Ithaka Darin Pappas (born July 8, 1966), known professionally as Ithaka, is an American-born multidisciplinary artist of Greek ancestry who creates using music, sculpture and photography (both as separate entities or using them in combination with each other). He has published short stories in international magazines and periodicals, which have sometimes been the basis for his travel-oriented lyrical content. In a 2005 article for the magazine Waves, journalist Ricardo Macario described Ithaka as ''The Miscellaneous Man''. In a 2008 review of Ithaka's 6th album, Saltwater Nomad, the online surf-culture platform Surfline stated that; ''the artist effortlessly traverses at ease between all of his choses mediums of expression usic, sculpture, writing and photography', and that, ''his life's journey is a soulful balancing act somewhere between the worlds of euphoric creation and aquatic diversion.''

Early life

Ithaka was born and raised in coastal

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

, and began experimenting with his father's 35mm and 120mm cameras at the age of five. He began surfing at the age of twelve, after vacationing with a friend's family on the Hawaiian island of

Maui The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...

and observing the locals riding six-foot tubes at

Honolua Bay Honolua Bay, Mokuleia Bay and Lipoa Point are part of an area known as the Ahupuaa, ahupuaʻa of Honolua, located just north of Kapalua, Hawaii, Kapalua, West Maui in Maui County, Hawaii, Maui County, Hawaii, Hawaii, United States. The area is a m ...

. “That's the life for me”, he thought to himself. Upon returning to California, he sold his drum kit to buy a surfboard. The ocean, until present day, has been a major influence for the artist. As a young adult he began traveling the world in search of waves and adventure, largely inspiring his photography, three-dimensional artworks and voyage-oriented lyrics and stories. As he told Dance Club Magazine in a 2005 interview, ''I live it, write it, rap about it''. He has since resided and worked in a variety of locations including; Greece, Japan, Portugal, Brazil and Mexico.

Career

Photography

Hip hop artist WC aka William Loshawn Calhoun Jr

Ithaka's first professional photograph was published in 1984, in

Thrasher Thrashers are a New World group of perching bird, passerine birds related to mockingbirds and New World catbirds. Like these, they are in the family (biology), family Mimidae. There are 15 species in one large and 4 monotypic genus, genera. T ...

skateboarding magazine. Much of his early portraiture work was of aspiring Hollywood actors, but he then began getting more involved in music industry photography, working with Los Angeles area hip hop artists such as;

A Lighter Shade of Brown A Lighter Shade of Brown (LSOB) was an American hip hop duo from Riverside, California best known for their 1990 hit single "On a Sunday Afternoon", a success in the U.S., written by songwriters and musicians David Dunson and Micah Carson. His ...

, Big Lady K,

Low Profile Low Profile was an American hip hop duo from Los Angeles. The group consisted of rapper William "W.C." Calhoun Jr. and record producer Alphonso "D.J. Aladdin" Henderson,Birchmeier, JasonLow Profile Biography, Allmusic. Retrieved November 16, ...

Eazy E Eric Lynn Wright (September 7, 1964 – March 26, 1995), known professionally as Eazy-E, was an American rapper who propelled West Coast rap and gangsta rap by leading the group N.W.A and its label, Ruthless Records. He is often referred to ...

and

N.W.A. N.W.A (an abbreviation for Niggaz Wit Attitudes) was an American hip hop group whose members were among the earliest and most significant popularizers and controversial figures of the gangsta rap subgenre, and the group is widely considered ...

After the release of

F. Gary Gray Felix Gary Gray (born July 17, 1969) is an Americans, American film director, film producer, and music video director. Gray began his career as a director on numerous critically acclaimed and award-winning music videos, including "It Was a Good ...

's 2015 biographical drama about

gangsta rap Gangsta rap or gangster rap, initially called reality rap, emerged in the mid- to late 1980s as a controversial hip-hop subgenre whose lyrics assert the culture and values typical of American street gangs and street hustlers. Many gangsta rappe ...

pioneers

and

, entitled

Straight Outta Compton ''Straight Outta Compton'' is the debut studio album by rap group N.W.A, which, led by Eazy-E, formed in Los Angeles County's City of Compton in early 1987. Released by his label, Ruthless Records, on August 8, 1988, the album was produced b ...

