26):
learning with him. And you know,just having him kind of guide me
where I needed to go. And havingbasically released me from this
thought that I had to continueperpetuating like what what I
was seeing in subway art, youknow, spray can art like he was
like like that, like that's allbeen said and done and ready.
Why would you want to keep doingthat? You know, what if q was

(44:48):
just doing basic stabs whosebasic cuts and then it's gone so
far past that. And so that'swhat he was saying for the art
form. Don't stay stuck on thatstuff, have it in your arsenal,
but take it to another level. Solearning lessons from that was
priceless, even getting with himand him slowly sliding out my

(45:13):
pencil out of my hand andreplacing it with a pen. And
he's like, this is how you'regoing to do it. watching me and
seeing him do like a paper thatwas maybe like 10 inches high by
40 inches long. And we used touse the old Tower Records
calendars, because they werelike, long in length. And on the

(45:34):
backside, it was white. So hejust two super burners on him
in, in in 10. I watched him likeright there. So I was like,
watch. No way. Okay, we'll try.
But the thing about it isthrough that process, and I will
document this process, like butnow I can just go to wall, no
sketch. And I can go from asimple style to a very super

(45:56):
complex hieroglyphics stylewithout a sketch as because of
that learning process of lettinggo and being free, you know,
similar to a b Boy, that's like,doesn't have any routines in
mind, or like this set, it'slike, No, I'm going to feel the
music and see what happens. Andif I slip up, I'm gonna
improvise and make it lookfresh, right. So it's same thing

(46:18):
that improvising and being ableto recover, or take it to a
different direction. That'slike, the things that I learned
from him. Just priceless. Not somuch like micromanaging me, like
know, when this happens this ishe allowed me to make mistakes,

(46:38):
but he supported me through anddoing the same thing right in
front of me, that's the beautyof hip hop is that through hip
hop, you can gain thisconfidence to transfer into
something else, whether it'sjust in your life, as a youth,
or you carry it through toadulthood, if you at one point,
put a lot of time into it,you've actually learned a

(47:01):
learning process that will carrythrough without even knowing it.
It could be anything, it couldbe like basketball, it could be
you know, like any type of sportor any type of interest, that
educational process will carrythrough. Hip Hop just happens to
be just another form of anoutlet for you. And it's very
supported by the youth incommunity now, because we live

(47:23):
with hip hop parents, right? Sothey're like, Oh, yeah, we want
you to be a part of that. It'sdefinitely a lot more supported
than when I was growing up.
There's so many of my friendsare our parents, and, you know,
like, Oh, yeah, can you teachour classes I want, I want my
son or daughter to go overthere, you know. And it's like,

(47:43):
I could see the way that theysupport it, because they know
that it took so much hours outof their youth and dedicated
instead of being getting intotrouble or something like that.
Yeah, so you have a companycalled keep it flowing. Can you
tell us a bit about how thatcame about. And in that aspect,
like why you decided to found anLLC?

(48:04):
as far as keep it flowing. Thathappened after my mom passed
away. Because I was a full timecaregiver for over a decade, I
decided to those many routesthat I could have gone.
Initially I was in the hole, I'mgonna make money to take care of
her. And that's how I'm gonna beable to sustain and everything.

(48:27):
But eventually I took I decidedto take a path of giving her
more time with me, versus tryingto seek the wealth, this time is
more important. So I learnedthat after I was done,
caregiving, she passed, that'swhen I decided, Well, you know,
what, I haven't done much for mycommunity. And, you know, the

(48:49):
islands are really taking careof me. So I just started giving
back. A lot of people don'tunderstand, like, where I'm at
now. They're always kind ofleaning towards I go, I see you
do a lot of things with this andthat and can you hook me up?
It's like, yeah, I can hook youup, start doing things for your
community, because you want toand volunteer and let it let

(49:11):
that energy flow. Becauseotherwise it's opportunity,
right? So I just starteddonating my time just doing
things. And I started to meetwith the right people connect
the right dots, and how keep itflowing all came together was
within one day, I said, You knowwhat, in the definition of like
islands in the past, I've lookedfor the perfect wave to ride to

