Prolific producer, rapper and visual artist Alexie Ivanovich has been releasing consistently forward thinking music with uncompromising artistry and a hard cutting edge sound, placing her at the forefront of the explosive underground Hip Hop scene in Iran. 

Mohammed Elsusi is an artist, MC, videographer, and producer from Gaza, Palestine. Mohammed began developing skills in audio engineering at the age of 16, working his way up to founding Palestinian hip hop/EDM group “Revolution Makers” with his brother Osama, Muhammed Kira and Haitham Nuraldeen.

“Art inspired by ancestral wisdom and inner strength”. ~Saudade Toxosi (Gypsybird Uroboros) is a multidisciplinary artist and image curator working in painting, charcoal drawings, photography mixed media and assemblage.For more than two decades.

New York-based musician, synth builder and DJ Antenes composes her music with a laboratory of custom instruments made of re-purposed telecom equipment. Treating the studio as a space for sculpting emergent patterns, textures, and percussion layers, her productions integrate sounds reminiscent of pulsing analog relay switching systems, errant radio transmissions, signature drones and message interference’s between wires.

Scot Ebanks (aka Jah Chemistry) is a poet and performer from Brooklyn, NY. Credited as one of the founders of the DMS crew in the late 80s, Scot has made a lasting impression on the hardcore, metal, hiphop and poetry scenes of Northern America.

A Brooklyn native, Katie Gately is a music producer based in Los Angeles, CA. Her work can be heard on Tri Angle Records, Fat Cat Records, Public Info UK, Blue Tapes UK and One Little Indian Records.

Salome MC is the first woman to make hip-hop music in Iran. She released two underground albums and a mixtape in Iran before moving to Japan where she added video and sound art to her body of work.

San Huan is an experimental producer and event artist based in Brooklyn. Their work focuses on the entrancing, psychedelic, and absurd, drawing connections between contemporary and ancient mysticism.

emize is an interdisciplinary sound and metal artist based in Brooklyn. They also create sound-system focused spaces that celebrate experimental DIY art, regardless of commercial viability.

Louiguens Istrop is a live sound engineer and educator from and based in Haiti, working towards developing music and sound education resources for the younger generation of Haitian sound engineers and performers.

Producer, lyricist and selector, Makimakkuk’s musical style is raw and experimental with both serious and sarcastic lyrical approaches. “…instead of accepting defeat by the environment, each one of her tight verses offers a poetic solution for survival” Maha Elnabawi, Madamasr.

DJ, producer and event organizer NRD co-founded Radio Nard in 2014, an independent pop-out radio collective in Palestine and the surrounding areas, known as the first live platform across the middle east to host and connect musicians from around the region. organizing more than 400 events between live broadcasts, parties and festivals.

Algernon Cornelius is a rapper, producer and multi-instrumentalist from Manchester (via Leeds). While a mainstay of both Leeds and Manchester’s DIY scenes, Algernon has played alongside Armand Hammer, Cakes Da Killa, Dälek, Moor Mother, NAH, Shabazz Palaces, Ho99o9, The Bug, BbyMutha and Teebs…

Siab creates from the perspective of that Universal Energy, being at the root of all things. His influences are anything that brings the ego from its place of chaos to the basic and profound sense of peace, love and connection that is experienced when humans operate in respect of that energy.

Abuzayed the Free is an independent Palestinian-American rapper and jazz singer who self-released her debut album, Worlds Within, in April of 2017.

Nathtapol Nakarachintranath aka RachaSea is a rapper from Chonburi, Thailand who in 2005, formed 038 Family. He released his first mixtape in 2007. ‘Nate’ was an active, enrolled student at Dubspot before their untimely closing in 2017 – the UPA has stepped in to take on his education as part of the Andreas Robbins Scholarship.

Tamer Nafar is a musician, actor, screen-writer, and social activist. In 2000, Tamer formed the first Palestinian hip-hop group DAM, along with his brother Suhell Nafar and friend Mahmood Jrere. One of their first singles “Min Irhabi” (Who’s the Terrorist) was downloaded over a million times, making DAM a household name among youth throughout the Middle East.

Encounters with music evolved throughout early interest in volume and melody, from youth to adulthood. Developing audio compositions utilizing pc computer, sampler and tape. Instrumental composition and great collaborations supported an enriching path towards sound and creative word conversations.

Sukitoa o Namau is a moroccan experimental sound artist. Her background is rooted into contemporary dance, performing and visual arts. In 2009, she joined Art Dance International in Toulouse for a 3-year training and has followed an academic path in Performing Arts and Theater Studies since 2010. Always keeping practice and theory close, she focused her research on what she refers to as ‘Choreographic Thresholds’ or a possible dance below and beyond the dancing body.

Classically trained in bassoon, Benjamin Young is an electronic musician and sound-explorer currently based in Brooklyn. Under his “Viberous” moniker, he self-released the “Viberous EP” in 2011 and later the “Damnation EP” in 2013.

Jessee Egan aka XGLARE is a Brooklyn based experimental electronic musician, sound designer, and visual artist.

It is with great pride that we announce our first winner of the Andreas Robbins Scholarship, 24 year old Seattle based artist and performer: Christianne Karefa-Johnson, aka DoNormaal!