, there was renewed visibility in some of the early pictures that Ithaka Darin Pappas had made of the artists (all created while freelancing for Priority Records between 1988 and 1990). In 2016, many of his photographs, including the cover of their 1989

remix single release, were projected as a backdrop at

Barclays Center Barclays Center is a multi-purpose list of indoor arenas, indoor arena in the New York City Boroughs of New York City, borough of Brooklyn. The arena is home to the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association and the New York Liberty o ...

in Brooklyn, New York during the induction ceremony officially admitting N.W.A into the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and othe ...

. In 2017, more photographs appeared in the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

documentary, ''

The Defiant Ones ''The Defiant Ones'' is a 1958 American Adventure film, adventure Drama film, drama film which tells the story of two escaped prisoners, one white and one black, who are shackled together and who must co-operate in order to survive. It stars Ton ...

'' directed by Allen Hughes. Other photographs of N.W.A. by Ithaka were shown in the 2018 museum exhibition "Hip-Hop : Un Age d'Or" (or ''The Golden Age Of Hip Hop'') at the Musée d'Art Contemporain in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

, France. Later in 2018, photographs of Eazy E riding a skateboard in

Venice Beach Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed by ...

, California that Ithaka had taken in 1989 were published in the photography book Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop (written by Vikki Tobak). The book, published by

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House LLC is an Anglo-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House. On April 2, 2020, Bertels ...

, was included on Time Magazine's ''25 Best Photobooks of 2018'' list. Ithaka's images from the book have also been present in its subsequent traveling photography exhibition series that to date has shown at

The Annenberg Space for Photography The Annenberg Space for Photography (2009 - 2020) was an exhibition space in the Century City neighborhood of Los Angeles' Westside. Founded in March 2009, it was dedicated to displaying photographic works, ranging from artistic to journalistic, ...

in Los Angeles (2019),

International Center of Photography The International Center of Photography (ICP), at 79 Essex Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City, consists of a museum for photography and visual culture and a school offering an array of educational courses and programming. ...

in New York (2020) and at Manarat Al Saadiyat Museum in Abu Dhabi,

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

(2021). Other early photographs of Eazy E and N.W.A. by Ithaka have been manufactured into apparel by companies such as Neighborhood (Japan), Bravado, MadeWorn, Merch Traffic and others.

Sculpture

The ongoing sculpture series entitled The Reincarnation Of A Surfboard which Ithaka began in 1989 (which includes over 300 individual contemporary artworks created from recycled surfboards) has been exhibited in Europe, Asia, the United States and also in Brazil, at

São Paulo Museum of Image and Sound The São Paulo Museum of Image and Sound (in Portuguese, ''Museu da Imagem e do Som de São Paulo'', or ''MIS'') is a public museum of audio-visual works, established in 1970 and located in São Paulo, Brazil. The museum was founded as a result of ...

. In an interview given to Surf Portugal magazine in 2012 while attending one of Ithaka's exhibitions in Europe, world-renowned graphic artist Dave Carson described Ithaka's work as ''experimental, unexpected and surprising'' and in a 2013 report about his work,

Fuel TV Fox Sports 2 (FS2) is an American sports-oriented pay television channel owned by the Fox Sports Media Group, a unit of Fox Corporation. The channel is based at the Fox Sports division's headquarters on the Fox Studio Lot in the Century Ci ...

considered him ''one of the world's premier contemporary surf artists''.

Music

As an audio artist, Ithaka has recorded seven albums of

alternative hip hop Alternative hip hop (also known as alternative rap) is a subgenre of hip hop music that encompasses a wide range of styles that are not typically identified as mainstream. AllMusic defines it as comprising " hip hop groups that refuse to confor ...

and

spoken-word Spoken word refers to an oral poetic performance art that is based mainly on the poem as well as the performer's aesthetic qualities. It is a late 20th century continuation of an ancient oral artistic tradition that focuses on the aesthetics of ...

music. His 1992 spoken-word song

So Get Up "So Get Up", written and vocalized by Ithaka (also known as Ithaka Darin Pappas), is a 1992 spoken-word electronic dance music vocal-poem lyric song more frequently credited to the Portuguese house music production duo Underground Sound of L ...

, under varying titles, has charted on four separate occasions in Europe and the UK and has been remixed by artists such as

Fatboy Slim Norman Quentin Cook (born Quentin Leo Cook, 31 July 1963), also known by his stage name Fatboy Slim, is an English musician, DJ, and record producer who helped to popularise the big beat genre in the 1990s. In the 1980s, Cook was the bassist f ...

and

Cosmic Gate Cosmic Gate is a German DJ duo consisting of trance music producers Claus Terhoeven (born 1972) and Stefan Bossems (born 1967). Both hail from Krefeld, Germany. On October 28, 2009, ''DJ Magazine'' announced the results of their annual Top 100 ...

