Author: Taylor-Anne Esparza
From open mic nights to performing at parties to Apollo Night, Occidental musicians have taken the spotlight. Students are starting to take advantage of opportunities and resources around campus not only to perform their music but also to professionally record it at a studio and broadcast it through a radio station.
The Black Student Alliance (BSA) presented Apollo Night, a competitive talent show, in Thorne Hall last Friday night to 385 people. This year presented 12 acts, including solo vocalist Nirsaliz Rivas (sophomore) and a solo act playing a Swiss instrument known as the hang drum, as well as rapper Tyler Medina (sophomore).
The night also featured duets such as Divya Sarathy (first-year) and Lowell Bartlett (first-year) singing and playing the guitar, trios, such as Morgan Mrohs (junior) vocalist, Jim Blackett (sophomore) pianist, and Mary Flagstad (junior) cellist. Other combinations included Smooth Johnny & the Butta’s jazz ensemble composed by Joey Massari (junior), also playing piano, saxophonist Sean O’Connor (senior), bassist Scott Kulicke (junior) and drummer Nick Gallagher (junior) accompanied by the spoken word of Lukecus King (junior).
“Apollo Night is a riveting experience that I look forward to each and every year,” Joey Massari (junior), who performed in a jazz ensemble, said.
The night showcased a multitude of talent culminating in Justin Godfrey (first-year) winning first-place, Anthony Greene (senior) winning second, and Taco Night, Joey Maloney (junior) and David Kim (junior) winning third place.
The audience surprised Godfrey with awarding his unusual talent of playing the hang drum. Godfrey was stunned with his win at his first appearance at Apollo Night.
“I’m just overwhelmed,” Godfrey said. “Thank you to everyone for being so open-minded. I’m very thankful.”
Sponsored events are not the only venue for practicing musicians. Organizations like RAWRecords, KOXY and Black Bottles Entertainment help provide musical outlets and exposure to the Occidental community for musically inclined students. Students can DJ their own radio show on the college’s radio station, KOXY, that broadcasts online through its website.
If a student wants to record his or her own music, RAWRecords, the new on-campus student-run recording studio, creates a place for students to express themselves through their own music. The studio has begun to record students including Rounak Maiti (first-year) who was also featured in RAWRecord’s first music video. The organization has planned a student showcase that will display a different Occidental musician every other Wednesday on the quad for a 30-minute set.
Seniors Julian Leon and Sam Stapleton took the initiative to enrich the night life on Occidental’s campus by starting their own event planning business, Black Bottles Entertainment (BBE), which offers yet another way for student musicians to practice their craft. They succeeded in planning about four events thus far and have plans in the works to host at least a few more events before they graduate.
“We’re working on throwing an all day thing, like a mini Coachella,” Stapleton said. “We want different musicians performing all day.”
BBE wants to provide a platform for artists to perform and get their name out into the community. Stapleton promotes BBE’s acceptance of all types of musicians and their ability to incorporate all forms of talent into their events.
420 Dank Crew
One year ago, sophomores Andrew Zarins, Scott Williams, Clark Scally, Jack Baker and Joey Weitz combined their musical talents and abilities to form the hip hop collective known as 420 Dank Crew. The band consists of rapping, DJing and dancing while Baker and Williams also take on the task of producing beats.
“We all do a little of everything,” Baker said. “It’s just a fun musical outlet. We all consider ourselves musicians and like to hang out on the weekends and rap.”
Baker mentions the importance of the Crew’s friendship and the community aspect of the band. The band as a whole thrives on crowd interaction and the pure pleasure of the music itself.
A portion of 420 Dank Crew recently performed at ATO’s Mardi Gras themed party for around 50 students. The audience danced and cheered on Zarins and Baker rapping, accompanied by the rapping of Mary Sundance (sophomore) while Williams and fellow musician Tyler Ollanik (sophomore) DJed.
“We want to host more parties to provide students with a positive environment,” Baker said. “We’re all about positivity, and there needs to be something students can do on the weekends.”
Williams, also known as Gil Scott Cookies, says that 420 Dank Crew for him symbolizes music, satire and sex. The band promotes acceptance amongst everyone and attempts to provide an open atmosphere for its target audience of people who simply enjoy having fun.
“I believe in encouraging people to express and enjoy themselves sexually, both through the energy of our live shows and the messages of our recordings,” Williams said. “[The sex is] not for myself, or even for the other members of the crew, but rather for our fans and audience.”
Williams explains the band’s attempt to parody popular culture as well as his position on the Crew’s purpose and the reasoning behind their music.
“I want to explicitly mock the ‘party rap’ that dominates hip hop today,” Williams said. “I don’t take this music any more seriously than it should be. It is performance art and party music.”
Tyler Medina
Medina gives a voice for the rap community at Occidental and made his rapping debut this past Saturday at Apollo Night. The combination of Medina’s abilities to write and perform rap music and his major of English Comparative Literary Studies add to his passion for words.
“Language and writing are some of the greatest effects we have in the world,” Medina said. “There’s nothing more influential than speaking and hearing what people have to say. I can make you think something just by what I have to say.”
Medina draws from his life experiences to contribute to his material. He also writes poems, songs and plays the guitar. Yet when it comes to performing, he prefers to rap. Medina found his talent in his sophomore year of high school when he heard his friends rapping and discovered his interest in that genre of music.
“Some people think rap is stupid and demeans women, but it’s actually really intelligent, like poetry,” Medina said. “Rap has a lot of references to stuff like history, politics and certain events that people wouldn’t know about otherwise. It’s obviously not unintelligent.”
He refers to rapping as a hobby and not something he does for large groups. However, his roommates pushed him to perform for the first time to a larger audience, and thus he auditioned for Apollo Night.
“I find it interesting that wherever he goes you think he’s texting because he’s always on his phone, but he’s actually writing lyrics,” Teran Mawhinney (sophomore), Medina’s roommate, said. “He’s more articulate than most rappers and whenever people hear him for the first time they always say how good he is.”
Medina expressed his excitement and nerves for his first performance of his own work previous to Apollo Night.
“I feel excited, and I just hope it goes well,” Medina said. “I’m not too concerned if people like it. I just want to do my best and I’ll be proud of myself for doing something I actually like doing.”
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