By Amber Dodd
AFRO Intern
Student hip-hop group KOFA, the Klan of Futuristic Artists, will perform their end-of-school year recital on June 27 at the Suitland Creative Arts Center. The showcase highlights the growth of the young artists, who are K-8 students at Imagine Lincoln Public Charter School in Temple Hills, Md.
KOFA’s focus is the creation of hip-hop expressions for kids by kids, strengthening the organic relationship between this generation of young artists and the genre’s 50-year legacy.
“I want the kids to be able to use hip-hop in their everyday life,” said Darius Pugh, founder of KOFA. “They just see hip-hop on their TV or phones, but they can use these tools to express themselves or entertain people.”
This year’s cohort includes eight students: Kennedy Laws-McElhaney (Eclips3 – singer, rapper); Ricardo Meghoo (DJ Morale – disc jockey); Rickai Meghoo (DJ King Kai – disc jockey); Darrell Perkins (Perxx – rapper); Javian Jackson (beat rapper); Isaiah Davis (Zayuh – rapper); Richard Fair (Rich Shorze – rapper) and Kaden Thompson (KBT – social rapper). Their ages range from 12-14 years old.
For Thompson, he seeks to build his photography and videography skills to tell his cohort’s story and strengthen his own goals as a comedian and storyteller. “KOFA helps me show who I am and what I do by helping everybody and putting them on social media,” Thompson, 14, said. “I’ll make a LinkTree for us so people can stream our music, and on top of that I made our sign-ups for auditions.”
Leading with mentor Dominique Dixon, this is Pugh’s third edition of music development programming, establishing the inaugural program at Coldstream Park Elementary School in Baltimore City. Pugh’s 2017 group Da Golden Creators preludes KOFA’s mission and work.
“I just let the kids use my room to do their dance practices, that’s before I even thought about teaching kids,” said Pugh, a rapper who goes by the moniker “Léo Maisonx.”
KOFA provides a third space, an essential environment outside of the home and school where 12-14 year olds can socialize and build interpersonal skills.
Dixon said KOFA’s mission represents the community need for Black male mentorship that’s missing, calling mentorship his “natural instinct.”
“You have to model what you want them to do. And as I learn new things, I go and pass it down to the kids so that in the future, they can become mentors themselves,” he said. “My volunteering at KOFA started as a combination of two things: mentoring and music.”
Pugh added, “We are leaders for our little Black boys and girls in our community because I feel like that’s what we need. We need our Black men leading our children, especially in our communities.”
Ricardo Meghoo, 14, said that learning under Pugh and Dixon has widened his knowledge of music and hip-hop history. “I used to play my 10 songs and mix those, but Mr. D has me branching out to other decades of hip-hop…and it’s helping me try new things in general,” he said.
The mentors also acknowledged KOFA’s opportunities for social interaction and community bonding, especially in the aftermath of the COVID lockdown that stifled human-to-human interaction.
“My father is not in my life right now as he’s serving time, so it’s very crucial that I’m having people like these two as good representation and steering me in the right direction,” said Davis, a rapper who spoke to Dixon and Pugh’s ability to blend both “leadership and creativity” in KOFA. “It’s not about just helping me learn, but helping me in life and growing as a person.”
While there is an artistic focus to KOFA’s mission, intangibles such as developing hobbies, school work-life balance, public speaking skills and self-confidence sprout throughout the duration of the program.
“I joined KOFA to get my voice out there,” said Davis. “Now, my song is basically talking about how people would try to tear me down and bully me. But through my songs, I am getting back to my old personality and the person I am where I can forget what everyone thinks about me.”
As KOFA gets closer to their showcase date, the students showed excitement about their performances. Pugh and Dixon expressed a keen interest in seeing the children express themselves unapologetically in the name of hip-hop, community and the future of Black artistry.
“When they perform, you will get to see their personality onstage, how they put on a show for you guys and interact with the crowd, just those little things that matter in a performance,” Dixon said.
Laws-McElhaney said she was looking forward to showing off her burgeoning rapping talents. “Freestyling was something I didn’t want to do, but now I’m getting increasingly better day by day, practice by practice,” she said.
“I’m really excited for the show because I’m going to really show all the skills that I’ve learned, even in past shows,” said Fair. “You can expect a completely different version of me, a version of all of us as you watch us do and try things you’ve never seen us do.”
The show, held at Suitland Creative Arts Center, is free and will begin at 6 p.m.