. Although a citizen of the United States who vocalizes in English, because Ithaka was living and recording in Portugal for several years during the mid-late 1990s, at the very beginning of the hip hop movement in the country, he is often included in the genre of music known as

Hip hop tuga Portuguese hip hop (''Hip hop português''), more commonly called hip hop tuga ("tuga" here being a slang for "Portuguese"), is the Portuguese variety of hip hop music. It differs from mainstream hip hop because it has strong influences from A ...

and sometimes considered one the founding artists along with: Black Company,

Boss AC Ângelo César do Rosário Firmino, better known by the stage name Boss AC (born January 20, 1975) is a Portugal, Portuguese rapper originally from Cape Verde. The letters A and C, in Boss AC, come from the initials of his two names, Ângelo and C ...

, Zona Dread, Family, Funky D, New Tribe, Lideres da Nova Mensagem,

Da Weasel Da Weasel are a Portuguese hip hop/rock band from Almada (a suburb of Lisbon, Portugal), fronted by MCs Pacman (now known as Carlão) and Virgul. They are one of the oldest hip-hop projects in Portugal, having been formed in 1993 and terminated ...

, Mind Da Gap, and

General D General D is a rapper, Hip hop tuga and World music artist. Being the first rapper in Portugal to sign a major record deal, he is considered the ''Godfather Of Portuguese Hip Hop''. Although largely influenced by big name U.S. rap acts such as P ...

. ''Escape From The City Of Angels'', an alternative hip hop song Ithaka recorded with guest vocalist

Marta Dias Marta Dias is a São Toméan Portuguese singer of jazz, world music and fado who has recorded several solo albums and has additionally recorded and toured extensively with guitarist António Chainho. She has also appeared on several Hip hop re ...

for his album

Flowers and the Color of Paint A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants (plants of the division Angiospermae). The biological function of a flower is to facilitate reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism ...

was featured in the soundtrack of

Antoine Fuqua Antoine Fuqua (born May 30, 1965) is an American filmmaker, known for his work in the action and thriller genres. He was originally known as a director of music videos, and made his film debut in 1998 with ''The Replacement Killers''. His critica ...

’s 1998 feature film Replacement Killers (Columbia Pictures) in a scene featuring Academy Award nominees/winners

Mira Sorvino Mira Katherine Sorvino (; born September 28, 1967) is an American actress. She won the Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Woody Allen's ''Mighty Aphrodite'' (1995). She also starred in the films ...

Chow Yun-fat Chow Yun-fat (born 18 May 1955), previously known as Donald Chow, is a Hong Kong actor. He is perhaps best known for his collaborations with filmmaker John Woo in the five Hong Kong action heroic bloodshed films: ''A Better Tomorrow'', ''A Be ...

and

Clifton Collins Jr. Clifton Craig Collins Jr. is an American actor. After starting in 1990, with small roles in film and on television, Collins gained attention for his performance as Cpl. Ramon Aguilar, a prisoner "serving" under an imprisoned general played by R ...

During his most active recording years in Portugal (1994–1997), the artist's musical projects were nominated for a total of nine Pemios Blitz (the Portuguese

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...

s) including; Best Album (for

in 1995 and Stellafly in 1997) and Best Male Vocalist (in 1995 and 1997). In addition, the prestigious national newspaper, Público, awarded his 1997 release Stellafly as "Album Of The Year" and considered a song from the record Seabra Is Mad (musically co-written by Ewan Butler and Joe Fossard) as both the "Song Of The Year" and "Video Of The Year". Público also cited his debut release Flowers And The Color Of Paint as one of the country's ''Ten Most Influential Albums Of The 1990s'', while a 2020 article in Rua Magazine proclaimed that Flowers And The Color Of Paint was one of the twenty albums that ''changed the Portuguese music industry.''

Writings

During the mid-1990s until the mid-2000s, writings from Ithaka's collection of ocean-related short story series entitled, ‘’Fishdaddy Chronicles’’ (including titles such as "Zé dos Cães") were published in the surfing magazines; Surfer, The Surfer’s Journal,

Wavelength In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats. It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, tro ...

