Maneikis, vocalist for Austin's "Black Sheep Optimists" featuring Daryl Uberoi (Van Aarde) and David Price, is a rapper and educator from Boston, MA whose mission is to use his platform to inspire the next generation to chase their dreams while living authentic, empathetic lives as conscious citizens of the world.  

Growing up, he was a shy child and found himself writing poetry at a young age.  He was fascinated by Hip-Hop during high school, but usually found himself as a spectator during the after-school cyphers.  It wasn't until his college years at BC that he shared his poetry with an audience, and he soon began working with his cousin, DJ Enlyte, to put those words to a beat.  After a few years of struggling to find his voice in the studio, Maneikis moved to Austin, TX and began performing at open mics to hone his craft.  It was at these open mics that he met many of his future collaborators (Jackie Venson, Clint Manning, Raul Ochoa, and Samantha Lee) and also discovered his lane in Hip-Hop.  What started as self-discovery turned into a life mission as Maneikis performed under the name RNAtheMESSENGER for 3 years rapping about love, friendship. philosophy, politics, and the art of writing itself.  After releasing his 2nd project, "Here Cometh The Dreamer", Maneikis teamed up Diego Lozano (www.diegolozano.net) to make music videos for his songs Mechanical Hounds (https://youtu.be/8iOkB4JIROE) and American Dreams (https://youtu.be/lwqspgcpRtA).  American Dreams has been highly lauded as one of the best rap videos ever made in Austin, TX and is the lead single from his album "American Subconscious". 

Maneikis has been compared to Blue Scholars, Atmosphere, Eminem, and Tupac, though his favorite emcees are Kanye West and Lauryn Hill.  His music will elicit strong imagery in the mind of his audience and will take you down a rabbit hole of self-reflection and outward awareness.

CONCUSSION is his third music video with Director Diego Lozano

Home grown not from cali though. From Connecticut, Otter Mozz, 23 years young coming into the scene with poetic heavy hitting lyrics, a taste for experimental styles, and a flow that only keeps progressing as each thought pours from the brain of a madman. His only goal in mind, express every thought and feeling before it takes over his mind and body and creates nothing less than a monster bent on destroying anybody who dares to get in the way of making his dreams as well as nightmares come true. His motivation, coming from a life of mistakes, pain, love, happiness, and the courage to walk the earth and dare to challenge himself in any way possible keeps this weird ones member advancing in ways never heard before. Although his sounds haven't been perfected as of now, he can only keep working towards creating a sound unlike any other artist out there. Not afraid to take charge and show this forsaken planet that with a hint of creativity, the ability to understand the misunderstood, and carry a heart weighed down by the doubt filled threats pointed at anybody who dares to live a life away from stereotypes, genres, and useless fads keeps this highly overlooked artist fighting for a chance to leave behind a sound created only for the most unusual set of ears.

MattGanem_Poet is following