“FOLX” DANCE PARTY WITH H.P. MENDOZA

LEX the Lexicon Artist makes cerebral pop rap. Combining the influences of internet pop culture, Asian identity, and fandom, their explosive live performances explore humanity, psychology, and belonging through a bold and irreverent lens. LEX creates smart and fun music to make you think, dance, and heal.

A graduate of UC Berkeley, LEX began the Lexicon Artist project in 2016, by writing and performing original songs inspired by their multicultural upbringing, their life experiences, and popular culture and media. Since then, LEX has connected to thousands of fans with their relatable music that mixes elements of nerd culture, comedy, and personal identity.

LEX is a nationally touring independent artist, and has performed in 34 U.S. States and in Canada. They have been an official musical guest at conventions nationwide, including the Music and Gaming Festival (MAGFest) in National Harbor, MD; FanimeCon in San Jose, CA; SXSW Music Festival in Austin, TX; and Anime Expo in Los Angeles, CA. LEX has released two full length albums, Alter Ego (2020) and Raging Ego (2018), as well as a variety of singles and EPs on topics ranging from anime to comedy to technology.

Random, aka Mega Ran, aka RandomBeats… Teacher, Rapper, Hero. Guinness World Record Holder.  When LA Weekly said that Ran’s “fanbase and niche audiences are growing at a rate not seen since Tech N9ne,” they meant it. A former middle school teacher, Mega Ran (formerly Random) blends education, hip-hop and gaming in amazing new ways, penetrating the farthest reaches of the galaxy with his unique rhyme style and electric performances.  Ran cut his teeth in the city of Philadelphia as a moonlighting emcee and producer, performing, freestyle rapping, producing and later engineering at a studio. After relocating to Phoenix, competing in the Scribble Jam emcee battle championships and taking an early exit, Ran almost quit before he was even started, when a creative lightning bolt struck, and a fire was lit.

Ran’s music and story have been shared on stages across the world, on television (ABC/NBC News, ESPN, Portlandia, Tosh.O, WWE Wrestling) and on Billboard, where four of his albums have placed in the Top 2000 His most recent release is the critically acclaimed album “2 Hands Up,” a collaboration with Young RJ of the group Slum Village.  Today, Mega Ran is no longer a teacher by title, but maintains a rigorous touring and recording schedule, traveling the world to entertain and educate through the gift of rhyme.

 

Born in Tokyo and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Anna originally studied classical/bel canto singing and has since built her acting career with extensive experience in new works by composers and playwrights. She is the star of San Francisco Director, H.P. Mendoza’s arthouse/experimental horror film, I Am a Ghost, which garnered high acclaim and numerous awards (Gravitas Ventures). She is an original cast member of Jason Craig and Dave Malloy’s (Banana Bag & Bodice Co.) award-winning song play:  Beowulf—A Thousand Years of Baggage having toured with the show in UK/QC/NYC/Boston, MA/Berkeley, CA (original production).

Owen is a Bay Area guitarist and songwriter who crafts 3-minute tunes about diverse topics like fear of cyborgs and 19th-century philosophers. For several years, he’d meet up with H.P. and Jef on Wednesday nights to eat burritos and mess around with sounds, resulting in the band Digital Crafts Night and the 2016 album Everything Is Broken. In 2017, he bought a sampler and a bottleneck slide, and moved to Switzerland for 3 years, where he wrote and recorded the 2020 solo album Ausländer.

Corey Jackson is a Bay Area actor known for his work in Everyday Black Man, Crisis Hotline and can be seen in Netflix’s A Taiwanese Tale of Two Cities. Corey recently starred as “Marcus” in Mendoza’s feature film, Bitter Melon and is currently collaborating with Mendoza on an animated IDEO project.