DJ CAVEM MOETAVATION

Artist Information

Biography

Ietef Hotep Vita is DJ Cavem Moetavation, born on the East Side of Denver, CO, in the Historic Five Points community. In the 1930’s to about the 1960’s this neighborhood was a booming jazz Mecca.

In the 1980’s and 90’s this area became the site of violent crimes and had a strong gang presence. letef lived his most formative years during the latter and made the decision to have a different future. A part of this decision came from a visit to Africa where he experienced his Sankofa, he was able to stand in the Doorway of No Return and feel the spirits of his enslaved ancestors.

He came back home and found a name that better suit him. Ietef Hotep Vita; King Peaceful Life/Love. A Kenyan man later told him that Vita also means Rebellion in Swahili. One can see that he personifies this name in his works. He realized the state of his environment and got angry, but instead of adding to the negativity, he put all of his energy into educating his community and started to practice ancestral wisdom.

As a cultural worker he began with the Pan African Arts Society as a youth coordinator for various film festivals they have hosted. He also began studying the art of break dancing under the L.O.F. (Lords of Finesse) crew and the R.F.R. (Raw Foods Rockas).

He found music as a way to express how he felt and to get his message across to others. Ietef as DJ Cavem, has created six albums and produced hundreds of unique beats, always encompassing the roots of HipHop, blending that James Brown funk with the crunk of today. He has practiced his talents as both a poet and promoter for the Café Nuba poetry venue, and shows off his disc jockey skills with Slam Nuba for their monthly poetry slams. He has shared the stage with several artists from Dead Prez to K’naan to Les Nubians. He has shared his musical talents at the National Green Festival, the Denver based Dragon Boat Festival, the People’s Fair and the Denver Black Arts Festival.

In addition to the entertainment realm, Ietef has always been heavily involved in education. Ietef is the founder of an annual event called The Brown Suga Festival, where he brings youth together with holistic healers, educators, and artists for presentations, discussion and networking.

He has lectured at the Denver, San Francisco, and Chicago Green Festivals, the Sustainability Summit at the Denver Convention Center, and in classrooms at Metro State College and University of Colorado Denver. He has also put together panels for the Green Festival and the 2010 Biennial of The Americas hosted in Denver.

He has taught various after school programs focused on Hip Hop Culture with Swallow Hill Music School and Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Theater. Vita was an educator for the African American Studies college preparatory course for Metro State College at Thomas Jefferson High School Denver, CO for the spring 2010 semester. Vita is also an Eco-Cultivator for the local organization Blue and Yellow Logic whose focus is diversifying the “green” movement. In this position he introduced gardening, recycling, composting and other environmental lessons to 20 high risk young adults during the 2009 growing season.

DJ CAVEM is an Organic Gardener with the East Side Growers Collective. Ietef is also working as the Site Manager and Community Coordinator for the Denver Site of Urban Farming, an organization based out of Detroit, Michigan focused on building community gardens all over the country. Vita has secured new community garden sites in food deserts across the city in which he engages the community; teaching them how to grow food, maintain the land, build compost, and harvest.

He is also a grower and workshop facilitator at the new GrowHaus green house project in the Swansea-Elyria neighborhood of Denver, CO, cultivating worms, compost and an Aquaponics project. And his most recent project is teaching an 8-week curriculum of his design entitled, Going Green, Living Bling: Redefining the Image of Wealth in Hip Hop Culture, focused on health, environment, community, social awareness and food justice.

DJ Cavem Moetavation works hard to include the essence of H.I.P.H.O.P., that Higher Inner Peace Helping Other People while staying true to the culture with always including the elements of Hip Hop Bboying, Deejaying, Emceeing, Graffiti Art and Knowledge.

All of the experiences of Ietef "DJ Cavem" Vita, have inspired him to create his fifth album “The Teacher’s Lounge” featuring the award winning single “Wheat Grass” and his latest musical masterpiece, an Eco-HIP HOP Curriculum “The Produce Section - The Harvest” which released Earth Day 2012. This album features guest artists such as Speech of Arrested Development and Tajai of the Hieroglyphics. Both albums are available on itunes and amazon. Cop ‘em, listen and be inspired.

