Valley rappers land gigs near center of music universe

WASILLA — More than one Mat-Su Valley resident will be dipping their toes in the big pond that is the national hip-hop scene surrounding Austin’s South by Southwest music festival next month.

Every year in mid-March, hundreds of thousands of people flock to the Texas town for the festival to experience 10 days of music and independent films of every genre from around the world. Last year’s event included bands like AWOLNATION and Portugal. The Man, as well as speeches by rapper Snoop Dogg and street artist Shepard Fairey.

This year, Palmer High School graduates Justin “JJ” Odom-Harris and Christian Odom will be trying to get near the fray as rap artists Valley Boy Choze and Galax-C, respectively, thanks in part to the efforts of Colony High graduate Chris Ray.

“It’ll be a huge look for JJ and Christian,” Ray said.

Though the Odom brothers aren’t part of the official South by Southwest (SXSW) schedule, Ray said it’s common for other artists to reap the benefits of the festival by contracting shows in Austin during the same 10-day period.

Ray acts as a sponsor for the brothers and manager of Galax-C through his brand, Bearly Blunt, which he started as a clothing line for hip-hop artists. When he realized he could use his creativity to help his fellow Alaskans, he jumped at the opportunity.

“If an artist gets onstage and they’re wearing the product and advertising the brand, we’re all helping each other’s dreams come true,” Ray said.

Odom-Harris said he’s expecting that at the upcoming Cyphaworld show on 6^th Street in Austin on March 8.

“We’ll be rubbin’ elbows with the right people,” he said.

Odom-Harris said he and Odom got two of their first big gigs at the Alaska State Fair, where they opened for Sean Kingston in 2008 and Kendrick Lamar in 2013. The first they landed with the help of Make-A-Scene editor Josh Fryfogle, and the second was a pleasant surprise.

“Because he ended up being late, we got a call last minute to open up for him,” Odom-Harris said.

He said Cyphaworld will be their first show out of state, and he’s more excited than nervous.

“I wouldn’t say nervous, I just take that adrenaline rush and put it to use,” onstage, he said.

Some history

Odom-Harris said he really got into the rap scene in 2005, when he was a senior year at Palmer High. He said music teacher Stan Harris (no relation) showed him and his friends to a small studio in the school’s lower level, where they formed a hip-hop group called UTN. Shortly thereafter they bought their own recording equipment and moved out of the school and into their homes, producing four mix tapes over the course of a few years.

It was during that time that Odom-Harris’s younger brother started to take interest in hip-hop.

“I was 13 and kinda just messin’ around at the time,” Odom said. “Then I tried it and everybody said I had a really good voice, so I started gettin’ into it. It was something fun and I liked the sound I was able to create with it.”

In 2010, Odom-Harris, Odom and three other artist-producers created 574 Entertainment, which functioned as multi-faceted networking tool, of sorts.

“It’s an outlet for creative expression but it’s not necessarily a label,” Odom-Harris said.

Under 574, the collective of rappers put out two more mixtapes in 2013 — DLXXIV (574) Vol. 1 and 2 — followed by the company’s first solo project in 2015: Takeoff Season, by Galax-C.

The music

Though Odom’s mini-album features vocals by JJ and other rappers, he said he and his brother operate as individual artists, and have noticeably different styles.

“My sound is more based on melodies and melodic tunes,” Odom said. “He’s a really good lyricist, but my songs are a little bit more like, not necessarily club music but, you know, party songs.”

The difference in style may come from each of their proclaimed influences. While Odom draws inspiration from artists like Drake and Future, Odom-Harris grooves best to Jay-Z and TI, they said.

The brothers’ creative processes are also a little bit different. Whereas Odom likes to write lyrics as ideas come to him, then find a beat to match, Odom-Harris — despite being known for his lyricism — said the beat drives his words.

“Whether it’s a solo or a group song, we kinda just sit down in the studio and vibe out and things just kinda start coming together,” Odom-Harris said. “It’s kind of amazing to hear what comes out of people.”

Odom-Harris said he believes most people “really only listen to the beat anyways.”

Stigmas

Odom and Odom-Harris acknowledged that hip-hop can get a bad rap for its explicit content, but both said there’s more than meets the ear.

“Honestly that’s just the lifestyle most of us have been brought up into,” Odom-Harris said. “We don’t try and objectify certain people, whether it’s women or whoever, that’s definitely not our intent.”

Odom said the lyrics aren’t always meant to be taken literally.

“I think the misconception is that when artists speak about stuff like that in their music they’re trying to promote it, when really I think they're just trying to give people a little insight into their life,” Odom said. “The struggle is trying to find a way where they can communicate what they’re trying to say and not sound like they’re trying to promote negativity.”

While that perception of the promotion of illegal activity or harmful ideology in rap may be one reason the genre isn’t more popular in the Valley — Odom guessed that it’s “not even in the top three up here” — Odom-Harris said it’s also difficult to show the rest of the state their commitment to what they do.

“I really feel that the Valley has that stigma that’s it’s just a bunch of country bumpkins,” he said.

Alaska and beyond

Valley Boy Choze and Galax-C aren’t the only rappers from Alaska making strides in the national hip-hop scene. Wasilla-grown, East Coast-based rapper Dustin Magnan — also known as Swami Mags — will perform at Cyphaworld and in a second, earlier show called South by South Wesley on March 15 with headliner Wes Walker. That show is co-sponsored by Bearly Blunt and HomeGrownPhilly.

To learn more about these artists, visit bearlyblunt.co/sponsored-artists.html or 574ent.com.

Contact reporter Caitlin Skvorc at 352-2266 or caitlin.skvorc@frontiersman.com.