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If You Build It …? Cedar Rapids’ rap OGs take a look at how the scene is faring. BY GENEVIEVE TRAINOR
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f you start asking around about the hip- “but I don’t see what I saw 10 years ago, 20 years coming through town to perform. I think the bighop scene in Cedar Rapids, you’ll hear ago. … I could be far removed from the scene. gest show they had here—I was in high school I the same answer repeatedly: “What But there aren’t many places in Cedar Rapids to believe—was Hammer. We wasn’t going to see perform. … You’ve had these good pushes, but all the nitty gritty acts from back then.” scene?” Of course, there hasn’t been much of anything not enough momentum for it to really blossom.” After high school, he went to the University Rahlan Kay has been on the hip-hop scene in of Iowa, where he got a taste of (and heavily happening the past year-plus, due to the pandemic. But although everyone can manage to drop Cedar Rapids for 30 years. He was the first hip- influenced) the Iowa City scene, performing as a name or two, the general consensus seems to hop act to play the McGrath Amphitheater, for Genuyne until he got the tip that someone else be that whatever scene there once was has fad- Uptown Friday Nights, and he managed the hip- had a slightly stronger claim to a slightly differed. The further you dig, the less you find. Only hop stage for 319 Fest. He was first inspired to ent spelling. In Iowa City, he had access to occaa handful of names show up on a Bandcamp perform by a local group he saw take the stage at sional BET and a hip-hop show on campus radio, search. Facebook pages like Hip Hop Roots and the clubs were welcoming—but the talent Cedar Rapids, Iowa haven’t seen activity since was transitory. 2014. It’s something of a ghost town. “[There was a] real strong push, but we Now, I don’t claim to be omniscient. I hope weren’t able to sustain it,” Rahlan Kay said. “I like hell that I get a slew of emails schooling me would say because of three things: not really beon all I missed. Y’all would tell me when I fuck ing supported, Cedar Rapids not choosing to supup, right? Yeah. I trust you. So I hope you trust port; Iowa City, moving; not having a real bona me: CR is a city that’s just waiting to break. fide radio station that catered specifically to hip Years ago, I saw Schäffer the Darklord at the hop. … It’s hard to build and maintain a scene Blue Collar Lounge—a tiny bar where 1st St SW without having some of those channels.” LISTEN: imperfekt LISTEN: Rahlan Kay meets C St SW (a diner called Lucita’s is there now). It was by a large margin the most packed I have ever seen a show in Cedar Rapids at a legitimate establishment. The fans are there, so why “Here we never really had a place where you can isn’t the music? just show up with a CD and put it in a CD player When you start asking around about hip hop and rap into a microphone, it just never was a in the city, two names will come up again and thing,” imperfekt said. “So we would always just again: Rahlan Kay, a.k.a. Rowland Gibson, have to figure out a little dive bar we could go and imperfekt, a.k.a. Rick into.” Noggle. They’ve been playFrom 2006-2012, imper“THE LEGAL CAPACITY OF THE BLUE COLLAR LOUNGE ing out in the city for defekt ran the monthly Super cades, often driving engageFresh Saturdays at a series WAS 49 PEOPLE. … WE WOULD HAVE NIGHTS WHERE ment and creating practically of venues in Cedar Rapids. It 100 PEOPLE WOULD PAY FIVE BUCKS AT THE DOOR.” from scratch. These are both started when his mother, who hometown boys, born and worked at the Blue Collar raised in the 319, with deep ties to the commu- McKinley when he was a student, Magic Motion. Lounge, encouraged him to hold a show there. “I’ve always been musical, playing instru- It exploded fast, with acts from as far away as nity, both professionally (Noggle owns a hip hop inspired vintage clothing store downtown, ments or being in band, being in orchestra,” he New York City looking to book with him, and 20 Years Awesome; Gibson works with youth at said. He’s played upright bass, saxophone; he’s eventually grew into Super Fresh Culture Fest, sung in choir, done theater. But when he and his a festival that ran three years in Cedar Rapids, Foundation 2) and in their music. The video for Rahlan Kay’s latest single, friends saw Magic Motion, they thought, “Oh, from 2012-2014. “Music Is Like Breathin’” (produced by his we could do this too.” “The legal capacity of the Blue Collar Lounge They called themselves EM3: Educated was 49 people. … We would have nights where brother, EJ Swavv, who he also performs with in the group Sons of Mack) is a love letter to Music to the Third Power. In addition to Magic 100 people would pay five bucks at the door,” the city, showcasing the crucial spots of his Motion, he named Cedar Rapids influences he said. youth, including McKinley Middle School and Soldiers in Command, Sonny Butler, Maybelle, Once the showcases outgrew that spot, they Washington High School, and shouting out influ- DJ Commando (who’s still active)—and he re- ran for a while at the Coopacabana, until the ences and peers in the text across the bottom of members rushing home from McKinley in the flood of 2008. It took several meetings with the afternoons to see Yo, MTV Raps. the screen. owner over two to three months before he agreed “That was the only visual that we would see to let them do a show there, but eventually, they “I think there are individuals who have an interest,” he says of up-and-coming performers, of hip hop, because it wasn’t like anybody was were staples in the space, and even the regulars rtino
DeMa
28 June 2021 LITTLEVILLAGEMAG.COM/LV295
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