Tunnel Clones
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Tunnel Clones

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"TUNNEL VISION: Local trio's 'Concrete Swamp' marks new era for Memphis hip-hop."

Memphis' emerging hip-hop scene gets a big boost Friday night when the two-MCs/one-DJ trio Tunnel Clones celebrate the release of their debut album, 'Concrete Swamp.'

A collaboration between largely unknown MCs Deverick "Rachi" Sheftall, Jimmy "Bosco" Catchings and a familiar face on the local music scene, Memphix-connected DJ Luke "Redeye Jedi" Sexton, 'Concrete Swamp' might be (demos and obscure collections aside) the first significant record of its kind - vocal hip-hop independent of Southern gangsta rap - to come out of the city. With debut records from Kontrast, Iron Mic Coalition and Tunnel Clones-connected MC D-Macc on tap, it won't be the last. But 'Concrete Swamp' does mark a significant moment in the development of this long-bubbling local scene.

Tunnel Clones' otherness in relation to Memphis' dominant rap style is partly informed by the diverse background of the group's members. Rachi is a Miami native who landed in Memphis on order of the United States Navy, spending his three-year enlistment at the base in Millington performing in a military band. Bosco grew up in Naples, Italy, but relocated to Millington at age 15 when his dad retired. The pair met at a pickup basketball game in the area, and, as transplants, became fast friends-with Bosco's already significant interest in hip-hop spurring Rachi's transition from mere fan to participant.

"We would ride around, just hanging out," Rachi remembers. "[Bosco and other friends] would freestyle to the music in the car, and I would just listen. They kept trying to get me to join in, but I'd never done that before. I'd always been into hip-hop, but I was already doing my own thing musically."

After leaving the military, Rachi was looking for another outlet for his musical interests and started making hip-hop beats at home. With Bosco's help, he fell into Memphis' subterranean hip-hop and rock scenes, sitting in with jam band Yamagata and dipping into the hip-hop scene at downtown coffee shop Precious Cargo.

Bosco had gotten into hip-hop as a kid in Italy because of an attraction to the music's ear-catching beats, but also because it helped him with his English. When he relocated to Memphis, Bosco wasn't really into his new hometown's distinct style.

"I respect it because they're working hard, but I don't really listen to it," he says. "I know a lot of people who do Memphis rap, and we always joke around with them. I got into the music through the Frayser scene, so you can only imagine me trying to do hip-hop in that place. You've gotta pretty much accept that style, because it's everywhere. But being around the military base helped in terms of meeting different kinds of people, like Dev. There were people from all over on the base."

After a few stalled attempts at putting a group together, including one stab at making Tunnel Clones a full-on live hip-hop band, the duo made the connection that set them on their current path, meeting Redeye Jedi at Inner Sounds, a weekly DJ and open-mic night that Jedi was hosting at the Hi-Tone Cafe with fellow DJ Erymias Shiberou.

"They showd up, and I didn't even know they rapped," Jedi remembers. "But they performed, and I was just excited to hear a group that actually sounded good. We were all impressed. They'd wanted Erymias to work with them, but he was busy, so I did a song with them, and we clicked."

After working briefly with another local MC duo, Dysfunktional Homestead, and having sent beats out of town to other rappers, Jedi had finally found what he was looking for: a group of his own to translate his already accomplished instrumental hip-hop into a new setting. With Memphix already well-known internationally as an instrumental label (with Jedi's seven inch singles for the label being hotly sought-out commodities on the underground hip-hop circuit), Jedi created a sister label, Hemphix, for the Tunnel Clones, and he hopes for other projects as well.

Recorded mostly at Jedi's home studio and mixed by Bo-Keys bandleader Scott Bomar, Hemphix's debut release is a record you appreciate as something almost entirely new for the local music scene. But as its subtle musical pleasures sink in, you begin to appreciate it on its own terms.

The record's soulful, varied production, including the expansive use of gospel-schooled background vocals from singer Big Zeke, is not so much a hip-hop/soul hybrid as a hip-hop record informed by soul. It evokes the durable musicality of De La Soul's recent stretch of underrated records, or to choose a more obscure but perhaps more apt comparison, the music of celebrated Pacific Northwest Indie hip-hop group, the Lifesavas.

