In the beginning - there was darkness
2001 Judgement Day. Alive.
On a dark overcast and stormy day in the flickering shadows of the back streets of east London there were murmurs, rumblings of reform and revolution. Born out of youthful hubris a group of misfits, misplaced and disregarded by the establishment began to unite under banners of resistance and rebellion, cloaked in shields of street art and punk music.
Some called them the kids of conversion - dissenters, rockers and ravers all with one thing in common. One foot in an analogue word - the other in a digital version.
One foot in an analogue world - the other in a digital version.
As the paradox became more apparent, the physical and psychological cracks began to show - the pores of a generation opened, and the sweat of creative revolution began seeping through. Y2K. The world had dodged a bullet. Screens still flickered, street lights still blinked and crackled away, but no one was home.
Meanwhile broken transistor amplifiers began collectively pumping out saw waves, 808 drum machine chips dropped broken beats and the kids began to find their footing. Swathes of people no longer divided by materialism and the individualist thinking of the previous decade, joined the liberation and unified experience of warehouse raves - merging into gurgling and sputtering of brand new forms of fashion music and art.
Liberated by the unified experience of warehouse raves
No longer separated by race, location or genres, the kids started emitting sonic and visual art - transforming the staleness of the previous century and slicing through the legacy of greed the previous decade had left in its wake. The city of London had changed, and so had its people.
The city of London had changed, and so had its people.
Whilst others passed their hours in diligent study, work and/or rapturous hedonism, in a small bar at the back of Hackney bar a band of brothers sat alone, drinking in this new rarefied air.
K and the Rocka’s had a vision, to give shape and form to the messages and sounds of the collective experience and emblazon it on clothing for all to see, in a way that would always speak to their truth, and respect their roots.
Rockas - Forever