This year will be a big one for Buggs Tha Rocka — but you could plug any of the last three years into this sentence and it would still ring true. Since returning as a solo act after flirting with band membership in Gold Shoes, the Hip Hop artist has won two Cincinnati Entertainment Awards and crafted a bona fide masterpiece with 2014’s Scattered Thoughts of an American Poet, a brilliant blend of Hip Hop, R&B, Indie Rock and anything that tweaked Buggs’ creative radar.
One of American Poet’s featured guests was a familiar Cincinnati Hip Hop presence, Donte the Gr8. Donte arrived two decades ago with MOOD — the local group’s 1997 debut album, DOOM, resonated nationally, helping launch MOOD collaborators Hi-Tek and Talib Kweli into the broader spotlight. MOOD also profoundly impacted a young Buggs.
“I knew Donte as a fan and student of Hip Hop and music in general,” Buggs says. “MOOD was big on the scene in the ’90s, and I looked at MOOD and Hi-Tek as inspirations; they were from (Cincinnati) and made it big nationwide.”
Years later, Buggs was on a Hip Hop panel at the University of Cincinnati, and fellow MC Moxy Monster introduced him to Donte. The pair felt an immediate connection (“I think it’s that whole Aquarius/Gemini thing,” Buggs says) and began creating songs. They eventually formalized their collaboration with a new duo project dubbed Space Invadaz, a concept that, unknowingly at the time, had great meaning for them both.
“That’s what’s crazy,” Buggs says. “I call my fans the Space Invaders, and Donte and his group were using the term ‘Space Invaders,’ which I didn’t know. He told me his story and there was no way that we could make this up. It went from being strange to, ‘This must be divine intervention.’ ”
“We had a song called ‘Space Invaders,’ ” Donte says. “Once we knew we had that in common, we were like, ‘This is just destined to be.’ We always wanted a (MOOD) side group called Space Invaders, but we never formed. Maybe it was just a way for Buggs to come around.”
The pair’s musical partnership has already been extremely prolific. Space Invadaz made the 13-track “EP” Contact available as a free download in April. Buggs and Donte are currently finishing material that will comprise their debut album, Planet Chaos, which is slated for a late-summer physical release through Kweli’s Javotti Media label and has Hi-Tek serving as executive producer. With guests appearances by Kweli, M1 and Chuck Inglish and production from Hi-Tek, Issa Walker and Supa Dave West, among others, combined with Donte’s powerful Rap skill set and Buggs’ almost limitless musical invention, Contact is simultaneously grounded in Hip Hop and stylistically transcendent.
“The reception (to Contact) from the Hip Hop community in general has been crazy, but it’s actually what we expected,” Buggs says. “Donte’s super respected for being the OG he is, and what I’ve done in my career — we thought it was a great idea to come together. So far, we ain’t been wrong.”Contact’s first single, the banging Pop/Soul stinger “Gun Show,” is one example of the album’s incredible musicality and deep social consciousness, primary elements of both Buggs’ and Donte’s previous work.
Equally powerful is the Indie/Soul jump-and-pump of “Trap Season,” as Buggs and Donte spit rhymes with swaggering confidence over a twirling groove and Darryl Irby scat-sings with Marvin Gaye’s compelling magnetism. With such an incredible core sample of musical expression, it’s little surprise that Space Invadaz enjoys broad acceptance.
“Our shows have been crazy diverse, the age ranges, seeing the crowd rockin’ out,” Buggs says. “That was the mission statement — bridge the gap and unify people through music.”As Contact strikes a chord within and beyond Hip Hop’s confines, Buggs and Donte promise Planet Chaos will be more of the same and better. Meanwhile, Buggs keeps stirring the solo pot, and Donte notes a new MOOD album is in the works. In the end, it will all fit under an umbrella that Buggs and Donte agree on.“
Space Invadaz represents the unification of two things that are different but the same,” Donte says. “We come from different eras, but it’s still the foundation of good music we both want to stand on. I got a lot of Hip Hop influences, but Bob Marley is probably my biggest musical influence. I can’t sing a lick, can’t hold a note, but I learned from listening to other people’s music — what makes them great and what makes their music stand the test of time. We try to sprinkle a little of that around.”
“It don’t matter what type of genre you’re in, good music is good music,” Buggs adds. “I’ve always been a firm believer in that.”
To download, Contact and find more information on SPACE INVADAZ, visit spaceinvadaz.com.
This article appears in Jun 1-8, 2016.