Inspiration, hope through hip-hop

COEUR d'ALENE — A powerful message is being delivered to the Northwest's hip-hop scene, and Gem Starks is the messenger.

The 29-year-old Portland artist is touring cities in Idaho, Washington and Oregon to spread hope and inspiration through the music he creates. He wants to encourage youths, especially those living in bad environments, to lift themselves out of troubled lifestyles and aspire to become something more. He wants to facilitate conversations about race so people can move beyond skin color and liberate society from the weight of hate.

He wants people to live better lives while being better to each other and themselves. He understands the need because he comes from a troubled past and, through education and hard work, has turned his own life around.

"You have to free yourself," Starks said Tuesday in an interview at The Press. "Imagine the things that you’re going through are chains, those chains being habits. It’s time to free yourself. I’m speaking from the point of relating to that lifestyle."

Starks spent a lot of his youth in Yakima, a city that annually surpasses the national average in violent and property crimes. Surrounded by this, Starks fell into bad behaviors and started becoming a product of his environment.

"I got into some trouble," he said. "I thought that was the only way to live."

He was sent to stay with his sister in Maryland, where his eyes were opened to the accomplishments and opportunities that were possible for African American youths. He realized his culture was not necessarily bound to crime or the entertainment industry; an epiphany, along with a textbook he read in college, illuminated his mind to help him understand that he, too, could live the American dream and he was not defined by his race.

"It changed my perspective on how far I’m going to be able to go in America based off of my skin color," he said.

Starks studied political science at Portland State University and understands how psychology can be embedded in the lyrics of rap and hip-hop. Through his own lyrics, he is trying to reach people who live a certain lifestyle so he can elevate them as his work progresses. He has it all planned out.

"My music is very message-driven," he said. "While it does display ignorance — and I call the music at this point ‘ignorant’ — I try and touch bases with people starting in the form of something like Plato’s allegory of the cave. Using that same allegory, the character reached enlightenment at some point. I think what some people miss is that he found it his duty to go back and enlighten other people, even at the cost of death.

"This is where people are finding me. I think I’ve reached a level of peace internally, I’m really happy to be doing what I’m doing," he continued, explaining that he can now clearly see how people get caught up in environments that torture them. "I understand who it relates to and how it relates. There is a form of ignorance that is there and I’m aware of the ignorance, but that won’t deter me from reaching the audience that I want."

He said his next project is called "Bird's Eye View" because he intends to lift people to the point where they will have better sight of their lives.

"It’s hope," he said. "We’re reaching for that, and we have a bird’s eye view of that."

Starks is performing as a part of his Portlandia Koolin Tour at 7 p.m. Saturday at Emerge Gallery in Coeur d'Alene. He will be joined by his friend and special guest Luther X. He said guests will enjoy a few new songs and surprises during and even before the show, as Starks has been known to play the role of ticket taker to interact with his audience and pose for a photo or two. A film crew will be on site as Starks prepares footage for a video that will be released at the end of his tour. His final tour performance is June 29 in Portland.

"I think it’s going to be really high-energy. They’re going to love the energy," he said of Saturday's show. "The energy that I bring is something similar to what I imagine people listen to."

Tickets are $10 and available online at www.gemstarks.org. The event is all ages.

Emerge Gallery is located at 208 N. Fourth St.