This Saturday, the 4th annual Green Long Beach Festival kicks off at 11 AM in its new home at Marina Green Park. The entire festival will be powered with bio-diesel, and will include the Green Market, a fitness and wellness zone, and two stages for live music.
513 Elevators are one of about 20 performers to be featured throughout the event. Their self-described fusion of Hip Hop, rock, and funk is normally electrified but, for the festival, they’ll be doing an ‘acoustic’ set.
Greg Pipkins, also known as King G, hails from Ohio. He and his band mates are all to connected Cincinnati, so I asked him about the scene there.
“Cinci has a very talented scene,” Greg said. “There are a lot of up and coming artists who are very skilled at what they do. The only thing about Cincinnati is that ‘glass ceiling’. I don’t want to speak too much out of turn because I was involved more heavily in poetry before I moved to L.A., but I know Slim and DJB were deep in the scene back home and decided it was best to bounce if they wanted to advance their careers.
“Its also cool because there are some other very talented artists from Cincinnati who’ve moved out here to L.A.. Cincinnati is known for its musicianship.”
I asked him about the poetry scene there.
“I’m a poet man. Always been a poet. I’ve got a book on Lulu that isn’t getting much love right now [laughs] but yea, that’s my basis.
“I’ve been a poet since I was little. Wrote my first one when I was six and I still remember it lol. ‘I’m Mr. Tree. I give off oxygen and take away pollution. Don’t cut me down. I’m the solution.’ [laughs]
“My Mom would make my older sister and I perform in church events and school events and plays. Not that we didn’t want to, but Moms was on it like that. so I became a little more comfortable with speaking in a public space. the poetry that was already there had a stage at that point. I did a lot of ‘Master of Ceremonying’ at 10 and under. [laughs]
“There weren’t a lot of poetry slams (that I knew of) for high schoolers in Cincinnati. That may not be the case anymore, but it was when I was growing up. There was a long period where I didn’t write at all. Got back to it at the end of high school and, from there, College was instrumental in picking back up and performing on campus. I used to frequent the Lyrical Insurrection run by Hakyim, who’s another dope MC.”
I asked Greg about the plans he had for college.
“I was there mainly because that was the program in my family. [laughs] It was expected. But while I was there I figured I should focus on something I liked to do, so I studied English after switching from Mass Communication.
I asked Greg how he moved from poetry to music.
“I got more into music when I spent a half year in East Africa. It was so cheap to get in the studio, I was almost forced to do it by some friends I met out there.
“I was in my last semester at Southern and I truly had no idea what I wanted to do after graduation. I hated the idea of joining the corporate machine so I was breaking down internally. I was taking a cross-campus Race Relations class in conjunction with LSU. During the class I met a super cool older Black woman who I befriended. One day I was in her office (she was a grad student) and was breaking down my situation to her while literally breaking down in tears myself and she hit me with some simple advice: ‘Son, you need to go to Africa.’ [laughs]
“It was really very simple. I had no idea how to get there, even though I’d always wanted to go. My mom started a Black History Club when I was in elementary school. My friend, who I’d call my ‘play-aunt, handed me a brochure for an organization that was on campus that day offering volunteer opportunities for students who wanted to go to Africa. It was crazy. I went to the seminar that evening, asked some questions and, after the session, spoke to the gentleman presenting. We developed a relationship and, three months later, I was in Tanzania.
“It was incredible. I kept a journal that one of my mentors back home had given me. I was teaching English to Swahili speaking students. Only problem was that I didn’t speak Swahili and they didn’t speak English! [laughs] I was taken by surprise, to say the least.
“I’d asked a lot of questions to try and prepare for the trip, but nothing could really prepare me for what was on the other side of the Atlantic. And it didn’t help that the organization I went under was pretty shady itself. I’d prefer not to go too deep into it, but they gave a lot of misinformation as I was preparing to travel. Anyhow, that was only one part of my experience.