All three members of Tunnel Clones put their stamp on the record. Bosco is the most prominent vocalist with two solo showcases. Jedi and Rachi split production duties, with Rachi also rapping on most songs, and Jedi adding turntable scratches to most tracks. Bosco and Rachi are distinct voices that work well together. Rachi is both more staccato and more laid-back, while Bosco is simultaneously more confrontational and conversational. This tag-teaming echoes equally contrasting production styles of Rachi and Jedi.

"Dev's classically trained, so he's much more musically refined," Jedi says. "I'm more old-school-hip-hop, with more sampling, more the school of [classic hip-hop DJ's] Pete Rock and DJ Premier."

A hip-hop lifter, Jedi flexes his turntable skills on the album's instrumental intro 'Enter the Swamp,' where the mix of deft scratches, layered samples and fluid bass lines evokes his Memphix mixes. But you can also hear Jedi's pure hip-hop and funk style on his other productions: 'Word of My Breath' is built around a sample from rapper Nas' hip-hop classic 'Illmatic.'
'Concrete Images' boasts the albums' hottest straight hip-hop beat. 'Bad Mouth,' with Bomar adding a liquid bass line and guest rapper D-Macc (whose solo album might be the next Hemphix project) dropping an ice-cold verse, sounds like vintage early-'70s Stax. Rachi's productions, by contrast, are more varied, using jazzlike piano ('Heads in Our Pocket,' 'Southside'), rock guitar ('Nothing') , and Latin elements ('What You Want').

Put it all together and you have a record unique in the annals of Memphis music, something apparent in such details as the way Big Zeke's gospel humming spars with Jedi's whiplash scratches on 'Heads in Our Pocket' or the way Bosco tweaks the endlessly hood-repping local competition on 'Southside' ("I'm from the south side of Italy/Are ya'll really feeling me?").

Whether 'Concrete Swamp' will end up as an anomaly or the beginning of a new chapter in Memphis music remains to be seen, but after 10 years of trying to build a scene, Jedi things Memphis is primed to embrace an alternative to the city's primary rap style.

"Everywhere else, this scene was building early on, so it's about time for it to happen here," he says. - Chris Herrington, Memphis Flyer January 27, 2005


"NEW RELEASES 2005 - 'Concrete Swamp' Tunnel Clones"

The Iron Mic Coalition isn't alone at the forefront of Memphis' burgeoning hip-hop movement. Joining them at the head of the pack - on club stages and now on record - are the Tunnel Clones, with rappers Bosco and Rachi, and DJ Redeye Jedi.

Their debut, 'Concrete Swamp' beat Iron Mic's '1st Edition' to the record store racks, thus earning the distinction of being the first significant album to come out of the local hip-hop scene. Where Iron Mic has a distinctly Memphis feel, the Tunnel Clones have a sound that fits more comfortably within the broader style of underground/alternative hip-hop, with laid back, organic beats, smart samples, and a vocal sound that isn't regionally specific.

The vocal quality results from the diverse backgrounds of Bosco, who was born in Naples, Italy, and moved to Memphis while in high school, and Rachi, a Miami native who landed in Memphis on order of the United States Navy, spending his three-year enlistment at the base in Millington. But, musically, 'Concrete Swamp' does nod to the heritage the group's hometown provides, including expansive use of gospel-schooled background vocals. And the bass-driven standout 'Bad Mouth' has the slinky lope of a vintage Stax single. - Chris Herrington, Memphis Magazine, May 2005


"THE YEAR IN LOCAL MUSIC 2006 - Top 15 Local Albums of the Year: Memphis rappers and rockers hustle and flow their way through an exciting year."

