The Knox Family brands itself as a mix of “street and scholar.” While Seattle hip-hop is no stranger to that particular cultural mashup, this trio is not just another group of scholars wearing blue collars. A collaboration among DJ B-Girl, Jerm, and Julie C—all of whom are righteous MCs and DJs on their own—The Knox Family is a hip-hop/activist powerhouse. Combining a heavy gangster element with catchy melodies and poignant subject matter, The Knox Family is the kind of group that inspires audiences to get off their butts and move (both physically and politically). BJB

Musicians can sometimes be too quick to box themselves into categories. Sometimes that’s a record label’s doing, other times it’s just mental laziness. But if you’re not trying to conform to industry standards and are lucky enough to be on a local label that understands you, why not have fun and smash all the boxes you can?

That’s a question MCs Jerm and Julie C started asking themselves a year ago when they formed the Knox Family along with local producer/label head DJ B-Girl. Although all three are involved in various other projects—Jerm also fronts Helladope, while Julie C works with Hip-Hop Congress/206 Zulu and DJ B-Girl heads an indie-media company—they found time to record songs together with the intent of challenging the expectations of Seattle’s hip-hop audience.
Jonathan Cunningham

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Toni Hill has been blazing the mic from coast to coast for over a decade. Through her own solo projects, as half of the revered female duo, Sirens Echo, and as a member of the crews, Hungry Mob, and Oldominion, she has shared stages with such notables as Gil Scott-Heron, Saul Williams, KRS One, Black-Eyed Peas, Fishbone, E-40, Zap Mama, Common, the legendary Roots crew and the Coup. Ms. Hill has also collaborated, written and/or recorded with Braille, Sleep, Grayskul, Big Drawz, Kindred the Family Soul, and Francesca Maria, to name a few.

Toni Hill grew up immersed in the arts. Active not only in music, but also theater, dance, television broadcast, and modeling, she has a lifetime of experience captivating audiences. She has produced several earlier projects including the Sirens Echo, “Psalms of the Sirens” album and a DVD documentary.

Toni is also a dedicated educator and activist who lends her energies to several organizations in the youth empowerment movement including: Feed The People (Atlanta), Guerrilla Theatre (Portland), Sisterz of the Underground (San Francisco), Power Of Hope (Seattle) and the Seattle Debate Foundation. Partnering with Evergreen State College and the Gateways Program, she is a teacher and mentor to incarcerated youth at the Maple Lane and Green Hill facilities in Washington. Toni has also been a guest speaker, panelist, and lecturer at colleges and universities throughout the country.

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DJ B-Girl crashed into the music world almost by accident, circa 1994. She started with a college radio show and then moved on to deejaying at parties. A few years later she ended up going to school for audio recording. While in school, DJ B-Girl started teaching herself how to make beats.

Moving to Seattle in 2001, she began a journey to fulfill her destiny. She started breaking, and also got some regular gigs out at the clubs deejaying. She got known for playing both hip hop and drum and bass, and put out 2 hip-step mix CD’s titles Ghetto Fabulous and Ghetto Rebel Rise. B-Girl had her first track put out in 2003 on Urabon Records, called Girls in Space. It was a CD compilation featuring all female producers in electronic music genres including notables, Shroombab and DJ Sol.

From there B-Girl released The Human Collective EP in 2004 featuring special guests Spyc-E, Wiseproof, Mia and MC Squared. Due to a change of heart in creative direction, B-Girl decided to cut out over half the album, sizing it down considerably before releasing the digital version. Why? Because she wanted to highlight the vocal tracks and leave all of the instrumental tracks. If you were one of the few to get a physical copy of this album, hold on to it. There are only a handful in circulation.

After 2004 DJ B-Girl took a break from the electronic music world, saying “farewell” to drum and bass. She focused all of her attention on hip hop, and ending up making a full-length album called Love or Fate, released in the spring of 2008. It features 11 Seattle emcees, 2 musicians and 1 deejay. B-Girl made all of the beats, recorded everyone at her studio and mixed the album down herself. Steve Turnidge from Ultraviolet studios mastered the album for her.

An eclectic album, Love or Fate pushed DJ B-Girl into the media’s attention. She was did interviews with the Seattle Weekly, Venuszine and Davey D. of Breakdown FM. She had songs with all women including “Murder She Wrote feat. Sista Hailstorm and Julie C.,” and “Life feat. Piece and Toni Hill.” The album also had battle beats that she had played in the Big Tune beat battle, getting 2nd place next to Seattle producer Sabzi (Blue Scholars and Common Market), including “No More Beef feat. Inkubiz” and “Identity Theft feat. Phreewil and DJ WD4D.” But that’s not all, showcasing her many styles, listen to “Need the Game feat. Jerm and Cyreeta,” “Get Low feat. Julie C. and Asun,” or “Livin It feat. Khanfidenz and Toni Hill.”

After Love or Fate, DJ B-Girl went right back into the lab to start working on a new project with Seattle emcees, Julie C. and Jerm of Alpha-P. The result was phenomenal. The Knox Family is a strong and cohesively themed project, boasting slappin’ beats and lyrics that murder on the m-i-c.  Gangster political music that makes you dance. Conscious and street mesh together seamlessly while remaining brutally honest, with a revolutionary pulse. These South End to C.D. emcees have been bringing it to you for decades, only now they have a global audience.

DJ B-Girl is a hip hop teaching artist, heading up a drop-in recording program for teens in the International District at Wapifasa called “Katalyst.” This program teaches youth how to record using pro-tools and culminates with a certification test that allows them to record independently after taking the 3-month program. There are also opportunities for youth to DJ, produce, break, do graffiti art, and learn the business side of the industry as well. For more information please visit www.wapiseattle.org.

DJ B-Girl founded a community organization called B-Girl Bench, that focuses on educating, supporting and networking with women in hip hop. It is an ongoing project involving workshops, shows, videos and interviews. For more information please visit bgirlbench.com or youtube.com/bgirlbench.

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