(49:36):
create the perfect run, tocreate the perfect moment. And
I've lost moments because ofthat, you know, so I said, you
know, you got one day to createa name. You create an LLC, to
file it to have the logo doneall one day. I'm not going to
self sabotage this. I'm justgoing to do it. And so I said,

(49:57):
Well, what am I always tellingthe kids Keep that flowing right
there. I like that. So I said,Okay, that's the name. And they
said, Okay, well logo, they'realways drawing when I'm telling
them to do that. So that becamethe little zigzag with the
pencil to that process, I justdidn't allow myself to get in

(50:17):
front of myself to stop myself.
It was a learning process for meto do that. Because always I'm
like, Ah, man, I don't like thatlogo, got to do better with that
logo, his name really the rightname for me. This time, I said,
screw it, I'm doing it. This isfor the people. It's not about
me. So I'm just going to learn,do it, get it up. And I started
to collaborate with othernonprofits to learn the lingo

(50:38):
the way things work, I'd say outof all the companies that I
started, this is the most fastgrowing, aside from this year,
fast growing and progressivecompany that and sustaining
company that I've ever built, ithas so many legs, and it has so
many connective ways of doingprojects with this organization,

(51:01):
that organization, I kind ofdecided to just be organic,
instead of I want to do A, B,and C, we can do ocean
awareness, we can do substanceabuse and prevention for you, we
can do bullying, you know, wecan do, we were going to cover
anything that diamonds to cover,we can adapt our model is

(51:22):
creating awareness through art.
And that's our tagline. And whatwe do with that has basically
opened up the eyes of the youthcommunity, to the power of art,
and that you can speak to theart, you don't have to be vocal
about what you do. And thatreaches a lot of people because

(51:43):
some, you know, our auditory,kinesthetic, you know, visual.
So art allows a whole notherside of people to be able to say
something without getting behinda mic, which is very
intimidating. That's what I loveabout it, because it's the first
company actually feel it's notwork. You know, like even when

(52:04):
I've done other clothingcompanies and stuff, and it's
fun, it felt like work, beingable to like work with the youth
and give back in that capacitieslike that's the best thing, keep
it flowing, is going toeventually evolve into creating
the solution. So that's why I'mtaking all that data and

(52:25):
building it. So someone in hiphop has to stand up and stop
pointing the finger at like thegovernment. And someone has to
stand up and actually educatethe government on what hip hop
is, what good hip hop is, whatthe positive sides are, what
we're trying to do, becauseother than that, if it's always

(52:48):
going to be them against us,we're never going to be able to
communicate. And so many othercountries have already done
that, you know, like the IBE,obviously, the government
supports them, because there wassomebody who stepped up. And so
for the islands, I'm taking thatresponsibility to be able to
say, Hey, you know, this canalso bring them tourism, through

(53:10):
a big event, giving them hope,connecting it to other events,
and how the youth can getinspired to be a part of these
events. And throughout the year,provide them programming so that
they can stay focused and, youknow, really develop out. It's a
long term picture. But this, youknow, as I'm taking slow steps,

(53:32):
you know, and creating differentpartnerships, it's getting
there.
do you have any, like upcomingprojects, or anything that you
would like to promote?
There's been a lot ofdevelopment early in the year.
But all of those things have totake a pause. It's hard to say,
I can say what I'd like to workon when this all comes out. But

(53:53):
as of right now, when passkeyand I are working on terms of
like mighty four, is definitelyto restart mighty four, but with
more of an emphasis oneducation, and presentations in
colleges and different schools,when traveling, to really focus
in on that segment of it, andnot just the element. And you

(54:17):
know, the celebration of theelements is this more so
academic approach to it. And sothat we can connect with the
people and also kind of takeresponsibility for the
information and the educationthat's coming out about the
culture. And not to say we're noit also just taking our steps to

(54:37):
be responsible and take theright direction and sharing the
information we have. So I wouldsay like the biggest picture
would be definitely that mightyforum will make a very strong,
strong presence felt, you know,as soon as we're allowed to be
able to move freely again andThat's what we're working on on