#9) 'Concrete Swamp' - Tunnel Clones (Hemphix Records):

MC's Bosco and Rachi and DJ Redeye Jedi serve as the perfect tour guides for this urban field trip, taking listeners on a musical journey that incorporates birdcalls, gospel moans, snare riffs, lilting strings, and free-form rap. 'Concrete Swamp', a startlingly straightforward and refreshing hip-hop release for a city that's devoted to hardcore rap, surprises at every turn: 'Voodoo' combines a horror-movie sound with Bob Marley's anthemic 'Get Up, Stand Up' and streetwise rhymes before fading into the Latin-tinged 'What You Want', which gives way to 'Freedom of Thought', an uplifting, handclapping affirmation that sounds equal parts Arrested Development and De La Soul. Local college kids - from the U of M and LeMoyne-Owen - are already savvy to these hip-hop heroes; hopefully, in '06, the rest of Memphis will catch up. - Andria Lisle, Memphis Flyer, December 29, 2005


"THE YEAR IN MEMPHIS MUSIC 2007"

The Year in Memphis Music
Sophomore discs from Amy LaVere and Harlan T. Bobo and a "career" retrospective from Ross Johnson were among the local highlights of 2007.

December 27, 2007

A lot of the usual suspects in local music were quiet in 2007. Recent headliners Three 6 Mafia, North Mississippi Allstars, Lucero, Snowglobe, the ex-Oblivians (Jack Yarber and Greg Cartwright), and ex-Lost Sounds (Alicja Trout and, to an extent, Jay Reatard) all took the year off as far as releasing new albums. Meanwhile, the past loomed large again in the form of a relaunch of Stax records, which spurred a welcome avalanche of reissue and archival material.
But into this new-music breach, lots of good stuff emerged, including (obviously or arguably) improved sophomore releases from the likes of Tunnel Clones, Harlan T. Bobo, and breakout star Amy LaVere.
Here's the local music that hit hardest for us in 2007:

…7. World Wide Open — Tunnel Clones (Hemphix): More than just a useful alternative to the aggressive monotony of most local rap product, World Wide Open is strong, assured hip-hop on its own terms: soulful and ambitious; sad, but defiant.

- Memphis Flyer Staff


"TO PAY THE BILLZ, Sasha Frere-Jones, The New Yorker"

January 2, 2008

To Pay the Billz

For half a decade, Virginia m.c. Skillz (formerly Mad Skillz) has been summing up each year’s worth of hip-hop news in a single song. Some of these roundups were eventually pressed and released on vinyl. Skillz has just filed another year-end report, although this summary includes more references outside of hip-hop’s orbit than usual (unless Anna Nicole Smith recorded a rap before dying) and was created as a video rather than simply as audio. (One rhyme appears to be missing, at least in our dreams: “On a quart of milk, I saw a picture of crunk, and where would ’Ye be without Daft Punk?”) If you didn’t follow hip-hop in 2007, a few names will be unfamiliar, but at least you know what to Google.

If you’re wondering what 2008 will be about, start here—keeping in mind that Lil Wayne was also more than half of 2007. And one complete unknown that I can’t stop playing: “In the City,” by Tunnel Clones, from Memphis, Tennessee. If not 2008, maybe 2009 will be theirs.

- Sasha Frere-Jones, The New Yorker


"BOB MEHR: BEST MEMPHIS MUSIC OF 2007"

Some rising stars and perennial favorites had banner year

Friday, December 28, 2007

Memphis, 2007: It was a year that saw the city's music scene garner some serious national and international exposure. This trend was propelled by the growth of hometown events like the annual Gonerfest, which drew record crowds from around the globe, and the inauguration of the Memphis Pops concert, as well as the 30th anniversary of Elvis' death and the golden celebrations of Stax, Hi and the city's soul music legacy.
On the recorded front, the 12-month period was marked by some notable absences. Memphis perennials Three 6 Mafia, Lucero, Jack Oblivian and the Tearjerkers, and the Bo-Keys were absent from the new-release bins. Another year passed without a fresh studio effort from Greg Cartwright's Reigning Sound -- though their Ardent Studios recorded follow-up to 2004's Too Much Guitar is due in early '08.

Meanwhile, the city's fastest rising star, Jay Reatard, was mostly on the road, touring relentlessly in support of his 2006 solo debut Blood Visions, which won the hearts and minds of everyone from uber-producer Rick Rubin to the snarks at Vice Magazine. (Reatard is poised for a big '08 as well, with a singles club series planned through Matador, as well as a proper solo follow-up for an as-yet undetermined label.)

