Katastrophe (10/14/06)
Katastrophe (aka Rocco Kayiatos) is a genre-busting, emo-hop MC, whose stunning lyrical skills merge with beats that slide from slick to raw to solid to eccentric, creating a sonic otherworld that snags you in a dance-trance while teasing your head with rhymes that snap, pop and educate.
With a background of slam poetry, (Katastrophe was a featured youth slam performer in the acclaimed documentary Poetic License), Katastrophe's MC delivery veers from clever machine gun rat-a-tat to hypnotic emotional rhythm, and on his heavily anticipated second release, Fault, Lies, and Faultlines, explores new melody.
Recently crowned 2005 producer of the year by Out Music Awards, Katastrophe's beats rev and surprise, inspired by the Grime craze and Emo scene as well as both traditional and underground hip hop. A hybrid sound that challenges genre, Katastrophe fills his layered beats with lyics that rif on pop culture, slide into personal revelation, call bullshit on contemporary culture, offer a ragged hope for revolution and flirt with a pretty girl on the dance floor, all in the course of a song.
Using his struggle as a trans man and his contested place in contemporary queer and hip hop culture as a springboard to discuss and express larger issues of community, space, privelege, sex and self-worth, Katastrophe occupies a singular place in the music underground — brainy and playful, defying genre, keeping listeners on their toes with lyrics that hook and beats that set you moving.
Fault, Lies, and Faultlines features collaborations with genre-breaking queer-positive lyricists, including spots by Quaketrap's Shaggy Manatee, Scream Club, Juba Kalamka and JB raps of Deep Dickollective, Aggrycyst, and Romanteek's Ruby Valentine; it's a snapshot of a scene on the verge of blowing up.
Already an underground sensation thanks to years touring with performers such as Sister Spit and Schaeffer the Dark Lord, Katastrophe is a prominent artist in the feature-length documentary Pick Up the Mic: the (R)evolution of Queer Hip Hop, which premiered to great acclaim at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. His live shows are explosions of wild energy and charm, flirtation and intensity that transfix and inspire. Watch for him at OUToberfest 2006!
- Katastrophe was a featured youth slam performer in the acclaimed documentary Poetic License.
- Youthspeaks National Youth Slam Grand Champion (1998)
- Brave New Voices Champion (1999, 2000)
- Michigan Women's Music Festival (1999, 2000, 2001)
- Sister Spit National Tour member (1999-2000)
- National Queer Arts Festival (2002, 2003)
- Santa Cruz Dyke March Stage (2002)
- Ladyfest Bay Area (2002)
- SF Pride Nectar Stage (2001)
Katsatrophe has shared the stage with:
Bob Holman, Patti Smith, Saul Williams, Beau Sia, Sekou Sundiata, Michelle Tea, Spearhead, Leslie Feinberg, Kate Bornstein, Mystic Journeymen, Richard Hell, Beth Lisick, Justin Chin, Kinnie Star, Bitch & Animal, Deep Dickollective, Medusa, Eileen Myles, Susie Bright, Alix Olsen, Le Tigre, Marcus Rene Van, Tracy + the Plastics, Vaginal Creme Davis, Dame Darcy, Tribe 8, Julia S... and more!
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