John West Special

He’s got one of the most distinctive voices in modern hip hop and now he’s headed our way again for Island Vibe; could somebody ring Chali 2na and tell him to remember his straw hat and crocs please?

Chali 2na is a step up for the reggae and roots festival; a true icon of world music, the former Ozomatli and Jurassic 5 MCs hip hop education has been one taught on the hard streets of the Bronx and Los Angeles, a spray can in one hand, a note pad in the other.

“I didn't get serious until I moved to Los Angeles and the school I went to - the people who I went to school with, who were my peers, eventually became something,” begins the West Coast resident, who carries on with that very endearing American trait of calling everyone he doesn't know 'sir' throughout the interview. “After school, Sun Doobie from Funkdoobiest, DJ Muggs from Cypress Hill (and) Everlast used to come up to the school all the time; all these different people would eventually become something in the Los Angeles underground.”

He is, of course, omitting probably the most famous of all his fellow high school mates - Cut Chemist, with whom he went on to form Jurassic 5 after serving an apprenticeship with different groups at seminal West Coast hangout, The Good Life Café. But it was art, not music, which first alerted him to the emerging hip hop scene.

“I had a friend who had pictures and stories of all things hip hop - before anyone knew what hip hop was - and that was the way that I was exposed to graffiti, and he eventually started painting on everything in Chicago. When I moved to Los Angeles, I met a brother called Jack Frost and we just started painting as hard as possible. But under my sleeve I had poetry and stuff like that; I wrote raps, but I really was a graff artist.”

That evolution is still taking place with 2na still painting, though by his own admission; “My brother in-law says 'you never really finish a painting, you just agree to stop working on it'. And that's kind of what I do, you know what I mean? I'm like, ‘that's good enough, let's leave it at that'.”

But music is now his main focus, with his first true solo album, 'Fish Outta Water' the results of his own unique approach to getting the business done. “There was no real purpose, no real method to my madness. I think if there is a method, I just kind of just go in; some of it comes out fast, some of it is just lyrics first and I find the music. Some of it is the beat first and then I find the lyrics. There is no real time limit on it at all.”

If you haven't grabbed 'Fish Outta Water', you’re really missing out, with 2na roping in some heavy hitters like Talib Kweli to add punch to this deeply personal effort, which label politics stopped from seeing the light of day until recently. An experience 2na agrees has left him feeling “free after getting my master and my money”.

He has, however, not been resting on his laurels with a 2008 tour of Australia with his younger brother's outfit, Galactic, wetting his appetite for his upcoming Island Vibe Festival appearance. And while that might seem like an odd fit, 2na genuinely loves to experience new sights and sounds.

“I was exposed to a lot of things at an early age and now participating in music and being able to travel around the world and connect with different cultures and different musicians like that, I am picking up different things and it's beautiful.”

Spoken like a true pioneer.

Catch Chali 2na, for his only Queensland show, at this year’s Island Vibe Festival, at Point Lookout on Stradbroke Island October 30-November 1. His debut solo album, ‘Fish Outta Water’, is out now.