Still, it was a bountiful year for local music: one of massive albums and overlooked gems, breakthroughs by ingénues and surprising turns from grizzled vets. So, without further ado, here are my choices for the best Memphis had to offer in '07:


…6. Tunnel Clones, World Wide Open (Hemphix): A splendid sophomore effort from these local hip-hop collagists. MCs James "Bosco" Catchings and Deverick "Rachi" Sheftall and DJ/Turntablist Luke "Redeye Jedi" Sexton serve up an often dense, sometimes dizzying, but always engaging platter that nods to the traditions of classic Southern soul as well as the early-'90s Native Tongues movement.

- By Bob Mehr, Commercial Appeal


"MARK JORDAN'S TOP 10 CD's: Dickinson, Tunnel Clones, Bobo, Lavere Top List"

Friday, December 28, 2007

The music industry, you may have heard, is going through some changes. The Internet has shot a giant hole into the industry's business model, and no one seems to know how to patch it up.

The bleeding, if less severe and in different forms, is no less noticeable on the local level. (One of the most oft-heard choruses heard around town this year was how not as many people are going to see bands anymore.)

Still, even with CD sales down nationwide, dozens of Memphis-area bands put out records this past year. And with advances in recording technology, even the poorest recording act can afford to put out a professional-sounding product these days, so there are very few discs that can immediately dismissed out of hand.

If you are a regular reader of The CA's record reviews, you may notice that, in some cases, the rankings below do not jive with the score an album may have received on its release.

Those scores -- one to four stars -- are, like this list, entirely subjective. I've now lived with these recordings for months, as opposed to the days or weeks I may have had with them on their first evaluation. They have had time to seep in. I do not even know how many records I listen to in a year -- certainly well in the hundreds. The ones that make it onto this list are the ones that stick with me, the ones to which I keep coming back, the ones I tell friends about, the ones I tear up the office to find so I can hear them just one more time:


…3. Tunnel Clones, World Wide Open (Hemphix): While Three 6 Mafia was pimping on MTV and various other linchpins of the Memphis rap scene were marching in and out of jail, the trio known as the Tunnel Clones were busy pulling local hip-hop out of the ghetto with thought-provoking rhymes and beats that, thankfully, didn't sound like they were composed on a Casiotone.

- By Mark Jordan,?Special to The Commercial Appeal?


"GETTING DOWN TO BUSINESS: Tunnel Clones bring discipline and a lot of groove to their second album, 'World Wide Open'."

Back in January 2005, when they released their debut album, Concrete Swamp, Tunnel Clones were determined to reinvent the local hip-hop scene, which has been long overshadowed by the gangsta-rap phenomenon.

Two-and-a-half years later, MCs Jimmy "Bosco" Catchings and Deverick "Rachi" Sheftall and DJ Luke "Redeye Jedi" Sexton are an older and wiser crew, yet, with the release of World Wide Open, which drops this weekend, they sound as invigorated as ever.

Or, as Bosco sagely declares on the propulsive title track: "I heard memories kill the past and the future kills the present/Never questioning my past, second-guessing my direction/Lyrical blessing/Pay attention you might miss the message."

"Once people accepted the first album, we gained a lot of confidence," he notes. "On Concrete Swamp, there were only a few songs where we sat together and [collaborated]. On this one, we had a formula."

"We had the title before the album was done, which was like, all right, we know what these songs are, and we got to work on them for the last three years," Jedi says of the decision to woodshed for an extended period between albums.

"As far as 'community' goes, it's been the same from album to album," he adds. "Sure, it's grown a little bit, but the same people are still coming to the shows, and the same groups are out there recording. We're pressing up 1,000 copies of the new album for the local market. We've got it on iTunes and CD Baby. And we're trying to find a publicist. Beyond that, we'll see what happens."

That cautious, down-to-earth attitude is simply business as usual for the DJ, who has toiled for years in the underground scene, teaching scratching skills and programming music at venues like the Stax Museum of American Soul Music when not running Memphix labels or working his day job at Whatever on Highland.