(UK), Transworld Surf and Water Magazine. In 2009, one of the stories, “Miracle At Malibu”, was published in the collective hardbound book, ''Surf Story''.

Works

Discography (solo releases)

*1992 So Get Up (single) mbryo Entertainment *1993 So Get Up & The Lost Acapellas (spoken word album) weatlodge Records *1995 Fishdaddy (single) ovieplay Records *1995 Flowers and the Color of Paint (album) weatlodge Records/Movieplay Recordsref name="discogs3"> *1997 Seabra Is Mad (single)

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp. ( d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American multinational entertainment and record label conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the " big three" recording companies and t ...

*1997 Stay Strong Little Brother – (single) Parlophone/Warner Music Group *1997 Stellafly: European Edition (album) Parlophone/Warner Music Group *1998 The Rise And Fall Of A Fortune (EP) Parlophone/Warner Music Group *2000 Stellafly: USA Edition – album CB Records/Sweatlodge Recordsref name="discogs2"> *2001 Somewhere South of Somalia – album weatlodge Records/Khalifa Records*2004 Recorded in Rio – album weatlodge Records*2005 Fuse With Me (EP by Ithaka vs. Cartell 70) round Zero Records*2007 Saltwater Nomad (album) weatlodge Records*2011 Fishdaddy Flashbacks – album weatlodge Records*2013 Voiceless Blue Raven (album) weatlodge Records*2017 So Get Up & The Los Acapellas (album rerelease) weatlodge Records

Guest appearances

*1996

– "Look To The Blue", "Learn To Fly" (Ithaka: vocals, lyrics) *1996 Red Beans – "Sunny The Bunny", "Sushi-Pack Subway" (Ithaka: vocals, lyrics) *1996

Cool Hipnoise Cool Hipnoise is a Portuguese musical group. The band was formed in Lisbon in 1994 by Tiago Santos (guitar), João Gomes ( keyboards), Paulo Muiños (saxophones), Nuno Reis (trumpet), Francisco Rebelo (bass) and Melo D (voice). Initially an acid ...

– "Hidden By The Sea"" (Ithaka: vocals, lyrics) *1997

– "Ekos Do Passado" (Ithaka: vocals, lyrics) *1998 Tejo Beat – "The Day Was Hot" (Ithaka: vocals/lyrics). Production Mario Caldato, Jr. *1998 More Republica Masonica – "Grounded Song" (Ithaka: vocals, lyrics) *1998 Mind Da Gap – "Intro" (Ithaka: vocals, lyrics) *2000 Primitive Reason – "The Day Will Come"(Ithaka: vocals, lyrics) *2005 Cartell 70 – "In the Name of Religion" (Ithaka: vocals, lyrics) *2007

DJ Vibe DJ Vibe (real name António "Tó" Pereira) is a house music DJ. Career Vibe was born in Lisbon, Portugal, and became a DJ at 15. At this age he started to perform in clubs and before long he was playing side by side with big names of the dance ...

– "You" (Ithaka: vocals, lyrics) *2008 Pan Electric – "Someone, Somewhere" (Ithaka: vocals, lyrics) *2011 Si Brad – "20 Years" (Ithaka: vocals, lyrics) (Toko Records-U.K.) *2011 Paul Mandaca – Eden by The Sea / CD album (Ithaka: all lyrics) *2013 Cyncy – "Sometimes Life Gets In The Way" (Produced by: Ithaka) weatlodge*2013

– "So Get Up" (Ithaka: vocals, lyrics) *2020 Armando Mendes "This Life's All We Got" (Ithaka: lyrics/vocals) *2020 Ana Mariano – "Plastic Wings" (Ithaka: featured lyricist/vocalist)

Art exhibitions

Solo art exhibitions (sculpture, painting, photography)

* 1990

Pepperdine University Pepperdine University () is a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Pepperdine's main campus consists of 830 acres (340 ha) overlooking the Pacific Ocean and t ...

– Los Angeles, California (sculpture) * 1992 Gallery YMA -(Photography and Sculpture) Tokyo, Japan (sculpture, photography) * 1995 Universidade Moderna – Lisbon, Portugal (sculpture) * 1996 IPJ: Instituto Portuguesa Da Juventude "UMBILICUS" (Photography) – Lisbon * 1998 Gallery Ze Dos Bois "Quality Time: Part One" (Photography) – Lisbon, Portugal (photography, text, performance) * 2000

International Surfing Museum The International Surfing Museum is a non-profit, 501(c) museum in Huntington Beach, Orange County, California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a ...