(55:01):
the back end. And also finding abalance with my own personal art
form, too. So it's not reallyabout just doing community
stuff. But it's also to keep theyouth inspired. I'm really
focusing on my own personaljourney in archiving and
expressing so finding a balancebetween the community work and

(55:24):
my own personal stuff, so that Istay relevant because a lot of
educators A lot of times, theyjust dive in and they let go of
whatever they're doing. And Ihaven't been asked more than one
time from the youth like, whatare you doing now? Like, aside
from being right here? What areyou doing now? So it's important
as a practitioner slash personinvolved with the culture to

(55:47):
still stay active, right? Sothat's where for me, I'm just
finding balance right now.
I feel we are learning a lotfrom this interview, especially
the importance of language. Isthere anything else you would
like to share?
Well, I think what you reallywant to walk away with with
understanding of the G word isthat I will never empower the

(56:08):
word. And as a culture as acollective culture, we didn't
call this art for visual artform, the G word, it was labeled
by authorities. So when peopleare rocking this word, just like
the dancing term, if you'regoing to be out there, and
you're calling yourself anoutlaw, and you're doing tags,

(56:31):
and you're painting pieces, andyou're doing all this type of
stuff, that's still Renegade.
But you're using a governmentissued name, to call yourself
that. I mean, it is what it is,you can make your own deduction
off of that. But how undergroundare you for using their name,
something to think about,because we didn't come up with
it. Now, media is powerful. Youknow, so I understand why the

(56:56):
dancers adopted it in the 80s,set released in the mid 70s.
Because everyone adopted it, youknow, like in all elements,
right, started calling it rap.
Instead of seeing right culturewas changed to relate to the
masses, but as the girls and beboys, there's a reclaiming of

(57:20):
language. And when language isbeing taken away, just like in
Hawaiian culture, part of theannexation here was that the
Hawaiian language was forbidden.
dances were forbidden, thingsare changed. And we can't allow
that. We can't allow that on anylevel for hip hop. I don't care
if somebody doesn't understandif I'm a writer, and not just

(57:42):
like, no one should care if theyunderstand what a B boy or B
girl is, you know, if you'recurious about the culture, you
can educate yourself, but to tryto relate to people that's
outside of the culture and makeit familiar with the term that
doesn't exist in our culture. Wecan't do that. I don't think so
at least, we have to appropriatethe right terminology for the

(58:06):
next generation. So we set thepath straight. I appreciate that
you guys are open about it.
Because I've talked to differentpioneers. like yeah, it is
called that originally calledthat. But cats over here in this
country don't understand that.
Well, they never understood whata B boy was either. And if you
want to go back further, theydon't. They never understood

(58:28):
what going off was or boiling,right? Like what are we talking
about here. So if we, if webecome 100, with the culture,
then I think it starts to tieback. Maybe just breaking events
without the connection to hiphop, maybe that starts to get
changed. Maybe the unificationthrough preserving the culture

(58:48):
will tie back to becoming wholeagain, because you've got mural
projects in states and countrieshave nothing to do with hip hop,
no acknowledgement of thewriters who made this powerful
impossible. You've got B boyevents that have corporate logos
all over the place, noconnection to the culture, maybe

(59:10):
to just the music, but not theculture in its entirety. You've
got a whole generation of peoplewriting that don't know that bit
about the voice and vice versain every element, when you cross
section a dying care or want toknow about that. To me, that's,
that's something that needs tobe preserved. But advancement of
the art; I hope kids dosomething that inspires me. I'm

(59:33):
a "Let go" master. Just followthem, you know, follow the
energy. Because if you empowerthem with that, that's when true
change starts to happen.
Where can people find you andhow can they support you?
I have two websites, keep itflowing media.com and East-3.com
. Instagram is eastthree, threeis spelt out. It's cool to learn

(01:00:00):
and try to connect with me, Ihope that this podcast really
inspires minds to look into itthemselves. I don't want to be
an authority on anything. I'malways a student. So, you know,
just learning and movingforward, but I always am down to
connect with people to learn andto share We always end that our
interviews with the question,what is hip hop to you?

