About Me
Loko One is an Argentino/Australian MC from the barrio of Fairfield, Western Sydney, Australia. First got into hip hop back in the 'break dance' craze era of mid 80's but was too young to really get it. When I came back from Argentina in 89 I 'rediscovered' Hip Hop and the shit changed my life. Now when I say Hip Hop I fucking mean HIP HOP... the bboying, the Graff, the djing and MCing all blew my mind and influenced me in too many ways to name. Got involved in the local (basically those of us who never forgot we were in Australia...) hip-hop culture and scene around 93. I started off as a writer and went to Legal Walls (* a council funded event to try and keep us young vandals from bombing public property) here I met vital members of the scene like Unique (Serek), Atome, Spice, Dream and heaps of younger up coming writers and heads. Soon I was rolling with SWC and ADC, painting, buying records, riming and just living and breathing anything hip-hop related (remember kids...this is pre internet days...when shit wasnt handed to you...you had to earn the respect of people before they shared their knowledge with you). I was lucky to meet and learn from lots of people in those years especially Blaze, Serek, Miguel Dsourza, Wson, Vik, Sleeping Monk, Brethren and too many more to name. After a few years of ripping open mics and running amuck on The Mothership Connection with freestyle ciphers I hooked up with Macross and Kweschun and joined Levelhedz (part of the Boomdocks/Future Eater family) who along with the boys from Fathom became my crew and family. We spent many years perfecting our craft, making mad music, performing, riming, learning and influencing each other...and we managed to have heaps of fun along the way. Levelhedz eventually put out a vinyl only EP in 1999 thru Parallax View. Although it wasn't commercially successful, we were one of the first oz hip hop acts to move to putting out vinyl (something we owe Serek credit for pushing us to do.) and so I feel we left a important mark.... plus we were way ahead of lots of cats with our style.... I also began a close friendship with my man Monk, AZ, Mr Clean, APEX and the rest of the CI family around this time, and we all spent heaps of time (and money) partying, chasing women and getting high but we always kept ciphering anywhere we were, and developed a natural bond of a real crew which is still kicking to this day. Levelhedz peacefully broke up soon after, and I fucked around with a band I started with friends (including DJ R Type on drums!!!) called Cold Fact...we had a tight sound, rehearsed heaps, but broke up before we could do anything with it.... From here I decided to do some solo shit, and hooked up with my man Realistix who had a ton of dope beats that I was able to jack, plus some beats from JP and a killer track from Sandro...and I had 10 dope songs recorded, which I just finally put out called LOKURA (if you want a copy hit me up...). I also formed another band venture with my brother Johnny Red, called Hydrofoniq and we've played a shit load of gigs over the years to great response, and should have something recorded in the near future. In between all this I have always continued to organise freestyle ciphers with Syn City's best, entered countless battles (including the Channel V one where I got kicked off for being too RAW!!!!), done shit loads of shows solo, and also with the Trackmarkerz, Chemical Imbalance, Monk, R Type and Jimmy The Hand. I keep involved in the local scene and try to remain as grassroots and underground as I can, whilst also trying to expand my audience. I also travelled back to Argentina last year where I was lucky to hook up with great people like Apolo11, Sutil, Fatal and the whole Raptores camp and got to discover the huge latino hip hop movement around the world.... Made some great friends, got to experience hip hop from a different angle and learnt a lot.... hopefully in the future that connection will only keep expanding... Been an avid beat digger for years, love digging for hours, have over 3000 vinyls, and just recently acquired an MPC and another deck (now I'm going to master the art of djing and production...hehehehe)... I'm even getting the urge to go hit the lines again... Apart from hip-hop I am into politics (of the left persuasion), history and culture so I read a lot (mainly non fiction shit) and thinking a lot more...don't get me started debating when I'm drunk...I don't stop. I love meeting people and having real conversations, I love cutting edge cinema and all those dope hardcore cartoons that are out now (Boondocks, Drawn Together, Robot Chicken etc.), I have a burning love for the hydro, I like hanging out with my dog Mason, chilling with my old school mates and family, I love independent and strong and sexy women, I spend too much time pondering the ultimate questions in life and I love writing rimes...... Any questions just ask...