Stylistically, Tunnel Clones bring to mind the death-defying verbal acrobatics of late-'80s New York group De La Soul, a comparison the group welcomes. On the 16-track World Wide Open, violin loops, horn blasts, flute riffs, and Southern-soul breaks drive the beat, which switches gears like the turntable at an old-school house party, with comedy relief via Moms Mabley samples popping up in the mix, along with multi-instrumentalist Hope Clayburn, guest MCs Fathom 9, Mighty Quinn, and Jason Da Hater, and veteran soul singer Phyllis Duncan.

Lyrically, Tunnel Clones' MCs rap about what they know: "I'm like Otis Redding — I'll sing you sad songs/But it's not about love, it's how to remain strong/In a world that will break you down, to remold your calm/I'll make you think twice about the pistol in your palm/Be proud of your upbringing and where you come from," Bosco stresses on "Breathe Easy," a history lesson about the Stax Records legacy — and the spirit of Memphis, black and white, rich and poor — that features the sultry Duncan on an unforgettable hook.

On "Last One Standing," Bosco tackles the daily frustrations of life in Memphis, rapping the verses "Duplex houses, plastic on the windows/9:30 in the morning, stressing burning chronic/Got my resume sent it out to make daily cash flow/You know, the mean green paper that will flip-flop your household," while on "In the City," Rachi raps, "Doin' this shit for years now/Time to rise and shine/See what's going on."

"We all have day jobs," Bosco explains during a Monday night rehearsal at Jedi's backyard studio, Hemphix Audio Labs.

"We're gonna do this, regardless," he continues, gesturing around the recording space, where Tunnel Clones put the finishing touches on World Wide Open. "Some groups think they're hot shit and that they're gonna build a lifestyle out of this. We're more reality-based. We've recorded with so many legendary artists who are broke that we know you have to have that day job or some kind of hustle on the side."

Those rehearsal sessions are yet another indication of the work ethic that drives Bosco, Rachi, and Jedi on a daily basis.

"The recording aspect is just 20 or 30 percent of it for us," Rachi says. "It's more about jumping out on stage. It's important for us to get down the basics — where Bosco comes in, where I come in — which makes being onstage that much freer.

"If we want to take a vamp," he adds, "we're skilled enough. I'll do a beatbox, Redeye will schedule an interlude, and we'll always be tight. Everyone in the group has that level of perfection. We can josh around all we want to, but during that last rehearsal before the next show, we're gonna work hard."

Tunnel Clones 'World Wide Open' CD Release Party, Saturday, September 22nd, at the Hi-Tone Cafe With Interrobang, DJ Superman, DJ Leroy, DJ Wrekuh, Phyllis Duncan, Hope Clayburn and the Iron Mic Coalition

Doors open at 9 p.m., $7
- Andria Lisle - Memphis Flyer 9/20 - 9/26/07


"STAX SHOWS SOUL"

This fall, Stax Museum of Soul Music in Memphis is hosting another fine arts photography exhibit.

"Hip Hop Immortals" features photographs from a variety of artists taken by well-known photographers.

"It's the only hip hop fine art photography exhibit that exists," said Tim Sampson, Stax's media director. "The photography is so good and it gives you a history in images from its gritty beginnings to the glamour today."

The photo exhibits change about four or five times a year, Sampson said, but the current exhibit is a first for the museum.

Stax Museum features more than 2,000 exhibits of Stax Records artists, as well as other soul musicians. The Stax catalog includes songs by Isaac Hayes, Rufus Thomas, Otis Redding and many more.

This exhibit bridges the gap between soul artists of yesterday and hip-hop artists of today. Since the beginning of the genre, hip-hop artists have sampled and covered hundreds of Stax Records.

"Without Stax Records, there might not even have been the whole hip hop phenomenon," Sampson said.

With the exhibit, the museum hopes to attract a different age group of visitors and Memphians who had never been to been to the museum, according to Sampson.

"We hope to bring in a younger audience," he said. "Hip hop has an extremely diverse audience.