“I didn’t go with a large group of people. I was the only person who spoke fluent English in the village I was living in, so that provided a lot of extensive reflection time. Time to soak in things like the new culture I was immersing myself into; the extreme fortune I recognized in my own life; and first hand, the ramifications of serious poverty. Not ‘American Poverty’, but true Poverty.
“Every experience I’ve had abroad has meant so much to me, but my time in Tanzania/Kenya has been monumental. I would definitely be manifesting some other characteristics had I never been. [laughs] To see some of the things you see first hand in another culture, it can change you, make you thankful, ashamed, inspired, depressed. Its a catharsis of emotion, kind of like the Stage.”
I asked Greg what experience moved him from being a poet to being a musician.
“I’d never actively sought out a studio before my trip but, while there, I was able to get comfortable with my own voice and hearing it on a track. I produced four or five songs, all for under $100! it was a great experience. Some really good friends, who I still keep in touch with, hooked it up. It was crazy, man.
“Being an American over there already gives you so many privileges but, once I stepped in the studio and started rapping and singing my little hooks, it was like, ok, he’s an American rap star,’ and I’m like, ‘whoa.’ Before I knew it, I was on the radio! [laughs] This was from never having done anything in a studio to producing tracks and having them on radio and selling cds and trying to put together a benefit. It was a very exciting time.
“After coming back home to Cincinnati, I’d already decided I was gonna move to L.A. to pursue my writing career. My cousin is a director out here, so our idea was to link up and write scripts here in L.A. Well, after moving to L.A. I got into everything BUT writing movies! [laughs]
“What I have gotten into has been pretty amazing, though,” Greg said. “Meeting up with B (DJB), Slim and then E-Piff (Piff) out here in L.A. and doing what we’ve been doing for the past three and a half years, it’s pretty cool. I feel really fortunate that fate dealt us this hand and brought us together in Los Angeles as opposed to back home. I mean, really, both Slim and B were killin’ the music scene in Cincinnati. Each one of those guys had a fully formed band/group that regularly rocked some of the trendiest spots back home, like Mad Frog and Baba’s. But they both decided individually it was time to make a change. Piff too. Soon as he graduated from CCM, he bounced that day lol. We all did it. Made the choice to give our caution to another man and just go lol. But you have to, ya know.
“But just to get specific about how I really became a musician: I’d performed before, both as a poet and in a musical capacity in choirs and things like that, but being in this band of merry men lol has made me a true musician, for real. Helping to arrange and compose and really craft out production of a song, yea. It’s more than just writing lyrics or humming melodies. We all bring our unique talents to the table and are able to gel as a group.
“Both B and Piff are trained, professional musicians who have performed in ensembles all over. Slim, I mean, what can I say? The guy is really gifted at rhyming. [laughs] Cincinnati will tell you that. He’s a freestyle machine and a true emcee. Never afraid to battle and it’s an honor to work with a guy so driven. That’s what has made our sound so unique: That each of us has our personal style, but we’re able to sort of mix and match and complement each other really well. It hasn’t always been easy, but if it was, everybody would do it, right?”
I asked Greg if playing acoustically is unusual for the group.
“Actually, we are sort of an acoustic band. That’s how we started. Our first song is even called ‘Acoustic Ablaze.’ [laughs] The way we got together was DJB playing guitar, Piff playing bass or djembe, me and Slim rapping and me and B and Piff singing. At this point the electric sound is definitely what we’re known for, but we’ve done plenty of acoustic sets. Our last one was New Year’s Eve at Dan Akroyd’s house. It was pretty fun, but we were pretty inebriated due to the circumstances. [laughs]”
I asked Greg if he has any special thoughts about the Green Long Beach Festival performance.
“We just really look forward to doing the show. We look forward to sharing the message we bring, and especially with such a musically rich city like Long Beach. The vibe in Long Beach is pretty special.”
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To learn more about 513 Elevators, visit 513Elevators.com.
To learn more about Green Long Beach, visit GreenLB.org.
Give some love to Greg’s book on Lulu.