KING LUCIUS

Check it! - Hamilton Music Awards

Photo of King Lucius on Coast 2 Coast Mixtapes page in July'08 issue of Source Magazine. - The Source Magazine

KING LUCIUS

"I WASN'T INFLUENCED by hip hop--that's just what comes out when I put pen to paper" explains Steve Hunt on part of the story that has made what he is today--rapper King Lucius. "I don't have a love for hip hop, but I appreciate how it came about and how back in the day it was accepting to everyone and a lot of hip hop was on a positive note and about feeling good. In this day and age, hip hop has transformed into dark violence and disrespect for each other, and most emcees are a calamity of profanity. So when I recognized my ability to rhyme and make a point at the same time, I focussed on material that would lift and enlighten its listeners. With that in mind, the word Lucius is Latin for the bringer of light. Subsequently, the name Steve is derived from the Greek term king."
As the story goes, once his local ska punk band Marvin K. Mooney ended six years ago, Hunt was about to take on acting as a post secondary education but decided to choose another opportunity and join 'Up With People,' traveling through North America and Europe with a two hour Broadway style production. After 10 months of that, Hunt was approached to become a model and then an actor. But music offered an important artistic outlet where Hunt could influence and inspire others. A little under a year ago, King Lucius made his live debut and this weekend he releases his new full length, 'Rebirth'.
"I was growing the spine to do this, the nerve and the self-confidence," recalls Hunt on his time out of the local spotlight. "Basically I was becoming who I am and carefully plotting how I was going to do it and who I was going to do it with.
"Having toured the world in the way that I did, I gained a view of the world as one big team, and the team has to function together in order to succeed," reasons Hunt. "So what inspires me and influences me are ways for us all to help ourselves and each other. Taking what I have learned fro playing in a band, touring in a musical and then becoming a screen actor has drastically affected my focus as an artist. The emcee entertains the crowd with a beat and a microphone and doesn't have to be married to four other people to get it done."
All of life's experiences have educated the sounds and words of King Lucius but the underlying theme is to focus on the positive elements and and Hunt hopes to live up to the title of his new CD with his rapping persona.
"I am not like other emcees because I am putting up the audience rather than putting them down," says Hunt. "Stylistically, I am rhyming phonetically in clear English without gansta slang or disrespect to women and life in general. My material appeals to those that aren't in to rap as well as those that are. I am performing to anyone who would rather hear what is being said and take away a clear message from a song that transcends the stereotypes of rap and hip hop. The reason I am here now is because this is where I was born. I was born in Hamilton and in Hamilton I will have my rebirth."
King Lucius plays this Saturday November 3 at Club Absinthe with special guests.
- Rick Taylor