Artist. Producer. Innovator. Grammy®–nominated artist entrenched in the ethos of Hip Hop culture while coloring outside the lines tradition. Newest member of Steve Coleman’s Five Elements, Providing Creative Direction for projects with Goldink and Guillermo Brown. Recipient of the 2018 Halcyon Artist Fellowship, DCCAH Artist Fellowship, Sister Cities Grant and Artist Fellowship Grant. He can be heard on Whose Hat is This? most recent album Everything’s Ok, Goldlink’s “At What Cost,” MTV’s “Rebel Music” series, Kevin Hart’s Laugh At My Pain, A’Larrache (Canal +) and more. Currently faculty at the School of Improvisational Music in New York, guest collaborator with international arts program OneBeat and works as a music emissary with the U.S. State Department. He continues his project as Chief Ideator and co-curator of BeatsnBeans: a discussion series on creativity and the re-imagining of creative spaces, through which Kokayi continues to pursue the origins of creativity and innovation.