Welcome to An Archaeologist's El Dorado, a monthly segment that brings you 3 - 5 artists you have had hypersomniac over. El Dorado, or commonly known as the lost city of gold, in this case are the artists you have been searching after. A lucky archaeologist such as yourself, now has the ability to study the specific human activity below through the recovery and analysis of the material culture I have provided for you. I now present to you the files of May 2015: Allegory, Donny Konz, & Alexander Mendoza.
Allegory
al·le·go·ry - a form of extended metaphor, in which objects, persons, and actions in a narrative are equated with the meanings that lie outside the narrative itself.
Allegory hails from New Jersey and was born in North Haledon under his real name, Al Liguori. As a child, Allegory developed a liking for all different genres of music. At the age of 13 is when he acquired his taste for hip hop/rap music. A year later, Allegory started to begin writing lyrics, however kept them private and never told anyone about how he enjoyed creative writing.
When making the move to high school, Allegory got a little more bold and started to show some of his writing skills to his friends. It wasn't until one day, however, that his friends and other peers alike began to take notice while Allegory just randomly started to freestyle. Word began to spread quickly around the school and soon more and more wanted to hear him rap. Often times he would rap about how he loves the genre as a whole and how he was a suburban kid who never really had things tough, while trying to express his environment and life experiences.
At 15 years old, Allegory worked with producer/engineer Jose "Choco" Reynoso, who worked on several projects with RZA and Wu Tang Glan, to release his debut tape, More Than A Metaphor. This project helped get his name out to the public and has gained him a cult following.
Fast forward to present day and Allegory is slowly perfecting his craft and likes that he is known for having various content. Daily life is a huge inspiration as well as the people that surround the teenage artist. Nothing is off limits for the creative mind either; Allegory's song writing "reflects a conscious effort to create a scene that expresses things that are on his mind, whether it be a girl, school, angry or sad situations, or even funny or dope metaphors not at all unlike vocalized stream of consciousness".
The underlying meaning of the word "allegory" has moral, social, religious, or political significance, and characters are often personifications of such abstract ideas as charity, greed, or envy. Thus, an “allegory” is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning. Al Liguori's birth name is not only ironic in the sense of it is pronounced just like his stage name, but the man himself portrays symbolic ideas through his lyrics to his fans. With a lot of people by his side already + the ability to back up his craft via lyrics, Allegory is here to stay for a long time.
Donny Konz
The 20 year old Donny Konz hails from East Side Chicago. Konz Started to get into music and the hip hop genre in his last year in middle school. Growing up, he'd never thought that it amount to much and instead wanted to be a news reporter or astronaut.
As years went on, he began listening to his now favorite artists, Kid Cudi and Eminem, which inspired him to pick a different career path. While interests began to peak, Konz focused his attention on local artists and the booming Chicago music scene, which evolved him into his own artist.
Donny's music speaks a lot of real life stories and is inspired by the actions that take place around him on a day to day basis. Trying to stay away from "guns or anything or try to be hard", Konz really just wants to transcribe what really happens in Chicago focusing on the truth of the good and the bad.
favorite color: blue
favorite tv shows: empire, walking dead, black sails, house of lies
favorite food: chocolate cake, sea food, orange chicken, catfish, honey buns, arizona ice tea
When not making music, Donny's free time is spent watching tv, browsing Instagram, daydreaming about life and the history within it and freestyling. Konz loves letting his imagination and creativity blossom as he freestyles just about everywhere he goes.
The goal of every artist to usually be the best to ever do it and Konz is no different, however he believes in being a good person throughout and being a role model for fans and kids as well. He is always looking to share the same respect he gets shown to by his friends and others who listen to him.
Short term goals for the highly energetic rapper contain getting nominated and winning a spot on the coveted XXL list. In order to do that, Donny Konz plans to keep God in his heart, his fans close and his work consistent.
"Don't Kill My Vibe"
Alexander Mendoza
You may better know Alexander Mendoza as being 1/2 of Kings Dead (formerly known as The Deans List). The producer/composer is originally from Boston, MA and now is stationed in NYC.
Many times producers get overlooked and overshadowed, but make no mistake about it, Mendoza is a step above the rest. The often seemingly humble and creative producer can roll with just about anything you throw at him and is demonstrated within the numerous projects put out with Sonny Shotz.
Not only does Mendoza have a successful stint with Kings Dead, but has just recently been doing solo work (Libre), remixes, and has dabbed in composed for/scoring films.
With such a broad spectrum and variety of sounds that Alex is able to accomplish, it's no surprise that his inspirations are quite vast and can range from the foods he eats to his puppy to the music he listens to.
From a pure music standpoint, he listens to all types but is always fond to bump Stromae, MIA, Mozart, the latest Jack Ü album and even Chirstmas Jazz. Now, wipe that puzzled look off your face; I'm sure you've never seen that kind of list before and I'm sure it has never been identically replicated by anyone else, however, it once again describes the range that this guy has got. With that kind of individuality, originality, and creativity, the sky is truly the limit with Alexander Mendoza and whatever he wishes to create.
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