Devine Carama's 20th Artist Anniversary Show

Emmy Award-Winning Hip Hop artist & activist, Devine Carama, celebrates his 20th artist anniversary on November 9th with a live performance at the Farish Theater in downtown Lexington from 7-9 pm. Signed copies of his new book, “Pages Full of Rhymes” and a new signature hoodie collaboration with SoulnRoses will be available for purchase! We will also be airing an exclusive interview from Devine's "Artist Connect Benefactor Award", in which he talks about his upbringing, rises, and falls of exploring the intersection of ART & ACTIVISM to better his community. $20 entry with LIMITED tickets available!

Please plan to be there by 6:45 pm as the show starts at 7 pm on the dot! JK-47 on the 1's & 2's, Tony Wavy & Bryce Oquaye will provide live art and Carama's daughter, Ollice Spaulding, will be doing a hip-hop dance routine. This show will act as a fundraiser for Believing In Forever Inc.'s 11th annual "A Coat To Keep The Coat Cold Away" Youth Coat Drive! Check out Devine's bio below, and make plans to join us in November!

Devine Carama is a nationally renowned, 2022 Emmy Award-winning hip-hop artist, educator, community activist, & author from the Southside of Lexington, KY. He is the new director of the Mayor of Lexington's youth gun violence reduction program, ONE Lexington, which has launched several new initiatives in its first year under his direction. After years of battle rapping on the street and releasing countless mixtapes, Carama finally made a name for himself in the Lexington hip hop scene in 2008, when he released his debut album, “Devine Intervention”. Devine has dropped 15 albums in his 20-year career including the critically acclaimed “Kingtucky” series, which started in 2016. Songs such as “The Populist Pulpit”, “Save the Children”, “16 Bars For Breonna”, “Let There Be Light”, and “We Are Royalty” highlight the socially conscious tenor that has become what people can expect from Devine’s career, on and off the mic. His struggles as a young man in poverty and single fatherhood coupled with the 2-parent stability of his upbringing gives Devine a unique look from both sides of the spectrum in his quest to be a “bridge” and lead the next generation towards true equity and opportunity for all.

In December 2018, Devine performed outside in the cold for 48 hours straight, with temperatures dipping below freezing, to raise awareness for his annual youth coat drive, "A Coat to Keep The Cold Away". Over the last 10 years, Believing in Forever has facilitated the collection and delivery of over 22,000 coats to children in Central and Eastern Kentucky. Devine is also featured at the University of Kentucky, where he teaches a course called “Lyricism & Leadership: Hip-Hop & Community Change”. In 2020, Carama brought black girls and women together (middle school, high school, and college) to create an album called “The Black Girl Project”, which focused on the journey of maturation for black girls coming of age in a society that doesn’t always value them. Devine’s intersection of hip hop, education, and activism continued in 2023 when he collaborated with professors at the University of Kentucky and Rutgers University who were doing a fatherhood study analyzing the disenfranchisement many fathers feel in the justice system. Devine collaborated with longtime producer, JK-47, and R&B artist, Bryce Jamel, to create a song called “Invisible Father” which artistically brought to life the data in that study. Later that year, Devine did a 1-week residency at one of Kentucky’s most prestigious higher ed institutions, Centre College, where he taught classes, lectured on social justice, hosted a student open mic, and performed 2 shows on campus.

Musically, Devine has worked with and/or opened up for acts such as Rakim, AZ, Big KRIT, J. Cole, Talib Kweli, Mickey Factz, SkyZoo, Nappy Roots, LL Cool J, Black Eyed Peas, Canibus, De La Soul, Little Brother, & many more. His music has been covered in major music publications like The Source, Vibe, HipHopDX, 2DopeBoyz, & Complex Magazine. Devine has prided himself in tearing down doors for hip hop culture in Lexington by expanding the spaces in which the culture is recognized and received. In 2010, Devine became the first rap artist to ever perform at the historic Lyric Theatre in Lexington, KY, and the prestigious Norton Center for Arts in Danville, Kentucky. Devine, along with his wife Cierra Spaulding, were the first African American art residents at the Lexington Art League’s Loudon House. In 2020, Devine was the first 2-time winner of NBA All-Star, Dame Lillard’s “Live Cypher” Rap Contest, in which he received praise from Drake-producer, Boi1da, Lil Cease, Fabolous, Benny the Butcher, famed hip hop journalist Rob Markman, and more. Devine is also a 5-time “Lexington Hip Hop Artist of The Year '' award winner and even notched “Lexington Song of the Year '' in 2020 for his ode to black men entitled, “A Black Man’s Flowers''.

Devine Carama & JK-47 won an Emmy in 2021 for best “News Promotion” from the Ohio Valley Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, for a song entitled “Positively Lex 18”. The Emmy award-winning song focused on uplifting the community after the pandemic and social unrest in 2020. He is the first and only hip hop artist from Kentucky to ever win the prestigious award. Finally, next week, Devine Carama will be receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Lexington Music Awards committee, for his 20-year contribution to the Lexington hip hop scene.

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