Avantgardening: Cultivating Food For Thought

juan carlos (mine+US) This spoken word poet/MC hails from a small Petri dish of a town in the neo-conservative state of Arizona. Like most american born kids he spent most of his time as a child listening to crappy pop tunes and being a good little consumer. Though as mine+us grew older he began to develop a secret distaste for society and its oppressors. This disgust grew into hatred for authoritative teachers and fake friendly smiles. Around the same time he began to keep his feelings hidden in between the lines of his rhyme book and confining himself to weekend feasts of half ounces and foreign films for fun and started straying from the pop culture he once knew. DJ Hoppa This producer/dj/computer slave has been making music for over a decade, and has been DJing & producing fresh beats for over five years now. Pulling his sound from every aspect imaginable, Hoppa strives to create music with feeling, emotion and soul, yet at the same time infusing every project he touches with that "bumping" head nod sound reminiscent of the classic hip hop tracks that have inspired him since his youth. Hoppa has worked with many different MCs/artists, such as 2Mex, Life Rexall, Champ (Move.Meant), Bliss N Eso, ATypical, Sirus MC, Shogun, Mine+US, Fifth Element, Mercury Waters, Chief Icono and many more. INTERMISSION: Damn, something about talking in the third person weirds me the f**k out. Okay, so it's the year 2000 (or so they say) Hard liquor, blunts, art, and a microphone I stole from my RADIO/TV production class became my best friends.(posse) the seasons changed and I graduated from a public school cage very similar to yours... With the help of my fam, I moved out to Los Angeles a month after receiving my shitty diploma and set up shop in a studio apt. on the edge of Korea town in the city of Lost Angels. Within two weeks I was washing dishes next door at Denny's and by summers end I was attending LACC's film program. with no family or friends in L.A. and no t.v. in the apartment. I wasted my days away writing screenplays, penning poetry, reading on the bus and recording my crappy rhymes. After 8 months of working 11 p.m.-7 a.m. Friday and Saturday at Denny's, I decided to take a break. Taking my financial aid loans and the money I saved up from dishwashing, I quit my job and spent the next year and a half concentrating solely on the progression of my art (whatever the f**k that means), tossing rocks through Gap windowdisplays at anti-war protests in the bay and repeatedly dropping out of more classes semester after semester. In the summer of 2002 I met a producer/dj/ cynical bastard named Dj Hoppa who also spent his days locked up in a dark room making music and art. Over the next few months I spent my weekends taking 2 hour bus trips to the valley and recording in a sweltering garage with Dj Hoppa. These weekends turned into months and then faded into years. SIDE NOTE: I was privileged enough to realize that government loans have more educational uses than just buying books and herb. I traveled to Istanbul, Turkey (along with a detour to Amsterdam) in 2003. In 2004 I took some Uncle Sam spending money and went to Mexico City, Oaxaca, and Puerto Escondido. (the only reason for this sidenote is that I highly suggest everyone get out to a part of the world where people don't talk English, and don't want to talk English) It's the year 2005 as I pen this stupid bio. In-between 9-5's and shitty American life, Dj Hoppa and I have been wrapping up my first solo LP: AVANTGARDENING: CULTIVATING FOOD FOR THOUGHT. We also enjoy jumping on stage and expressing the shit out of ourselves. On any given night you might be able to catch Dj Hoppa and I flossing the threads we wore to work and sharing a stage with the likes of Ghostface Killah, Zion I, Abstract Rude, Mykah 9, The Grouch, Funkdoobiest, Sabac Red, Mr. Hyde, 2Mex, Pigeon John, LA Symphony, Louis Logic, The Shapeshifters, Ugly Duckling, Half Way House MCs, Daddy Kev, Candy's .22, among many others.