Hip-Hop/R&BSketch tha Cataclysm http://www.sketchtc.com/Sketch tha Cataclysm, born Armando Acevedo II in the Waterbury projects, describes his music as “performance-based, groove-oriented, funky party music.” He began rapping six years ago at Acoustic Cafe open mic nights. Today, he performs almost every week (including every third Friday of the month at the “Enter the Cypher” show at Cousin Larry’s in Danbury), works as a producer every night after getting off work at the new Fairfield Smart Car location, and is a member of the over-arching indie hip-hop crew Ant Farm Affiliates.“In my music, I always need to be talking about something, having some sort of substance,” he says. “There are a billion people who want to rhyme just like Lil’ Wayne, who I fucking despise. It’s like nobody wants to be truthful to themselves.”While trying to be true to himself, Sketch feels deeply connected to the hip-hop of the past. His emphasis on good times (over thug life) and amoebic rhythmic rhymes (instead of snaps, grunts and gunshot samples) are throwbacks to the glory days. “You have respect for what happened, and you try to push forward just like they did,” he says. And Sketch knows his history. When asked to explain the old-school influence in his sound, he says, “There are a few periods in old-school hip-hop, man, and I’ve tried to grab onto a little bit from every era. You go way back when it all began and it’s like DJ Shadow, Cut Chemist, Eddie Cheeba or Busy Bee, and they’d go off on the same breakdance beat for hours, man, at a time when nobody spent that much time with the craft. Then you move forward a little to Big Daddy Kane, Biz Markie, and the Dougie Fresh era, like 1987-ish. You see, Big Daddy Kane would dance, and that’s something that’s not happening with MCs these days. I dance, though.”In fact, he says, “I’ve been rhyming without my shoes lately—with socks or without whatever. A lot of these rappers, they’ll wear, like, Tims [Timberlands] in the middle of summer. With that, I can’t move as much. And the more I move, the better I feel. The more comfortable I feel, the more I just go off.”Keeping with Sketch’s theme of staying true to the fundamentals of hip-hop, we visited Fame City (a legalized graffiti zone off Boston Avenue in Bridgeport) with his friend Warren Waxx (pictured with him), a beat-boxer/DJ also from AFA. After a walk around the walls, the two performed on the fly for kids on bikes and street-artists with paint cans.“People always talk about the four elements of hip-hop,” Sketch says, “It’s like DJ-ing, breakdancing, MC-ing and graffiti art. And graffiti, it’s the visual representation of the audible.”Watch for Sketch’s upcoming projects—one called Indie Rappers Do It For Gas Money, and one based on Maya Angelou’s poetry. You can also catch him at this year’s Grand Band Slam concert, and later on Saturday, he’ll head up to Cousin Larry’s to join Louis Logic, a prominent underground MC from NYC. —Sean Corbett
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