Multimedia artist Sacramento Knoxx talks with Current State about how growing up in Detroit influences his art and his activism.
A lot of early hip hop was political, with artists like Public Enemy using their music as a way to voice the concerns of the African American community. That legacy continues today right here in Michigan.
Current State’s April Van Buren talks to a Detroiter who is using his his art as a tool for community organizing. He's Christopher Yepez, who goes by the name Sacramento Knoxx. He’s a Chicano and Ojibwe multimedia artists who grew up in Southwest Detroit. His hometown and his heritage serve as inspiration for a lot of his filmmaking and his music.
These days, he incorporates a lot of electronic and hip hop elements into his work, but his first musical experience, in Kindergarten class, started out a little more low-tech.