This year, to celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, Rocky Hill School invited Christylez Bacon to perform for the entire school.  During his performance, Christylez pumped up the crowd and engaged them in his music.  Mercedes Ohley-Bucheit, a senior at Rocky Hill, claimed that “Christylez Bacon was the best performer to come to Rocky Hill.  He kept the audience entranced, and it made me see how talented he was at beat-boxing.  I wish I could do it.”  Even for someone who normally doesn’t like Hip-Hop music very much, senior Alec Petros exclaimed that Christylez “is one talented dude!”  The students at Rocky Hill School were amazed by Christylez talent. “He is legendary at beat-boxing,” expressed Miguel Lara, a junior at Rocky Hill. 

Christylez Bacon was born in Southeast, DC in 1986.  When he was seven, Christylez became inspired by his uncles to learn how to beat-box. Now, sixteen years later, Christylez is an accomplished Progressive Hip-Hop artists and multi-instrumentalist. Skilled at playing many different instruments such as the West African djembe drum, acoustic guitar, and the human beat-box, Chirstylez's life is full of outstanding achievements.  He has performed at the National Cathedral and had two consecutive sold-out shows at the Madison at Strathmore.  He was the first Hip-Hop artist to be featured at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and has also recorded a Folk/Hip-Hop children’s album. One of Christylez’s most impressive accomplishments was his composition and orchestration of an entire concert of twelve-piece orchestra, commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts and the Smithsonian Institute.  But to top that, Christylez was nominated this past year for the 2010 Grammy for Best Musical Album for Children at age 23. 

Ever since Christylez was a boy growing up in the Section 8 housing projects of Southeast, DC, he has been writing songs that have to do with everyday events.  His song Roaches, for example, which he performed while at Rocky Hill School was a story about when he was a boy living in Section 8 and how his apartment has infested with cockroaches.  While at Rocky Hill, Christylez also performed his version of Humpty-Dumpty, which everyone got a kick out of.

When Christylez Bacon traveled to Los Angeles, California on January 31st for the 2010 GRAMMY Awards, he performed on January 30^th at the GRAMMY Museum with Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer, the two women who he collaborated with on the album he was nominated for.  Then, on January 31^st, Christylez, Cathy, and Marcy all attended the GRAMMY Awards in hopes of bringing home a big trophy to show off.  On Christylez website, www.itsthebeatbox.com, he says “It is my mission to do more collaborative projects like this to merge worlds together. I am very honored to be supported by the diverse communities that nurtured my creativity.” Christylez is very grateful for all the support that his family and friends have provided him with.  Without their support, he says, everything he has accomplished in life so far would be “simply meaningless.”

Unfortunately, Christylez Bacon did not receive the 2010 GRAMMY award, but he is thankful for all the support that he has received from the community.