Instrumentation

DJ CAVEM MOETAVATION - Conga, drum pad, THE MIC, Acoustic Drums, Bass/guitar, MPC, DJ Turntables
DEEJAY - DJ Turntables

Discography

2005 - Moetavation LP
2007 - Tha Chakras LP
2008 - Deep Rokc LP
2009 - Going Green, Living Bling EP
2010 - The Teacher's Lounge LP
2012 - The Produce Section - The Harvest.

MEDIA EXPOSURE:

Radio
OUAGA FM 105.2 Burkina Faso
KVCU 1190 Boulder Basementalism
KUVO 89.3 Denver Mahogany Soul Child, So What! Show DJ - Knee, Rodney Banks Afternoon Jazz Show
KMET 91.7 Denver StudioWon Show
KGNU 88.5/1390 Denver/Boulder Eclipse Show & Cafe Nuba Metro Arts Show

Television:

PBS Studio 12
PBS Green Up Colorado 2010
FOX 31
7 NEWS
9 NEWS
Denver Open Media
Power Vote Video

Official Website

http://djcavem.com/

Links

• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter
• Last.fm
• DJ CAVEM "WHEAT GRASS"
• DJ CAVEM "LET IT GROW"
• LIVE PERFORMANCE WASHINGTON DC 2011
• DJ CAVEM "PLANT THE SEED, BITE THE KNOWLEDGE"
• THE PRODUCE SECTION - THE HARVEST. NEW ALBUM

Audio

• LET IT GROW. DJ CAVEM
  Listen   Download
• 15. GOTTA BE THE CHANGE -feat. BIANCA MIKAHN -DJ CAVEM MOETAVATION - THE PRODUCE SECTION
  Listen   Download
• 6. ROOTS BEANS AND GREENS -feat . TONIKS - DJ CAVEM MOETAVATION - THE PRODUCE SECTION
  Listen   Download
• 3. PLANT THE SEED -feat . BIG SAMIR of The Reminders - DJ CAVEM MOETAVATION - THE PRODUCE SECTION
  Listen   Download
• 11. HOME COOKING -feat . ANTIQUE, NEAMBE - DJ CAVEM MOETAVATION - THE PRODUCE SECTION
  Listen   Download
• 7. FOOD JUSTICE -feat . REBEL DIAZ - DJ CAVEM MOETAVATION - THE PRODUCE SECTION
  Listen   Download
• 13. GZ UP HOES DOWN -feat. UVSP, SA-ROC - DJ CAVEM MOETAVATION - THE PRODUCE SECTION
  Listen   Download
• 37 TO BEAT
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• Wheat Grass. feat-Dj cavem , Doodelbug Cee Knowledge, Stic Man of Dead Prez . REAL mp3
  Listen   Download

Lyrics

• GOTTA BE THE CHANGE

Video

Plant The Seed Bite The Knowledge - DJ CAVEM MOETAVATION .mov

Let It Grow - The Produce Section - Dj Cavem Moetavation

Photo Gallery

Press

• Hip Hop - Rap: Green Music: Higher Inner Peace Helping Other People with DJ Cavem [+ Show ]
  

  Hip Hop - Rap: Green Music: Higher Inner Peace Helping Other People with DJ Cavem LinkTo URL: ...Hip Hop - Rap: Green Music: Higher Inner Peace Helping Other People with
  DJ Cavem
  
  LinkTo URL: http://www.coloradomusicbuzz.com/Index.asp?LinkTo=G626
  
  Tuesday, June 01, 2010 )
  by Marissa Gavel
  
  DJ Cavem carries a businessman’s briefcase to events. Complete with gold combination locks on the outside it sits open, with its contents strewn about next to a bag full of vinyl. The bag’s stitching is ripping and the records are fit snuggly next to each other – James Brown next to Kool Moe D. and Bob Marley. He is all of 23 years old, but has the soul and world knowledge of a man more than twice his age.
  