(01:00:24):
Hip Hop to me is basically life.
At the age of 11, I was alreadyembracing it, and I turn 50 next
month, so almost in my entirelife of just understanding it,
it's been a guiding force tounderstanding so many things, in
terms of like, even just ondifferent ethnicities and

(01:00:44):
respect for culture, andunderstanding the importance of
equality, whether it's social,creative, or political, it's
guided me, Public Enemy, fromthe very beginning. I mean, they
were talking about consciousnessof the black community, a lot of
their points could carry overinto all the cities and, and
gender. hearing them at thatpoint was like, okay, respect

(01:01:09):
the woman at an early age inyour, your hearing somebody you
look up to say, you can't becalling them this, and that, and
you know, you've got to haverespect. And those types of
things are like, it'smentorship. Hip Hop, is
something that I think what hasunited the world. And at the
same time, it creates so manydifferent life lessons that when

(01:01:33):
you can put them all together,it is just life. It's a
beautiful thing, because it wasmeant to connect people, every
walk of life, if you're involvedin some way music, dance, art,
whatever it is, you have acommon ground, I think that it's
actually saves lives educatesit's such a powerful force. And

(01:01:55):
it's important to keep thatintact and with high integrity.
Otherwise, it could easily getmanipulated into something that
it's not, it goes to say, withthe music, at least, like who's
on the top 40 already tellingyou that stuff is the farthest
from Hip Hop, you know, it's aspin off of it. But if we don't

(01:02:18):
keep that integrity, in 10years, people are not even going
to know what hip hop is. Youknow, and the names are not
important, because I don't mindI'd follow Trap too if it was
like 100% positive. And it wastrying to help the community
instead of like advocate for x,y and z, which is like hurting
the community. Right? So I thinklike there are good things about

(01:02:41):
Trap. And I think that there aresome good artists that do
things, but all in all, thehistory is being lost for hip
hop. And that's what we need toreally, really chime in. Not so
much the names, dates and placesfrom my viewpoint, but all the
positive aspects that helpcommunity and people.

(01:03:03):
Thank you so much to our guestKen Nishimura, aka East3 for
taking the time and being soopen while sharing your
perspective with us.
Some of the gems we took awayfrom this interview were
Words are crates of power andyou select what kind of power
they carry, it is important forculturalists to reclaim their
power through education andunity.

(01:03:24):
The G word was created by thegovernment to punish the act of
vandalism, while the expression"writing" defines the art
created through aerosol.
In order to preserve culturalheritage for the benefit of the
present and future generations,it requires current active
practitioners to use deliberateand well designed programs.

(01:03:44):
These are the protectors of theculture.
Our theme music was beatbox byDenis the Menace and produced by
Zede, a big shout out to thebrothers from Switzerland.
The background music wasproduced by Taki Brano. A big
thank you to our broski fromProvidence.
Also a big shout out to MayanTamang and his ohana for his

(01:04:04):
contributions to the culture andevery community he reaches.
much love to all our brothersand sisters in Hawaii.
Our podcast basically runs oncoffee to keep our show running.
You can support by buying us acoffee through the link in our
show notes.
A huge thank you to Cindy Foleyand Thalia Guare for providing
us the fuel last week. We wouldlove to get your feedback

(01:04:26):
questions and any suggestionsyou might have. You can reach
out to us on Instagram Twitteror Facebook @SoulidarityLLC o
via email [e-mail]
if you liked today's show, pleastell a friend about our podcast

Or as Phife Dawg w (01:04:44):
ell your mo In our next episode we welcome
DJ EFN. He is known as the mixape king of Miami. EFN is als
the founder and co host of mny radio shows and podcasts
such as Drink Champs and Fatheroods as well as a filmmaker, clo
hing retailer, A&R, marketingspecialist and so much ore.

(01:05:07):
Don't forget to subscribe to theshow and leave a rating and
review.
See you on our next episode.
Thank you for listening to ourpodcast.
Now Seriously though, thank you.
I am Candy.
I'm DJ Razor Cut and this is Sols of Hip Hop.