Hip Hop O Rama

Gerry "Naturalman" Bigelow, Giovanni "The Genius" Davis and Sunshine Mat-thews call themselves Three Dread Productions, but the Juneau trio has a lot more in common than its distinct, knotted locks. All three have been listening to hip-hop since the late 1970s and hope to solidify the scene in town with a series of upcoming productions.

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The first, "Hip Hop O Rama," is an all-ages show from 7-11 p.m. Friday, Dec. 16, at Centennial Hall, with break dancing, hip-hop dancing, The Electric Hip-Hop Divas, the Sitka-based crew Highly Unlikely, DJ Astronomar from Juneau and up-and-coming emcee Loren C. from Angoon.

"What we're trying to do with the concert is entertain and educate as well, so I guess we'll call that edutainment, to borrow from KRS-1," Davis said. "We want to educate people about hip-hop, what it started from and where we came from, all the way up to what it is today."

"The hip-hop scene (in Juneau) is real underground," Bigelow said. "A couple people doing things over there. A couple people over there. This is the first time we've collaborated and put it all together and tried to make some cohesiveness to the scene. I feel like there is a hip-hop scene. There are a lot of people into it, but they don't all know each other."

Hip Hop O Rama

Three Dread Productions

Featuring: The Genius, Naturalman, Sunshine, Highly Unlikely, Loren C, DJ Astronomar, The Electric Hip-Hop Divas and more

When: 7-11 p.m. Friday, Dec. 16

Where: Centennial Hall

Tickets: $5 at the door, all ages

More: For more pictures of Three Dread Productions, and to hear Sunshine, The Genius and Naturalman discuss the reasons behind the show, check out http://www.juneauempire.com/slideshow

Admission is $5 at the door, and all proceeds go to KTOO. All three host "The Midnight Groove Suite" - hip-hop, R&B and a weekly mega-mix, from 11 p.m.-2 a.m. Saturday nights.

"KTOO has helped us out, and they've bent over backwards to get people here," Bigelow said. "We want the hip-hop artists to feel like this is a place that they can come. They have an audience here, but a lot of the establishment here in town that owns the rental halls are a little afraid of hip-hop and afraid of what's going to happen. We feel like this show will give them an opportunity to know us a little better."

"We want people to come out and hear lyrics without cuss words," Matthews said. "We feel the cuss words come in when people stop having something to say. We want to show the kids that hip-hop isn't baggy jeans, hat to the back, guns, big-booty girls. And we want people to come out and see it's all right to hang out with your kids. Parents take your kids out. Kids take your parents out."

Highly Unlikely, a Sitka crew, has performed at the Alaskan Hotel & Bar a few times and has also appeared on KBJZ LP/94.1 FM with DJ Astronomar. The group has established a steady following in Sitka and Juneau and has worked with Loren C, from Angoon.

"He's the hottest Native emcee in Southeast, period," Bigelow said. "The main idea behind this is to showcase the locals. There are some guys here that have some real talent and we're going to try to do what we can to get them out there."

Matthews' crew, The Electric Hip-Hop Divas, is a group of 7-, 8- and 9-year-olds that she teaches in the Three Dread studio, in the apartment she shares with Davis. The girls have choreographed some of their own dances. Matthews will also be teaching the Electric Slide Friday night and hopes that the entire crowd will join in during the grand finale.

"Some of these kids are half-Native, half-black, and to have them to do the Electric Slide, and for their mother to know that their kids are safe here and learning a culture, it gives her much respect for me," Matthews said. "I have much respect for her, for even allowing that to happen. These kids on their stage are going to be the cutest thing. There's nothing that anybody can top when I see them learn that dance."

Davis, the oldest member of the trio, grew up in New York. In 1977, eighth grade, he and his friends started a band and his parents bought him a drum set. But soon, he was into Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash.

"A month later, we didn't want to be in a band," he said. "We wanted to be DJs, and we had our summer jobs and we bought turntables and mixers and we started imitating. The next thing you know, we were going to every DJ show and emcee battle and we were listening to real rappers that could rap for hours and hours on end."

Matthews grew up break dancing in the Hampton, Va. area. At the time, the opportunities for talented dancers in hip-hop were limitless. Matthews was nicknamed "The Machine" and she soon found her way on stage, performing with the likes of Doug E. Fresh, KRS-1, Keith Sweat and Public Enemy. She also spent three weeks touring with MC Hammer.

"I guarantee you, Hammer probably had 10 new dancer girls a week," Matthews said. "It was the longest three weeks of my life. He would run you down. You're talking about new spark plugs and everything. But to this day I can still look at it and get a good smile out of it. He's one of the sweetest men you'll ever meet, and that's why he's broke. He wanted to save everybody. We were making $300 a night."

Matthews and Davis lived in Atlanta before deciding to move to Juneau about three years ago.

Bigelow went to high school in Southcentral Los Angles, then moved to Shreveport, La., to be closer to family. He eventually left for the Pacific Northwest, running a Louisiana-style café in Bellingham, Wash., before moving to Juneau.

At that time, the hip-hop and R&B scene in Juneau was nonexistent, both on the radio and in the clubs. Bigelow started "The Midnight Groove Suite" four years ago.

"There's kind of a disconnection in the hip-hop scene up here," Bigelow said. "We experienced it growing up in the inner cities: the progression from club music to where people started recording and making albums. A lot of the kids up here, 4 or 5 years ago, they started watching MTV. And the hip-hop images, that's where they took it from. But they don't know anything back behind 50 Cent."

About 2 1/2 years ago, Davis started a noon rap-R&B show on KBJZ 94.1 FM, the low-power station near Starr Hill. He also began DJ-ing on the weekends at the Viking Lounge.

"When I started doing my show, people would call and say, 'This is fine and dandy that you're on the radio, but we don't hear this kind of music in the club,'" Bigelow said. "That went on for about a year, and honestly, I had given up on the clubs. I was bored. Then people started saying there was this dread spinning at the Viking, a guy from New York. I was in disbelief.

"Then there was a presence every weekend in the clubs and on the radio," he said. "R&B and hip-hop all of a sudden had this presence in town. After about a year of doing all this stuff, we started hearing Astronomar doing his thing. I noticed a lot of guys in town, they started coming out of the closet and saying, 'Hey, I'm a rapper. I'm a DJ. I like hip-hop.'"

Bigelow, Davis and Matthews became friends about a year ago and started co-hosting "The Midnight Groove Suite" on Saturday nights. Davis' prerecorded shows can still be heard on KBJZ.

• Korry Keeker can be reached at korry.keeker@juneauempire.com