– Huntington Beach California (sculpture) * 2007 WOA – Way Of Arts – Estoril, Portugal (sculpture) curated by Gonçalo Leandro] * 2008 Clash – Lisbon, Portugal (sculpture) * 2010 Gallery Alma Do Mar – São Paulo, Brazil (sculpture. photography) * 2010 The Camp – Costa Mesa, California (sculpture, photography) * 2011 Nike, Inc., Nike Posto 5.0 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (sculpture) * 2012 Museum WOA – Way Of Arts * 2013

Hurley International Hurley is an American company that sells clothes and accessories marketed towards surfing and swimming. Established in 1979 as a distributor for Billabong clothing in the United States, Hurley was sold to Nike, Inc. in 2002 for an undisclosed pri ...

Costa Mesa, California (Sculpture, Painting) * 2015 F+ Gallery in Santa Ana, California – "Aliens Of AkahtiLândia" (Sculpture, Photography, Painting)

Group art exhibitions

* 1990 01 Gallery Los Angeles * 1992 NICAF: Nippon International Contemporary Art Fair – Yokohama, Japan * 1999 Photo Impact Gallery – Los Angeles, California * 2003 111 Minna Gallery – San Francisco, California * 2005 MIS –

, Brazil * 2006 MIS –

, Brazil * 2007 Oca Do Ibirapuera – São Paulo, Brazil * 2010 Oca Do Ibirapuera – São Paulo, Brazil * 2011 Art Now Gallery (San Francisco) "Love And Guts" – Photo: Eazy E and Venice Skateboard Locals (1989) * 2013 Sagres Surf Culture – Sagres, Portugal * 2013 McNamara's Gallery (owned by

Garrett McNamara Garrett ‘GMAC’ McNamara (born August 10, 1967) is an American professional big wave surfer and extreme waterman known for breaking the world record for largest wave ever surfed at Nazaré, Portugal, successfully negotiating a monstrous barre ...

) –

Nazaré, Portugal Nazaré () is a Portugal, Portuguese town and municipality located in the Oeste Subregion, Oeste region, in the historical province of Estremadura Province (1936-1976), Estremadura, and in the Leiria District. The municipality has a population of 1 ...

* 2014 House Of

Vans Vans is an American manufacturer of skateboarding shoes and related apparel, established in Anaheim, California, and owned by VF Corporation. The company also sponsors surf, snowboarding, BMX, and motocross teams. From 1996 to 2019, the comp ...

(London) "Thrasher: A Retrospective" – Photo: Eazy E and Venice Locals (1989) * 2014 Azores Wave Week – Ponta Delgado, São Miguel Island, Portugal" * 2014 Surfboards On Parade – Huntington Beach, California * 2016 The Art Of Surf – 1 Recovery – SM, CA (w/ Jeff Divine,

John Van Hamersveld John Van Hamersveld (born September 1, 1941, Baltimore, Maryland, United States) is an American graphic artist and illustrator who designed record jackets for pop and psychedelic bands from the 1960s onward. Among the 300 albums are the covers of ...

and

John Severson John Severson (SEA-ver-son, 1933–2017) was an American editor, author, filmmaker and artist, widely known as the founder of '' Surfer'', a magazine focused on the sport and culture of surfing. Severson also created a diverse body of artwork dedi ...

) * 2016 Surfboards On Parade – Huntington Beach, California (w/ Rick Reitveld and Heather Brown) * 2017 Photoville (Brooklyn, NY) Contact High: Hip-Hop's Iconic Photographs And Visual Culture * 2018 "Hip-Hop : Un Age d'Or" Musée d'Art Contemporain de Marseille – Curated by Siba Giba * 2019 Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop at

(LA) * 2020 Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop at

(NY) * 2021 Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop at Manarat Al Saadiyat Museum in Abu Dhabi,

References

External links

* *
InstagramOfficial websiteFacebook pageTwitter page

Beatport pageAll Music page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ithaka 1966 births Living people Alternative hip hop musicians American expatriates in Brazil American hip hop musicians American male short story writers American male singer-songwriters American people of Greek descent American short story writers American spoken word poets Portuguese musicians Portuguese male musicians Rappers from California Record producers from California Singer-songwriters from California Surf musicians 21st-century American rappers