KAYO MARBILUS Kayo Marbilus is an established Canberra emcee originally from Ghana. He has been doing live performances since he was 15, and released his debut CD at the age of 19, which was popular in the Canberra scene, with over 900 copies sold. Tracks from the CD were played on FUEL CHANNEL 2005 and received outstanding feedback from Australia's top DJs. Kayo Marbilus currently runs a Hip Hop workshop for high school kids between the ages of 12 - 16 on the north side of the ACT with a focus on the art of poetry, techniques, forms of writing, and building up self esteem and self confidence. Kayo draws on personal life experience to write his lyrics, "High school was the hardest time of my life because I was fighting in the schoolyard defending my culture. It didn't make things easy, and I had a lot of anger for a 15 year old. Putting the pen to paper helped me generate that negative energy into a rhyme. Now 8 years later, I'm writing in a more mature manner with awareness of what's going on around me." As well as sharing insights into his life growing up, Kayo raps about issues such as poverty and politics in Australia and the struggles of disadvantaged Australian youth. Kayo may not reflect the sound of your typical Australian rapper - having strong Ghanaian heritage and being Australian raised, Kayo brings a unique accent to the Aussie hip hop scene, and flows to beats with an urban sound reflective of popular US Hip Hop.