Rapper Luckyiam makes first trip to Juneau

By Courtney Nelson | For the Juneau Empire

Rap and hip-hop artist Luckyiam, gearing up to visit Juneau for the first time this weekend, wants to give you a present. The musician, who performs at the Rendezvous Friday night starting at 9 p.m., has made a mix tape called "The Present," available for free download at his Web site: www.legendarymusic.net/thepresent/.

The art that accompanies this mix tape features Luckyiam making what looks like a gang sign, but it actually symbolizes Living Legends, a group of rappers that performed together for years. Collectively they have officially sold over 200,000 copies of their albums, an estimate that Luckyiam says is very conservative.

"It doesn't count all the bootlegged copies which would put the number closer to 500,000," he said.

Luckyiam said his many musical influences include Stevie Wonder, Pink Floyd, Queen, Freestyle Fellowship, L.L. Kool J and The Outkasts.

His music isn't traditional rap, he said, but is infused with other styles.

"I'm a public speaker who just happens to have music playing in the background," he said.

Luckyiam has performed with The Grouch and other Living Legends in Anchorage and Girdwood but for this trip he'll be performing solo. He said the Juneau plan was hatched through the networking tool Twitter.

"Good things happen through Twitter," Luckyiam said, explaining that his friend Josh Boots twittered while he was performing at the Hanger last month.

"Josh Boots was hollering at me through Twitter to do a track, and we got to talking and then he said he was doing a show up there," he said.

Luckyiam hadn't done a show in Alaska in a while and said he'd had a great time in Anchorage and Girdwood, so it got him thinking.

"Then Will (Muldoon) saw the conversation, and another one of my boys heard me and he was like... 'Hey, I can get you up here,'" he said, speaking from his home in South Central Los Angeles.

He said he is looking forward to visiting Juneau.

"I've been a whole lotta places in my time and it's exciting to go somewhere that you've never been, ever... I'm running out of those places."

Countries he's visited include England, Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, Norway and the French Riviera.

Luckyiam will be bringing his 10-month-old pitbull on the trip and said he's hoping to see some eagles while he's in town.

Tickets to his show are available at Aurora Projekt and the Rendezvous for $10, or $15 at the door. Juneau's own Sea Life w/ DJ Judo will open the show.

• Contact Courtney nelson at nelsonfamily@acsalaska.net">nelsonfamily@acsalaska.net