Southern Lights Tour: Bay Area

Southern Lights Tour: Bay Area took place at City Life Church in San Francisco on May 24, 2014, at 7:00 PM. Lyrical Opposition and Lyrical Assembly hosted the Bay Area stop of the tour.

Southern Lights was the concert brand of Collision Records artists Alex Faith and Dre Murray, founded in 2014. The series brought regional artists onto the bill in each city it visited, with the aim of showcasing the range of southern rap and widening what audiences understood southern hip-hop to be. The tour took its mission from Matthew 5:14-16. Earlier stops featured Corey Paul and Reconcile of Frontline Movement, JGivens, John Givez, and Tragic Hero.

Performances by Alex Faith and Dre Murray, both of WLAK, with Son the Gifted, O.D., and Alfluent; spoken word from Sarah Wallick, Bailey Fan, and Improv Jav; and Mission of RPSMG.

Photography by Eleven:1 Photography (Felix Uribe). Design by Aris Bran.

Sponsors and affiliates: New Generation Covenant Church, House of Slap Radio, BreatheLife Radio, SpeakLife Radio, GuerillaCross, Colored Ink, Gifted For Another Ministry, Station A LLC, and Eleven:1 Photography.

Archival. The original promotional copy for this event, as published on its Facebook listing. Preserved verbatim, including the legacy web address in use at the time.

What is Southern Lights?

Southern Lights is the concert brand of Alex Faith and Dre Murray. Founded in 2014, the concert series seeks to expose new talent to a ready audience of listeners by having artists from various locations join the tour when it is in their region. These artists include Corey Paul and Reconcile from Frontline Movement, JGivens, John Givez and Tragic Hero. On the heels of their albums, GR:MOD and ATLast, the Collision Records artists sought to put together a tour that showcased the versatility of the southern rap artist and redefine what people consider “southern hip-hop”. As artists, they are seeking to be a light to their home in the south and beyond, following the call of Matthew 5:14-16 to be “the light of the world”, which is the mission statement of the tour.

Tickets can be found at: http://southernlights.eventbrite.com

Watch Concert Preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp8SBnr1Uns

Watch Rapzilla Interview of Tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stZw_2_MPhQ

Performing at this Bay Area concert are:

Alex Faith of WLAK Dre Murray of WLAK Son the Gifted/O.D./Alfluent Sarah Wallick (Spoken Word) Bailey Fan (Spoken Word) Improv Jav (Spoken Word) Mission of RPSMG

Photography by: Eleven:1 Photography by Felix Uribe

Sponsors/Affiliates: New Generation Covenant Church House of Slap Radio BreatheLife Radio SpeakLife Radio GuerillaCross Colored Ink Gifted For Another Ministry Station A, LLC Eleven:1 Photography by Felix Jr U

Designs by: Aris Bran, Multimedia Director, @Arisdotcom

Artist Biographies:

Alex Faith

Born and raised in East Atlanta’s historic Cabbage Town neighborhood, Alex is a southern bred, blue collar emcee. The term “breath of fresh air” has been used over and over again to describe a lot of stale music to get attention these days, but FINALLY the phrase has a rightful use when used to describe Alex’s music. Writing with his southern roots planted deeply into his love for hip-hop, Alex aims to capture casual listeners and music lovers alike with vivid imagery and raw honesty. Four years ago he crashed landed onto the scene being featured on Sho Baraka’s “Barakology” mixtape and has since been featured on the critically acclaimed “WLAK (We Live As Kings)” from Swoope’s Wake Up album as well as a guest spot on Wit & Dre Murray’s Hell’s Paradise 2. Now Alex is poised to capitalize on the success and acclaim he’s garnered from features with his own offering of music birthed in the south and raised on authenticity and gritty realism. While he holds his faith high, don’t expect to hear songs that are sermons and scripture recitations. Alex embraces his faith while still transparently rhyming about his struggles with belief, social issues, loved ones, poverty and more.

Dre Murray

Dre Murray's story is a rap world tale that hits all the familiar touch points. He was raised by a single mother in the inner city, seduced by hip hop culture at a young age, and witnessed the incarceration of a close family member.

While many in his position pursue rescue through wealth and fame achieved by athletics or a recording career (two avenues he did indeed attempt), Murray ultimately found salvation elsewhere. Such optimism is a running theme in his music, which otherwise deals with the gritty details of life through first-person and fictional narratives punctuated with witty wordplay. Although Dre Murray is no stranger to the mic (his first solo album, Manumit, was released in 2008), the Houston-born MC exponentially grew his audience a year later when he teamed with producer Wit for the Hell's Paradise series. The success of those critically-acclaimed albums led to other high profile features for Dre on KJ-52′s Dangerous album and Lecrae's Don Cannon-hosted Church Clothes mixtape.

He continues to improve his craft through participation in the nationally publicized South by Southwest (SXSW) music and industry conference festival and through frequent engagements at universities and colleges in his area. Dre is part of the collective WLAK (We Live As Kings) with the self titled album WLAK (We Live As Kings) releasing March 5th, 2013 & debuting at #1 on the iTunes Hip Hop / Rap chart, #3 overall album iTunes Chart, #1 Billboard Gospel Chart, #6 Billboard Christian Album Chart, #7 Billboard Rap Album Chart, & #81 Billboard top 200 chart.

More Information about Bay Area Concert at http://www.lyricalopposition.com

Instagram/Twitter: @LyricalOps