The opening of the exhibit brought in the largest crowd ever to Stax, Sampson said. A band called Tunnel Clones performed and included Stax songs in their line-up.

This exhibit explores hip-hop from its earliest artists, such as Run-DMC, KRS-ONE, and Public Enemy, to artists of today like Lil Wayne, Jay-Z, and Outkast.

Sampson offered a reason why he believes hip-hop has been so prolific.

"I think that some hip hop music speaks from a generation that has challenges and they voice their frustrations through hip hop music," he said.

The photographs from the exhibit are also available in a book of the same name. It features 100 hip-hop artists, 40 photographers, and weighs seven pounds. It contains many photos that were not shown in the exhibit due to their content.

"Some shots in the book are not appropriate for the museum with school kids next door (to Stax Academy) coming to see it," Sampson said.
- By: Laqueta Perry, The Daily Helmsman 10/12/06


"TUNNEL CLONES EMERGE WITH A FRESH AMBITIOUS SOUND"

Friday, November 2, 2007

The Tunnel Clones, ‘World Wide Open’, Hemphix Records

In a rap scene that is overwhelmingly dominated by Three 6 Mafia and their seemingly infinite numbers of imitators in the Southern crunk style, the trio the Tunnel Clones stand alone against the hegemony. MCs Jimmy "Bosco" Catchings and Deverick "Rachi" Sheftall and DJ Luke "Redeye Jedi" Sexton first teamed up on the 2005 release Concrete Swamp, an oddly meditative record full of nature sounds and mellow rhyme schemes.

The Clones admit that that first record was less than a full-on collaboration, more a slapping together of half-finished ideas. So with that in mind, World Wide Open can justly be seen as the first full-blown release from the trio, and it is a dazzling re-introduction.

In stark contrast to the tinny production of Hypnotize Mindz, et al -- with their emphasis on cheap Casio keyboard-sounding beats, an aesthetic they oddly (and probably not coincidentally) share with a lot of the modern Southern soul labels like Ecko and Malaco -- the Clones deal in full-blown soundscapes. World Wide Open has a musical and lyrical ambition and originality that has been sorely missing from hip-hop since the glory days of De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest. This is not gin-and-juice music, but literate, positive hip-hop that indulges rap's essential sampling nature to the hilt.

"Last Man Standing," one of three tracks to feature local woodwinds wonder Hope Clayburn, builds on a string quartet sample before suddenly breaking at around the 2:10 mark into an extended, trance-like flute solo over an oboe-like figure. The album also helps revive the largely lost art of scratching, still popular in live settings but largely missing from recorded projects, perhaps because it's seen as dated. But with his virtuoso turntable work on cuts like "Dirty South Frequencies," Redeye Jedi shows how the instrument can be both traditional and fresh.

Local rap fans in search of something fresh owe it to themselves to give the Clones a listen. And any local hip-hop artists looking to move beyond the same ole same ole should do the same.

Grab This Thing!!
- By Mark Jordan, Commercial Appeal, Memphis Playbook 11/02/07


Discography

Sophomore album 'World Wide Open', released September 25, 2007

Debut album, 'Concrete Swamp', released January 2005

Photos

Bio

World Wide Open is a strong, confident record — densely musical (opening with Steely Dan, closing in Africa, supplying considerable funk in between) with smart, grounded flows and terrific backing vocals. A nice change of pace from the standard-issue style of most Memphis rap.

KEY POINTS OF INTEREST:

• Tunnel Clones headlined the 2008 Presidential Campaign Fundraising Event in Memphis, TN at Obama’s ‘Barack the Vote! Concert’ at the Hi-Tone Café, Friday, February 1, 2008

• Featured in the hip-hop zine ‘Street Masters’ January 2008

• ‘World Wide Open’ voted #3 by Commercial Appeal’s contributing editor Mark Jordan for his ‘Top 10 CD’s of 2007’

• ‘World Wide Open’ also made the Commercial Appeal’s main Editor’s list of ‘Best Memphis Music of 2007’ coming in at #6

• New album also received #7 of 10 in the Memphis Flyer for editor Chris Herrington’s ‘The Year in Memphis Music 2007 Review’

