Carl W.
Washington, DC, USA
$500 - $1500
Kokayi is a Grammy nominated artist and producer whose career began at a small club in D.C.; fueled by his dad's vinyl collection and a love for hip hop and go-go music. His recent work as a vocalist can be found on Goldlink's "At What Cost", Jazz harmonist Gregoire Maret's "Wanted' and Afro -Cuban pianist Omar Sosa's "Ile". As a producer and composer Kokayi has crafted sounds for "Kevin Hart's Laugh at my Pain", MTV's Rebel Music and Rebel Music -Joan Baez , in which he enlisted his penchant for blending hip hop, electronica, neo-classical, blues and folk to capture the essence of the visual. Kokayi continues to perform and tour as; a soloist under Kokayi, with his Afropunk alum band the CZRS, as one third of the electrojazz outfit, Proverb Trio, with McArthur recipient Dafnis Prieto and David Bowie collaborator, Jason Lindner, as a vocalist with Rollin's Band member Melvin Gibbs' Elevated Entity, as well as continuing to work with his mentor Steve Coleman. As an educator he works as faculty at the School of Improvisational Music in NY, as a guest Collaborator with international arts program OneBeat and as a music emissary with the US State Department.
- Music Composer
- Sound Designer