My introduction to Lafa Taylor was at a KRS One show at the WOW Hall in Eugene. I didn’t ask him about it in our interview but I’m sure he remembers it.
It was a sold out show. I got in free posing as the merch guy for The Phormula.
KRS stopped his show and asked for someone from the crowd to beat box for him so he could freestyle a bit. Lafa jumped up and was impressive.
Many people in the crowd were already familiar with the Eugene native’s talent with the microphone. I was not at the time.
A few weeks later I started seeing his picture up around town on various posters and found out he was pretty much that dude in the city.
I’m not sure if we’ve actually ever met but I’ve been staying in touch via YouTube Videos and Facebook updates.
It’s been fun watching his success grow and I’m looking forward to catching his set at Fire in the Canyon!
What’s been going on man?
Just got back from the Harmony Festival last weekend in Santa Rosa.
Nice, how’d that go?
It was good. It was fairly mellow. I honestly wasn’t super excited about the lineup. But yeah, there were some highlights. Primus was hella dope. The show that the Flaming Lips put on was fresh. Nico Luminous held down his beat wagon, And a couple other folks rocked it.
You do a good job staying involved in a lot of festivals. How did you initially get in to that and how have you been able to stay involved?
I actually grew up going to a lot of festivals. Just as a participator, not necessarily a creator. But it was kind of just natural as I became a performer and creator of clothes and art, that I continue to be involved. The reason I went up to Harmony, more so than music, was to sell clothing. I have a clothing line called Vibration Clothing. Actually, I’m am part of a collective called Evolutionaries, we just formed this summer. It’s three different clothing lines, and that was our second festival rocking as a collaborative booth.
I was just up there rocking that. Between music and clothing it’s pretty easy to stay involved in something almost every weekend.
Nice! Can you tell me a little more about the clothing collective you guys have.
Yeah for sure. It’s three different lines. My lines called Vibration Clothing out of Bay / Portland. We have my homie Andreasone with Peace Fits out of the Bay Area, and then we have Rags 2 Muffins, out of Portland. We all kind of work together and have our definite respective styles and different flavor. We just decided that it made sense to collaborate on all the back end stuff– such as submiting to festivals, setting up at festivals, tearing down at festivals, selling, promotion, production, etc. This way help everybody’s line pops off to the fullest.
Definitely.
Have you still been working on that, or how has that been going?
We’ll I’ve been concentrating on the clothing more recently and also working on building my electronic music name here on the West Coast. But I am still definitely doing work, here and there. I’m not out in Japan as much I I used to be, But I still have good connects out there and do collabs now and again.
I was planning on going back there and doing the launch of my next hip-hop CD, a tour and a bunch of different stuff but right now I’m not in a hurry to go back due to the radiation and just the state of the country.
Definitely. I’d assume that a lot of people you were working with over there were personally affected?
Absolutely yeah. It’s definitely touched everyone I know that lives out there. It’s pretty major. I do plan on going back there. For a moment I was a little apprehensive going out there but just recently I realized that I kind of owe it to the people out there. I feel like in times of crisis music is super dope for getting people to come together and remember/celebrate all of the good things about life.
That’s a great point. Also I saw you are performing in Fire in the Canyon.
I am for sure. After I saw the lineup and saw the response my first blast on Facebook I got super excited for it. I’m definitely going to be playing my part in hyping it up and promoting it, because I believe in it. It’s really refreshing to see a hip-hop lineup like that at a festival.
Definitely. It kind of came out of nowhere. All of a sudden we have this hip-hop festival that no one’s ever done before coming up in two months. Who are some of the people that are part of it that you are most excited about seeing?
Pretty much everyone. It’s ridiculous. But if I had to pick a few, Pharcyde with a live band is going to be dope. Digable with a live band is going to be dope. I’m a big fan of the live bands, having rocked with one myself. Lifesavas, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen them. My man MarvEllis, Sapient’s gonna crush it, Busdriver
And I’m stoked there’s a little bit of electronic flavor too with Chase Manhattan, Solovox and some of those peeps out of Portland.
It just goes on man. Everyone I’ve heard of that’s on their I’m excited to see.
I should mention that the show I’m doing at Fire In The Canyon is going to be a mix of my new electronic project Freak Funk and some of my more classic hip-hop Lafa Taylor stuff. Bangerz only. club.
Thanks! We Out Here!