I hope this post finds everybody well. My name is Al Atomz, let me tell you a little bit about myself. Life began in the year 1974 in Ontario, Canada in a place called Scarborough, Toronto. I grew up with my senses assaulted by the good times brought on by Saturday morning cartoons, BMX bikes, street hockey, camping, comic books, Atari video games, Star Wars, Transformers, G.I.Joe, 80’s movies and a steady diet of stolen sugary items.
And then somewhere around that time I fell for the thing that would influence my life to this very day; Hip Hop. Around 86 when Run DMC and the Beastie Boys were really blowing up, I couldn’t help but listen to those cassettes in my Walkman over and over and over again until the tape popped. Young Al Atomz had been consumed and ruined by rap music, which would later rebuild and sustain him for years to come.
As many who love Hip Hop, I tried emceeing, I made beats and I even had a rap group. Things didn’t work out, members took different directions and soon the crew was no more and I threw in the towel. Later on I decided to follow another passion on mine. Watching more Saturday morning cartoons? Sure, but actually I decided I would go back to school and study Graphic Design.
School took up all my time but I did meet the love of my life and she’s my wife now and the mother of my two kids. So as I was finishing up with school I found myself getting back into Hip Hop but not through music. Combining my typographic skills with my favorite rap lyrics, I began to create artwork that would later turn into T-shirts. I began to post a lot my of my designs online and even made an online brand for myself called Digable Teez. Since then I have been constantly creating new joints, challenging myself creatively and learning new things as I go along.
It was my friend Vandal (
One thing that I know I’ll talk about besides my T-shirts will be about old school Hip Hop albums. Some times I bump into people who listen to Hip Hop but they don’t know anything about the old stuff. And usually I’m telling them they need to check out someone like Rakim, KRS-One, Public Enemy and Big Daddy Kane, or De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Run-DMC, and the Ultramagnetic MCs. And the end result of my suggestion usually works out for the best, so I feel pretty good when I’m able to put someone on to something that’s new and different for them.
One more thing I’ll be sharing is some of my old music. Inspired by Vandal’s recent move where he’s placing his old music online, I’ll be doing the same. In fact I’m helping him collect some of his older beats since I have a lot of the stuff from our old studio in my basement.
So if you’re into Hip Hop, you’ll properly find me checking out your blog or supporting Hip Hop the Blockchain. Until then, Peace!
Al Atomz