  Along with his taste for old school tracks comes a devote love all things green. He is a devout vegan, an organic gardener and traveled the world droppin knowledge on everyone from politicians to high school students about what it means to live a sustainable lifestyle. Cavem, who also goes by Ietef Vita, wasn’t always passionate about providing organic food and information to the people. He was raised in Five Points and lived the lifestyle that was commonly accepted as normal for his surroundings and situation. He ate corner-store food, acted out in school and tagged up as much property as a spray-can would allow.
  
  If the story stopped here he could have gone on to be another gangster rapper, reppin Colo. and telling the same story as every other kid from the hood. Instead, he got angry; angry at his situation, angry about the corner stores that still stand in place of a real grocery store, and angry at the state of his life. “Acquiring knowledge pissed me off because of where I lived,” he said.
  His anger along with a strong support system and wealth of investigative resources surrounding him led him from NWA-style flows to a mix of music that showcases his DJ and production talents, and a knack for making serious issues sound good on a hook. “My 10-year plan is to use my music to promote activism and community gardens, internationally,” he said.
  
  His upcoming project and album-titled single, “Tha Teachers Lounge,” is one of many products in his quest to grow Hip-Hop and “living green” into a new movement: “Going Green, Living Bling.” It’s not quite what it sounds like, as Cavem explains it, “Bling is less like diamonds and more like light and brain power. It’s redefining the image of wealth and inspiring ancient agricultural wisdom as an OG (Organic Gardener), while maintaining "freshness.”
  
  DjCavem.com
  MySpace.com/Moetavation
  

• DJ Cavem Moetivation on greening the 'hood as hip-hop's organic gardener [+ Show ]
  

  DJ Cavem Moetavation (aka Ietef Vita) is out to green the 'hood, one hip-hop element at a time. Acti...DJ Cavem Moetavation (aka Ietef Vita) is out to green the 'hood, one hip-hop element at a time. Activist, b-boy, DJ, MC, graffiti artist, beat-boxer, film maker and journalist, Cavem plays many roles, all geared toward empowering the 'hood with tools that facilitate evolution of the mind. And musically, Cavem maintains space of wisdom and sustainability in all aspects of his culture. The self-proclaimed O.G. (organic gardener), manufactures music that feeds both the spirit of community and hunger for knowledge.
  
  Traditionally, artists tell the story of society's ills and spills of change, and with his latest independent release, The Teacher's Lounge, Cavem bears this out with a poised and experienced tongue. rapping in dips and tones with lyrics that recall a young and revolutionary Tupac.
  
  If KRS-One hip-hop's teacher, Cavem is his apprentice. We recently sat down with this homegrown Denver artist and discussed living well, the curriculum found in The Teacher's Lounge and what he's growing in his hip-hop garden.
  
  Westword (Ru Johnson): In Denver, you're like the hip-hop community ambassador. How have you created such a strong connection with both music and community?
  
  Cavem Moetivation: Mama Opalanga would say, "I am, because you are... We are, because they were... And so it is." Sometimes I do feel like I can speak for the 'hood, but most of the time, I manifest speaking through the ancestors.
  
  I'm from the 'hood, from the Historic Five Points; I grew up in poetry venues, around art. I was that kid pouring libation for Kwanzaa. I was that kid doing Capoeira, doing kung-fu and b-boying in gangsta chucks. I used to walk past the youth penitentiary and the liquor store on my way to school.
  I was that kid writing my name on everything, running from the police, another black man trying to survive on the East side. I got blessed with the right parents to take me to Africa. I gave up internalized oppression for kufis and cortezes... shotguns and dashikis.
  
  Ww: You refer to yourself as the "OG" [Organic Gardener] -- we don't usually think of gardens when it comes to hip-hop.
  
  CM: To the youth, I teach them about where they come from, and that their ancestors grew food, and lived with the Earth in harmony. I empower the youth, teaching them the power of being able to grow their own food, the power behind being self sufficient, how to eat fresh, so they can live fresh and have a healthy future.
  