• Radio Campaign starting November 27 and going for 8-10 weeks of radio play to 250 College and CMJ Radio Stations across the U.S. and Canada

• Featured in ‘Relix Magazine’ (12/07, 1/08) as the winner for the Sonicbids/Relix Magazine Jam Off Contest for the Dec07/Jan08 issue, including advertisement and a song from the new album 'World Wide Open' ("In the City") featured on the accompanying compilation, to be distributed to 100,000 Relix Magazine readers

• Tunnel Clones taught high school students workshops on poetry, music and turntablism, as well as performing at the ‘Gandhi-King Conference on Peacemaking’, aimed at building peace within the community by presenting and implementing new ideas/models of education and action to youths in the surrounding Memphis area (10/26/07) {www.GandhiKingConference.org}

• Performed at the BRIDGES INC. ‘Speak Out For Peace’ Concert 10/26/07 (www.bridgesusa.org)

• Group performed at NORML, Memphis Chapter, Reception (3/23/07)

• Redeye credited for coordinating the opening showcase of the Hip-Hop Immortals Exhibit at the STAX Museum of American Soul Music in Memphis, TN (9/8/06) Exhibit based on the book 'Hip-Hop Immortals,' by Bonz Malone, expressing photos of various hip-hop legends taken by world renowned photographers

• DJ Redeye produced and remixed the music for the Hip-Hop Immortals Exhibit pod cast, which was the first pod cast ever associated with the STAX Museum (9/8/06)

• Tunnel Clones became the first hip-hop group to perform at the Stax Museum for the Hip-Hop Immortals Exhibit (9/8/06)

• DJ Redeye attended the Remix Hotel Atlanta Conference to give live exhibitions for the Rane Corporation (9/6/06)

• Tunnel Clones featured in the independent film, 'Dollars and Signs' by Brandon Hutchinson (rel. 6/2006)

• DJ Redeye main contact for the Scratch Academy in Memphis, and head instructor for the Scratch Academy Exhibition during the Memphis 2006 NBA Rhythm n' Rims (5/5 – 5/7/06)

• MC Bosco teaching workshops/mentoring members of GIRLS INC. on music/poetry/life 2004 – 2005 (www.girlsincmemphis.org)

• Debut album 'Concrete Swamp' received notoriety from the Memphis Playbook's ‘The Best of 2005, Top 10 Albums of the Year,' placing them 9th in the city--"A refreshing change of pace from the crunk that dominates the local hip-hop scene."

• 'Concrete Swamp' noted in The Memphis Flyer's ‘Top 15 Local Albums of the Year 2005,' receiving the 9th spot-- "Startlingly straightforward. An urban fieldtrip, taking listeners on a musical journey."

• Redeye credited for assisting Scott Bomar, of the Bo-Keys, with parts of the score for the John Singleton movie, 'Hustle & Flow' (2005)

• Group continuously working with and supporting the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center (2004-Present)

• Rachi co-wrote poetry book 'Young and Confused' with Orlando J. Smith; features five of his poems (self-published, 2003)

• All group members continuously collaborating with other groups/bands/MC’s in the Memphis area

The Tunnel Clones are a collaboration between two MC's, James "Bosco" Catchings and Deverick "Rachi" Sheftall, and a DJ/Turntablist, Luke "Redeye Jedi" Sexton of the internationally known Memphix Records Crew. Although the three members of the group are from different cultures and diverse backgrounds, they share a similar interest for the love of Memphis Soul music, both underground Hip-hop music and it’s culture, and the positive, conscious Hip-hop Movement that is flourishing in the midst of all the negative light shed upon the genre itself. After chance meetings found them together in Memphis, TN five years ago, the group Tunnel Clones was formed and the trio were eager to share their musical prowess with the native ears of Memphis.

Together, performing for the past five years and still full of energy and creative ideas, the Tunnel Clones are here to express their original and unique style of music. As a whole, the Tunnel Clones have performed with groups like DEAD PREZ, DIGITAL UNDERGROUND, ALKAHOLIKS, DEFARI, STONE