The 90’s rap music I surround myself with is made up of layered samples from older music (and often a different genre). Taking a drum beat from one record, and adding a vocal or riff from another to form something new. To paraphrase RUN-DMC: making something out of nothing, or expressing yourself with what you have readily available. My art practice follows a pre-2000s hip hop approach, visually sampling and re-presenting these unrelated and personally nostalgic things as one.

Over the last few years, artist and Hip Hop lover Mark Drew has been blessing fans with his amazing works combining two very recognizable things, Peanuts characters and rap quotables and making something totally new.  Last year I had the pleasure of hanging with Mark at his show in Tokyo and we instantly compared notes on things that we dug and had in common and knew that at some point we should work together.  Fast forward to the present and of all places, the mecca of Hip Hop, New York where he’ll be showing his “What Goes On?” exhibition and his first in the city at Spoke Art Gallery next month. For the occasion I recorded a 1 of 1 cassette mixtape straight to 4-track to keep in tradition and inspired by his art which will be on display as part of the show as well as streaming both at the show and here.