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Sudden Rush is a nā mele paleoleo (Hawaiian hip hop/rap) group from Hilo, Hawaii, comprising Shane Veincent ("Kid Dynomite"), Caleb Richards ("Red Eye"/"Pakalo"), Don Keʻala Kawaʻauhau Jr. ("King Don 1") and Rob Onekea ("Radical Rob"). They have been called the most well-known and successful of the Hawaiian hip hop groups and were the first to blend American hip hop with Hawaiian language and musical style to produce nā mele paleoleo. Formed in 1993, they released three studio albums in the next ten years, followed by the belated Overthrow EP in 2018. Their music is explicitly political and supportive of the Hawaiian sovereignty movement.
Sudden Rush's first album was Nation on the Rise. Their second, Kuʻe ( Resist), was released in 1997. Due to listener demand, radio stations such as KUBT, KCCN-FM and KINE played several songs from it extensively, including "Polynesian Party", "Don't Blame the Youth" and "Paradise Found". Kuʻe featured collaborations with Keali'i Reichel and Willie K, John Cruz and 'Ehukai. They won awards for Best Recording By A Rap Artist/Vocalist at the Hawaii Music Awards, and performed at the ceremony on April 26, 1988, with Tenderoni. The Artist award was for Kuʻe and the Vocalist award was for "Polynesian Party". Both awards were voted for by the public.
Kuʻe, like their other work, was political, tied to Hawaii's history and its present-day sovereignty movement. It includes, for example, "Eku Maumau", which is a chant used at Hawaiian sovereignty demonstrations. This political motivation was reflected in the cover art, which featured a parody of Iwo Jima Monument, but with an Flag desecration Hawaiian flag. Drawn in the style of a newspaper on red paper, it also shows a story about the forced abdication of Liliʻuokalani, Queen of Hawaii, on January 17, 1893. Fay Yokomizo Akindes writes that "The presence of the past is evident throughout Sudden Rush's work, both visually and aurally" and also takes note of the art on the disc itself and the back cover, which shows Veincent, Richards and Keʻala crouching at their fathers' feet. Sudden Rush's first performance in the mainland US was on May 1, 1999, in Las Vegas.
In 2002, their song "Ea", meaning "sovereignty", "rule" or "independence", or "life", spent two weeks on the Billboard charts, peaking at number 12 on September 7, 2002. The song made use of "Kawika" by The Sunday Manoa, a popular song of the Hawaiian resistance movement. The album of the same name, released in August 2002, featured collaborations with Willie K, Amy Hānaialiʻi Gilliom, Jon Osorio, and Fiji, among others. They performed at the Teen Choice Awards in the same year.
After Ea, Sudden Rush did not release new music for fifteen years and were described as having broken up in 2003. They continued to perform together and in June 2009 they were planning to release two more albums during the year, titled Hana Hou ( Encore) and The Overthrow. As of 2011 they were planning a remix album.
In 2017, after releasing several singles, Sudden Rush reconnected with producer 'Radical Rob' and began recording new music. The Extended play "Overthrow" was finally released on January 17, 2018. featuring 6 new songs, including the first full hip-hop, rap song done in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language), and featuring other Hawaiian-speaking artists such as Ka'ikena Scanlan, Homework Simpson and Firewoman. As of May 2018, they were recording their fourth full-length album, set to be released in the summer.
Keʻala Kawaʻauhau died on August 27, 2018.
Because of the economics of Hawaiian life, the members had other jobs as well as being in Sudden Rush. For example, in 2001 Keʻala Kawaʻauhau taught at a Pūnana Leo Hawaiian language pre-school and was training as a wrestler. The group has been managed by Kwai-Chang Publico.
Among the Hawaiian styles that Sudden Rush incorporates is kepakepa, a form of Hawaiian chanting characterized by a conversational style and rapid delivery. In a review of Kuʻe, John Woodhouse wrote: "Blending Hawaiian chant and English lyrics with hip-hop's gritty dance beat, Sudden Rush create a polished, urban sound on songs that explore topical Hawaiian issues like sovereignty, drug use, and cultural pride". Their work includes lyrics in Hawaiian, English and Hawaiian Pidgin. These two factors—native language and cultural pride—have had an influence on music in other island nations, including in Melanesia. Their music has less representation of sex and violence than American hip hop of the same era, and which other Hawaiian hip hop artists adopted in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They deliberately avoided swearing on Kuʻe.
There were other hip hop groups around at the time that Sudden Rush formed in the early 1990s, including Urban Joint from Oahu, but their style was that of the mainland US. American influences in Sudden Rush's hybrid style include Heavy D, Ice Cube, Queen Latifah, N.W.A and Naughty by Nature. Although they have been called the most successful and influential Hawaiian hip hop band, they consider themselves part of the " Underground" and an underdog in the broader music scene. Within Hawaii, their recognition comes from an older audience than the fans of American-style hip hop.
| Billboard World Albums number 12 |
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