Moka Only

One of Canada's busiest B-boys, Moka Only is an incredibly prolific artist. Since he appeared on the hip-hop scene in the in early '90s, the Vancouver-based MC and producer self-released more than a dozen full-length cassettes of his material. However, it took several years for him to attract widespread attention, through a collaboration with fellow Canadian Len and his own official debut album. Teamed with partner in rhyme Prevail, Moka Only began freestyling at house parties as a teenager, before heading to San Diego in 1994 and hooking up with such like-minded hip-hoppers as Mr. Brady. Returning to Vancouver the next year, Moka and Prevail formed Swollen Members crew with another local MC, Madchild. However, Moka also began putting out his own solo material on cassettes he distributed, finally leading to his appearance on the multi-platinum selling You Can't Stop the Bum Rush, the 1999 debut album from the Beastie Boys-style Toronto hip-hop outfit Len. Two years later, Moka was ready to drop some new tracks of his own, and released Lime Green on Battleaxe Records, the label he'd helped found. His long-awaited official debut, a set of thoughtful, sometimes abstract rhymes set to melodic, jazzy backing similar to De La Soul or A Tribe Called Quest, showed that despite his prodigious output of the past, Moka had plenty of good new material as well. ~ Dan LeRoy, All Music Guide