Music:
Member Since: 30/01/2008
Band Website: www.bryonnbain.com & www.PigHuntMovie.com
Band Members:
Described by Cornel West as an artist who "…speaks his truth with a power we desperately need to hear," Bryonn Bain is Brooklyn's own artist, activist, actor, writer, educator, spoken word champion and hip hop poet.The son of Caribbean immigrants (obviously), for the fifth season in a row Bryonn hosts BET-J's leading program, the current affairs talk show -- "My Two Cents" -- airing weekly in 27 million homes worldwide. Wrongfully imprisoned by the NYPD during his second year at Harvard Law, Bain sued the City of New York, was interviewed by Mike Wallace on CBS' " 60 Minutes ," and wrote the Village Voice cover story -- "Walking While Black: The Bill of Rights for Black America" -- which drew the largest response in the history of the nation's most widely-read progressive newspaper.
A rebel against the status quo at an early age, Bain made his first television appearance on CSPAN at 15 years-old and received death threats after calling out the bogus profit motives underlying Operation Desert Storm. At 18, Bain caught hell from feminist critics when he produced Ntozake Shange's "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf" at the world famous Apollo Theater in Harlem. More recently, Bain co-wrote and produced the satirical hip hop/spoken word remix of the Broadway hit "The Wiz" -- titled "What It Iz: The Spoken Wordical" -- which won rave reviews at Yale University, the Longwharf Theater, the American Place Theater and the Nuyorican Poets Café. His no-hold-bars screenplay -- "The Hatrix" -- written for Dave Chappelle, and currently in development with legendary writers Paul Mooney and Last Poet Abiodun Oyewole, is a parody which negrofies the Wachowski brothers' blockbuster film "The Matrix."
Crowned the Nuyorican Grand Slam Poetry Champion in 2000, Bryonn has lectured and performed at over 100 U.S. colleges and universities, as well as in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe. After being featured in the spoken word documentary "Urban Scribe," his acclaimed debut album "Problem Child " -- laced by the producers of artists ranging from Jay Z to Dead Prez -- fused hip hop and spoken word with reggae and other world music. Sold out on CDBaby.com, in New York State correctional facilities and colleges nationwide, as well as on two international tours, the music video for Bain's lead single - "Ancestors Watching" – was executive produced by Warrington Hudlin ("House Party," "Boomerang," "BeBe's Kids").
The grassroots community organization Bryonn founded in 1997 – Blackout Arts Collective (BAC) has organized workshops and performances reaching prisons and public schools in twenty-five states. After teaching "The Spoken Word" at NYU for three years, Bain joined the faculty at Columbia University to teach a course titled "Lyrics on Lockdown" (LOL). LOL grew out of five years of BAC's annual summer tour to U.S. correctional facilities, and utilizes hip hop and spoken word to combat the prison crisis and promote critical literacy by bringing university students together with teenagers incarcerated on the Rikers Island prison. After turning declining the offer to perform on the first season of HBO's "Def Poetry Jam," Bain was recently asked by Stan Lathan to develop a special episode of the show featuring his student at Rikers.
This Fall, Bryonn followed the footsteps of legendary Black Arts Movement pioneer Sekou Sundiata as "Poet-in-Residence" at the New School University of New York City.
Music
"Problem Child"- Bryonn was crowned Grand Slam Spoken Word Champion at the world famous Nuyorican Poets Cafe and he is evident why on his debut independent album. Not only has he personally moved over 10,000 units at shows online, he has performed in sold-out venues nationwide since 2001, rocked the mic at over 100 college campuses across the nation and gotten standing ovations at music venues in over half a dozen cities in Europe.
One of the titles from this album "Ancestors Watching", inspired Warrington Hudlin ("Boomerang," "BeBe's Kids," "Posse" ) to Executive Produce the video for this track which aired at last year's Hip Hop Film Festival and will air on Video Music Box with Ralph McDaniels this coming February during Black History Month.
"Scared of the Dark"- Bryonn has close to 30 tracks completed or in development for this upcoming album in which he's worked with talented upcoming producers both here in the U.S. and internationally. Can get you tracks whenever you'd like. We have a meeting with Hosh Gurelli of Clive Davis' team at J Records next week. Hosh sought Bryonn out after hearing "Problem Child" and called us expressing interest in putting out a single with hopes of following with a full-length project. As fate woul have it, Gurelli called the same week Bryonn was mastering his new album to send to film producers in California to consider tracks for the soundtrack of his new film.
This is an area that possesses amazing potential for Bryonn. He has evolved as an artist, able to interweave relevant messages with beats that have listeners nodding their heads in more ways than one. I think all of his experiences have given him a voice that speaks to the masses without speaking down to them. He also charms the hell out of people.
With everything happening in Hip Hop today, the market seems ripe for someone like him when you consider the whole Don Imus controversy, the Russell Simmons "summit" and the climate in general. I just heard that Chamillionaire plans to release a "clean" album next. Not that Bryonn is to be pigeonholed or categorized as anyone clean though. His lyrics are hardcore and real, but make you think. A and a lot of his material is an indictment of the system itself and will resonate with everyone.
Influences:
Bryonn's acting credits range from leading roles like South African freedom fighter Thami Mbikwana in Athol Fugard's classic stage play "My Children, My Africa," to award winning independent films such as the racially volatile Boston drama "Hunting in America" (Roxbury Film Festival winner) and the hilariously quirky comedy "Filmic Achievement" (Nolita Film Festival winner). Bain plays a cult leader in the unpredictable action thriller "Pig Hunt" -- directed by Academy Award winner James Isaac ("Gremlins," "The Fly," "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi") and slated for release in 2008. Bryonn's gift for mastering accents can be experienced this fall in his roles as a British slave auctioneer, a West Indian college professor, and a rap mogul visited by ancestral spirits in a poetic retelling of Dickens' classic tale entitled "Auction Block to Hip Hop. " Wriitten and produced by the creators of "Platanos and Collard Greens," one of New York Cities longest running Off Broadway shows, Bain has been cast in the lead role for 2008.
Pig Hunt - The name may sound funny, but he currently has a principal role playing the villain in this $7-10MM independent film written by Robert Mailer Anderson. He plays Cyrus Bigsby, aka "The Hippie Stranger", a cult leader responsible for many gruesome deaths in the story. Some of the individuals working on this film include the set designer from the "Color Purple", the Oscar winning costume designer from " Return of the Jedi" and the DP who is one of the principle directors on episodes of "Heroes" and "CSI." His prosthetics for the film are being done by George Lucas' former Industrial Light and Magic studio (now Kerner Optics). The film is due out early next year. Check out the preliminary press at: www.PigHuntMovie.com
Other Films:
Based on his performance, various individuals on the film are considering him for several other projects. He's been offered a principal role in the feature, "The Death of Teddy Ballgame" and is being seriously considered for a lead role in the upcoming comedy by Paul Ben-Victor ("The Wire," "Enterouge," "John from Cincinatti") titled "Shoud've Been Romeo" featuring talents such as Michael Chiklis ("Fantastic Four") and Michael Rapaport (" Chappelle's Show," "Hitch")
He has also starred in two other independent films, "Filmic Achievement" and "Hunting in America", winners of best film awards in the Boston and Nolita Film festivals respectively. He has also worked on several documentaries.
Sounds Like:
Record Label: Unsigned
