Artist description Kiwi comes to you from Oakland, CA (by way of Los Angeles). A seasoned indie rap veteran, Kiwi continues to share the young urban brown experience through hard beats and unfiltered lyricism. He was featured in the documentary film "Beats, Rhymes, & Resistance: Pilipinos and Hip Hop in L.A," as well as bay area publications The SF Weekly and The Oakland Tribune. His pride and joy, however, was helping to start the Balagtasan Collective, a group of Filipino artists and organizers whose goal is to raise community awareness and catalyze social change through arts and culture. He continues to perform at numerous venues, from Los Angeles to San Francisco, from Seattle to Chicago. In his spare time, you can find him working on his full-length album entitled "Groundwork," due for release very soon. You can visit Kiwi online at www.groundworkmusic.com.

Music Style Somewhere in between conscious/political hip hop and gangsta rap.

Musical Influences His momma

Similar Artists dead prez, Talib Kweli, Public Enemy, Mos Def, Paris, Dilated Peoples, Freestyle Fellowship, Blackalicious

Albums "Rites of Passage: Portraits of a Sun Rising"

Press Reviews Oakland rapper promotes social change through music December 17, 2001 By Titania Leung Inglis STAFF WRITER Growing up on the rough streets of Los Angeles, Kiwi thought he had no choice but to join a gang. Now, at 27, the Oakland rapper and activist credits hip-hop with changing his way of thinking and bringing him in off the streets, and he's trying to pass that message on through his own lyrics. Back in elementary school, Kiwi recalls, ``Everyone I grew up with was in the neighborhood gang." So he joined up in junior high school, and entered a world where, he says, ``Hip-hop was the soundtrack to our experience." As a young hip-hopper, Kiwi couldn't afford to be a DJ, and didn't have the agility of a breakdancer. He started out as a graffiti artist, but quit after he got caught. So he became an emcee, more by default than natural inclination. ``It was the cheapest, easiest way to express myself," he says. He started rhyming in junior high school, but didn't get serious about it until he began frequenting open mikes and meeting people like apl.de.ap of the Black Eyed Peas, who produced Kiwi's first song in the mid-1990s. Although he got into hip-hop as part of the gang lifestyle, Kiwi says hip-hop became his ticket off the streets. He began listening to socially conscious music by Boogie Down Productions, Public Enemy, NWA, Ice Cube and Paris, among others. ``(The music) made me think about my situation, about something that was bigger than me," he says. Specifically, the critical lyrics focused his attention on the impoverished Filipino American community in L.A. ``There are early immigrant Filipino families living under extreme situations," he says, describing the overcrowded apartments where people wage a constant struggle for survival. In a drive to improve his community's situation, Kiwi got together with other Filipino American poets, musicians, organizers, high school teachers, graduate students, and DJs to form Balagtasan Collective. The group organizes workshops and events designed to raise awareness around issues in the Filipino American community, including women's issues, the plight of Filipino veterans and police brutality. The Bay Area boasts several activist Filipino American arts organizations and venues, including Pusod in Berkeley and Bindlestiff Studio in San Francisco, but ``Balagtasan Collective was a need in L.A.," Kiwi remembers. At its first event in January 1999, the collective was expecting about 80 attendees. Instead, more than 200 people showed up. ``On a personal level," he says, ``there's only so much I can do with my music and my shows. Balagtasan Collective gives artists a chance to take it to another level. Ultimately, our mission is to catalyze social change." His art and activism began to earn him a name in L.A., and he was featured in the 1997 documentary film ``Beats, Rhymes, and Resistance," and on a compilation CD, ``InFLIPtration." This March, Kiwi landed a new job in San Francisco, editing a magazine at Health Initiatives for Youth (HIFY). So he packed up and left his native L.A., and joined his girlfriend in Oakland, where they now share a cozy apartment near Lake Merritt. With the three other local Balagtasan members, he hopes to start another collective in the Bay Area. Irene Duller, also known as ShortyRocwell of the local spoken word group 8th Wonder, first met Kiwi at an open mike in 1998. She says, ``I prefer to watch Kiwi than watch the news, you'll find a more colorful and real depiction of today's current events in his performance. His content is blunt and unapologetic, his style celebrates today's progressive youth, his rhythm reflects the warrior heart of the Pilipino people. He is honest in his efforts to love and protect his people, and it is evident in his art." Since he moved to the Bay Area in March, Kiwi has been showcasing that art almost nonstop, working the stages at Locus 1640 Post, the Yellow Technicolor tour, piNoisepop and SoMa Fest, among other venues. But after this month, he's planning to take a break from the performance circuit to start recording his first full-length album. This could be a big break, but Kiwi remains humble as he looks to the future. ``I don't have all the answers," he warns. ``I don't claim to be a teacher. I'm still making mistakes, still trying to grow, and I do hip-hop because I'm trying to be about something that's bigger than myself."

Location Yay Area, CA - USA

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