  It's not only about food; it's about reconnecting with the past, about balance, culture, respect and consumption in all parts of life. A brother like me will get down in the dirt, in some fly kicks and a phat chain. I call it "Going Green, Living Bling," meaning: Redefining the image of wealth in hip-hop culture.
  
  Ww: Tell me about The Teacher's Lounge.
  
  CM: By the time I finished my last album, Deep Rock, I was teaching youth, and realized that youth with warrior ancestors have been lacking direction. I really got into teaching young [gang] 'bangers how to grow greens last season. I knew they love to eat, but didn't have the focus or belief that they could grow food themselves. They have the knowledge, even now, to grow, but there is no support from the community.
  
  I know they have elders alive, but the inter-generational tyranny is the reason why sustainability is not in our music, or a part of our everyday life. I took my beats and greens and came up with fresh vocals to redirect the energy and to remind us of our potential: To eat wisely so you don't need health care, to redefine wealth as physical and spiritual health, to keep that ass in the produce section, or [to] produce your own.
  
  Ww: You have incorporated your spirituality into your music in such an accessible way. What is the ultimate understanding do you hope the listeners attain?
  
  CM: Without Africa, there would be no hip-hop. Roots and culture are the essence. No tree grows without roots. Music is a tool that should touch your spirit. Our rituals should bring forth our ancestors, blessing and directing us. A lot of MCs have not been connected to the source of true universal energy. The light is within all of us; you just gotta pass the fire. As James Brown would say..."Soul Power!"
  
  Ww: Who did you work with on The Teacher's Lounge?
  
  CM: As far as producers, on this album, I chose to have my beats locally grown by Q-Knox and myself. Other artists on the album include Oveuos Maximus, Sticman of Dead Prez, Doodlebug of Digable Planets, KRS-1 and Brotha Jeff.
  
  Ww: Would your music be a solid, liquid, or gas?
  
  CM: All three. First of all, I'm ancient, like space ice that gets melted by the solar rays, that drip into the atmosphere and become clouds, that rain down on Babylon, while nourishing the plants and animals, as I evaporate off the everyday concrete jungle, still visible in the streets.
  
  Ww: Got it. If your sound could be a number, what number would it be?
  
  CM: Seven. Peace.

• Teaching without preaching: DJ Cavem Moetavation [+ Show ]
  

  Combining a passion for environmental advocacy, youth outreach, veganism and social activism with mu...Combining a passion for environmental advocacy, youth outreach, veganism and social activism with musical talent and a commitment to Hip Hop culture, Ietef Vita has performed internationally as DJ Cavem Moetavation. In 2010 he released his fifth album The Teachers Lounge – and he’s still only 24. He shares some of what drives him.
  Elizabeth Usher.
  

• The Reverb Interview: DJ Cavem.Moetavation [+ Show ]
  

  We recently sat down with DJ Cavem.Moetavation — educator, MC, DJ, producer, filmmaker and activist,...We recently sat down with DJ Cavem.Moetavation — educator, MC, DJ, producer, filmmaker and activist, to name a few of the hats he wears — and discussed the direction he is trying to move in hip hop and how he sees that direction fitting into the history of the form.
  
  Five Points-born and bred, he’s an internationally known artist who has performed in Africa, Europe and throughout the U.S. At 24, he just dropped his sixth and latest album this summer, “The Teacher’s Lounge.” And yet, the flourish of ideas he has makes one feel he’s just getting started.

Setlist

60-90 Minute set containing Originals BY DJ CAVEM from his albums.


DJ CAVEM MOETAVATION brings old school Hip Hop and Jazzy beats together with a message of Food Justice, Consuming Consciously and Healthy Living. His original music serves to Communicate Awareness and Victoriously Educate the Masses - C.A.V.E.M.; to not only entertain, but to “Moetavate” people toward change. His performance will feature songs from his new album “The Produce Section - The Harvest”, speaking on Urban Farming, and his work as an O.G., Organic Gardener.

Basic Requirements

PDF Rider

DJ CAVEM : EMCEE PERFORMANCE RIDER

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