Charlottesville, VA-based rapper, producer, promoter, poet and educator Cullen “Fellowman” Wade is defined by his multitudes. A multi-lingual, multi-genre multi-instrumentalist, his is a restless kind of creativity that combines a fierce commitment to liberation, leftist politics and literary theory into an eccentric artistry that stands out by virtue of its authenticity.

Whether as a solo artist or as half of rap duo Sons of Ichibei, one constant remains at the core of Fellowman’s music: literate, hard-hitting lyricism. His style is dense with allusion and wordplay, nakedly honest, thoughtful and unpredictably witty. Formative influences include KRS-One, Yasiin Bey (f.k.a. Mos Def), 2Pac, Slick Rick, Big Pun and Method Man, but whatever inspirations Fellowman takes from them have been run through his peculiar filter and recombined into a wholly unique style.

When his childhood hero KRS-One said “rap is something you do; hiphop is something you live,” Fellowman listened. He dove headfirst into the culture of hiphop, latching onto the community, honesty and inspiration he found there. Through a life journey covering three different continents, the ups and downs of addiction and sobriety, and finding his small town in the middle of national news, he credits the attitude and awareness he learned from hiphop with helping him keep his center. Whether as the co-founder and director of Charlottesville’s annual Nine Pillars Hiphop Cultural Festival, booking gigs for local and out-of-town artists, engineering and releasing music for peers and proteges, or his day job teaching audio and film production at the high school level, Fellowman spreads hiphop everywhere he goes. But whatever hat he’s wearing, he remains, as he started, first and foremost a creature of beats and rhymes.

The Washington, DC-born rapper and former U.S. Peace Corps volunteer also releases heavy metal music under the name Sciatica, writes horror film criticism for the website Deaf Sparrow, and has collaborated with the Virginia Film Festival as a music-video curator.