Photo credit: Owen Weaver
Tell us about yourself. Who are you and what do you do?
I’m Jason Weeks, or Vorheez- I’m an MC, event organizer, and longtime Valley dweller. I’m currently working with the Northampton Center For Arts on becoming a board member and helping to organize one last outdoor event before fall hits!
How has the COVID-19 outbreak and quarantine affected your process/creating/teaching? Has anything surprised you about adjusting to this quarantine?
It gave me time to be productive once I got past the initial shock of society grinding to a halt. As an MC and music fan in need of something to fill my time I started watching videos of producers who could play their beats live. This led me to a producer from Sao Paulo, Brazil- Pancho Trackman- who played live MPC on IG while his friend Felipe painted murals once a week. We began talking, bouncing ideas and rough drafts back and forth and finished an EP that Felipe did the cover art for. The album, Tannins & Terps, came out in September and is on all the usual streaming platforms.
What are you currently working on?
On October 9th I’ve organized a free, all ages outdoor block party to end the season that I’m calling The Cool, a tribute to 1996 Hip Hop. 1996 was one of the most impactful years in hip hop history, and I wanted to bring people together to jam together to some of those classics with a twist- Instead of just spinning the records. Chris Ball, an area bassist, put together a band to put their own spin on the instrumentals. DJ Theory and DJ Rec will also be spinning throughout the night, and Dok Brass will be doing a live MPC set.
The event is sponsored by Self Evident Education, a local nonprofit helping teach racial equity through interactive historical videos. They’ll be premiering their new curriculum that is based on local history directly before the event at 3PM with additional screenings later, so people can come, learn something, and then stay for some food, drinks, and dancing afterward.
Tell us about some projects you have worked on. Which one was your favorite and why?
As an artist my most memorable project was with my group, The Problemaddicts, called “The Dark Side of Oz”. It was a cross between Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon and The Wizard of Oz that surprisingly got picked up by College Radio pretty solidly.
As far as events and organizations I’m proud of my work with 413 Battle League, an acapella rap battle league I founded with a friend that grew to be the premier New England league and an amazing hub for talent in the area, with over a million views on Youtube. It was a real family vibe at the places we used, and we were able to expose people to battles via festivals, magazine articles, and even a feature on NPR.
What are some memorable responses you have had to your work?
I’ve been asked to go places to rap and they asked me to come back again! Really though, I’ve had friends who have known me for years say that they could hear me inside the music, which is what you go for I guess. I’ve had myself onstage on people’s phone wallpaper, or my album covers as the background of their pages. One of my friends met his wife randomly at a New Years Show that I played, and now they have kids. Knowing that connections like that can happen at an event I helped throw is pretty cool.