Sativa Prophets

As if fulfilling their own untold prophecy, Oklahoma City hip-hop collective Sativa Prophets found one another through a mutual creative hunger.

There are rappers in the city. There are producers. There are visual artists. As a group that accepts many avenues of expression, Sativa is all of those things and none of them.

“We came together for Sativa Prophets with the idea that anyone can be a Sativa Prophet,” member Mike HuckWheat said, “Sativa meaning creative and prophets meaning storytellers — more than emceeing, more than me, more than us.”

Igloo Panda, a local music producer who specializes in jazzy, psychedelic sounds akin to Aphex Twin and Flying Lotus, was ready to leave Oklahoma altogether and pursue music in Austin before the Prophets were formed and convinced him to stay local.

Panda met emcee Rodrick Malone through another friend and Sativa member Atomic Calm. Through that connection, he then joined up with HuckWheat and Umi Ra Shakir, formerly known as Mr. 808. There are now seven to 10 members in the Prophets’ informal collective.

Panda emphasizes that the Prophets are not as much a music group or band as they are a collective of individual artists. Members support one another’s artistic endeavors, be it musically, through visual art or otherwise.

“I think Sativa Prophets is about artistic expression,” Panda said. “If anyone in the Prophets wanted to branch off into anything, be it visual art, film, poetry — anything really — we’d all be behind each other and support each other.”

The full extension of the collective’s creativity can truly be seen in their paintings. The visual art bug started with Malone, a frequent drawer and painter who moved in with Panda prior to the Prophets being formed. After watching the documentary Gerhard Richter Painting, he bought in fully.

After Panda got into it, HuckWheat decided to try his hand in the medium. His first painting started as a collaboration with Panda. He went on to do 10 in his first week.

“First one I painted, someone said, ‘How much?’ which was what kept me going also,” he said. “It’s just another outlet. I tore my ACL two years ago and can’t play ball like I want to, so it helped me get my mind off life and feel free.”

The Prophets hope they can spread the good news on creativity throughout Oklahoma City and the region, an area not necessarily known for having an affinity with hip-hop culture. Shakir called the local scene “a gruesome motherfucker.”

Members agree there is talent in the state but suggest that many local artists are too often divided amongst themselves and competitive. The mindset of the Prophets, Malone said, is to work together toward a common goal.

“We’re a collective of artists,” he said. “People always want to divide and separate. To me, art is art. There’s art in everything. Music is what brought us together, but that’s just one aspect of what we all have to offer.”

More information and music from the collective can be found at sativaprophetscollective.com.

Print headline: Collective thread, This hungry band proves that success is best when it’s shared. - Ben Luschen, James Benjamin

In some ways, the Buddha Leaf album and release show marks a new phase in the growth of steady-flowing local emcee HuckWheat and the Sativa Prophets collective.

The Feb. 26 album release show at 51st Street Speakeasy features a cavalcade of performers, including Teflo Dollar, Fresh, J French, Mars Deli, Rodrick Malone, Chief Peace and Original Flow, in addition to HuckWheat.

HuckWheat has played at Speakeasy alongside members of Sativa Prophets music and art collective before, but the Buddha Leaf release show marks the first time they organized a show there themselves. The fact that it’s a free gig should draw in even more people.

“It should be flooded, man, just with all the people who are already going to be out there,” said HuckWheat, whose birth name is Mike Huckeby.

Buddha Leaf, HuckWheat’s follow-up to 2014’s Milk n Honey, is produced by one of Oklahoma City’s most prolific hip-hop producers, Igloo Panda, who also belongs to the collective. The album was developed on an on-again off-again basis over 18 months.

The Prophets appear newly focused and primed to take their brand to another level.

“There’s a difference between doing music and trying to do business, honestly,” HuckWheat told Oklahoma Gazette. “There’s taking music seriously, and then there’s another level where we decided we were going to start taking the business part seriously.”

Panda said he’s trying to expand his work beyond just making beats. He is working to further improve the Prophets’ video production and described plans to pursue fashion and art.

He hopes the Prophets and others in the local hip-hop community can wedge themselves up through cooperation.

“It’s cool to be known in Oklahoma City, and I love it, but at the same time, I feel like there’s enough artists here that we could start a real scene,” he said. “There’s a lot of talent here, and people have never heard it.”

Musically, Buddha Leaf has many different elements to offer. From some of the hardest one-liners and flows you’ll hear from any local emcee to slowed down, floating vocals and even straight-up singing, there’s a lot for a listener to digest in one sitting.

However, with each additional spin, HuckWheat’s talent becomes more apparent to the listener. It won’t be hard to rack up the play numbers. After the track list was set, Panda said he went back and adjusted the beats to ensure butter-smooth transitions.

“Nothing ever breaks up,” HuckWheat said. “Nothing ever skips. There’s not interludes, skits.”

After working on and toying with the songs for more than a year before its release and hundreds of listens afterward, HuckWheat said he was surprised by how much he still likes Buddha Leaf. He’s proud of how much work went into the album and how distinct it sounds on a local and national level.

“You just want people to hear you and to feel you,” he said. “From the instrumentation and on, I want them to open up because it does sound different than a lot of what’s out right now.” - Ben Luschen