Music
Kings of Queens: Q-York
An emcee & a producer pair up through music as they search for a greater purpose & their true home.
For seven years now, Knowa Lazarus and Flava Matikz of Fil-Am hiphop duo Q-York (Quality – Yields Our Richest Key) have called the Philippines, with its infamous EDSA highway traffic and peopled streets, their home. But the two, born and raised in Queens, New York, only began reconnecting with their roots in the mid-2000’s. It was the same decade that took them from New York then Los Angeles to, finally, the streets of Manila – one always in step with the other.
It was music that brought and kept them together. Sometime in the late 90’s in New York, when Knowa was still in a band that needed a substitute DJ, Flava ably filled in the spot and easily fit in with the group.
One year later, he called me up. I remember I was driving on the Williamsburg Bridge. He told me that he started making beats and he wanted my group on there.
"There was no more group," Knowa explained. But Flava told him to come meet him, anyway. At a producer friend’s home studio, Knowa and Flava recorded their first track together: “Show and Prove.” After this initial try, the two decided that one song wasn’t going to cut it. Enough camping out in someone else’s studio – it was time to build their own. So they went to Flava’s house and did exactly that.
It wasn’t quite at par with New York’s more famous ones. Knowa shared:
When I say ghetto, I mean it: towel hanging from the door, microphone with a sock on it, lamp for a mic stand, headband on the headphones to keep them in place. But we were so happy we had our own studio.
"We just wanted to create, record, and perform," Flava added.
Flava Matikz
© Aries de Guzman
Knowa Lazarus
© Aries de Guzman
Q-York
© JB De Leon
For the next few years, making music and performing everywhere “from night clubs, bars, open mics, artist competitions to car shows, colleges, and universities” were enough to keep the duo going. In the early 2000’s and the dawn of song downloads, they found an audience beyond New York’s boroughs – way out in Los Angeles.
New York was a great city, but Knowa and Lazarus were starting to feel that there were more rappers, singers, and producers like them than people who actually wanted to listen to good music.
“We would hustle hard in New York, but it started to feel like it was too saturated. Every time we’d perform or try to sell CDs, someone would also say, ‘My cousin is better than you’ or they’d be trying to sell us their CD,” Knowa said.
Once on the West Coast, Flava said, “It felt like a big, open field and we were ready to play ball.”
With more space to let their music and the Q-York brand grow, the duo toured and performed on the same stages as “Frisco legends” Andre Nickatina, San Quinn, and Equipto, to name a few. For the better part of the next five years, Knowa and Flava made the rounds in local festivals and clubs as they let their new home hone their skills and “open up our minds.”
On the change of scene, Flava said, “When you’re living in NYC, that’s all you see and that’s all that matters. But once you get to travel a little bit, let alone live outside NYC, you realize there’s a whole world out there that you need to explore and experience.”
The West Coast didn’t only change their music, it reintroduced them to other Filipinos and their culture. Through their friend Joann Fields, the pair had the chance to volunteer for Gawad Kalinga (GK) – a Philippine-based movement for the poor – and talk to high school kids in San Diego. At the time, the city had the “highest number of millionaires, but also the highest rate of teen suicides,” Knowa recalled.
The two reached out to kids through music. “All the kids were also into hiphop. So we would talk to them and tell them they can be down with hiphop, but that doesn’t mean they have to be a gangster.” It was “a culture that’s supposed to bring people together and build each other up,” Flava remembered telling the kids.
“At those times, too, I was still a little lost, but I think I learned a lot from those kids. What I told them, I took to heart and I started realizing that I need to change as well,” Knowa shared.
Flava had a similar revelation. “We have a voice and we need to use it to empower others.”
Suave
© [unknown]
Their ties to GK led them to the dance group Philippine Allstars, who were then in the States for the World Hip Hop Dance Championships. In a Motel 6 room, where 20 members of the Allstars stayed, the two did freestyle rap. Knowa recalled, “I had them give me some words, then I just started flowing off of the words they gave me and that was that.”
The Allstars encounter coincided with the making of what was supposed to be Q-York’s last album, “L.I.F.E. – Lyrics Inspired from Experience”. The last song, “Caught Up,” even included Allstars member Kenjhons.
“At that time, my fire was dying,” Knowa admitted. But constant hang-outs with the dance group and talks on talent and purpose reignited the duo’s passion for hiphop and for doing good. He continues:
I started feeling my fire coming back a little bit. But at that time, I was honestly okay if I didn’t do music anymore. I was just happy, though, that I had found something greater than myself.
"(The Allstars) helped us realize the miracles that were happening, but we weren't really seeing at the time," Flava added. One such miracle was having the means and the generosity of friends, particularly the Allstars, to be able to make the big move to the Philippines.
“Once they offered to come out and take care of us, all we said is what we’ve been saying all our lives – just like the move from NYC to LA – ‘Let’s go!’ And once we were here, the people and the love for this country made us stay,” Flava said.
Since then, Q-York has come out with two albums under Philippine R&B Prince JayR’s label, HomeWorkZ. “Q-York City” told listeners who they were, what they were about, and why there were here. “Q-Labonation,” on the other hand, “was a collaboration of different nations” beyond the usual definition. Joined by some of the Philippines’ best artists, Q-York built an alternate world where music bridged all gaps, whether racial, religious, or cultural.
Asked to name their top pick among the many tracks they’ve done over the years, Knowa and Flava arrive at the same answer: “Hindi Ka Nag-Iisa” featuring Yeng Constantino. A tribute to Typhoon Yolanda victims, the song champions the Filipino spirit – a quality that doesn’t go amiss in most of Q-York’s work.
Vote!
© [unknown]
(It) was very memorable not just because (Yeng’s) such a great artist, but because the music video was partly shot in the hard-struck areas of Iloilo showing the people and after-effects of Typhoon Yolanda. --Flava.
The road back to their true home was a long, winding one. But the unexpected detours, the unlikely friends they made, and of course the music they created and played made the ride better than Knowa or Flava could’ve ever imagined.
“When we first arrived, I remember the smell of the air, seeing all the jeepneys going out at night, and hearing music everywhere. Everything just felt so alive. It was intriguing and inspiring. It kind of made me realize that I’ve been fighting against this whole music thing my whole life, but it’s in my blood. I mean, it’s everywhere.”
No one can really be too sure about the future, but Flava said, “When you team up with people with the same vision and goals, great things happen. Team work makes the dream work.” For Q-York, nothing could be truer.
Q-York's latest album "Q-Labonation" is available nationwide through HomeWorkz Music in all Odyssey and Astrovision stores and on iTunes.