Today we’d like to introduce you to Montu Miller.
Montu, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I am originally from Minneapolis, Minnesota but I always had this desire to get to Atlanta. Not only because something dope was happening in Hip-Hop, but Black folks were doing beautiful things. So I applied to Morehouse College and was accepted. After high school graduation, all I thought about was getting to Atlanta. When the time came to leave, I wasted no time. We drove to Atlanta from Minneapolis, I do not even remember the trip because all I thought about was Atlanta.
When we got there I checked in on-campus and was ready to go, but I had a letter waiting on me at the financial aid office. I thought nothing of it, I had worked with my high school counselor and just knew everything was set. I had earned a bunch of scholarships because of my good grades, plus I was getting a full Pell grant, but it was not enough. I was like $6,000 short. I had no clue I was short and $6,000 short was not something we had. I was devastated, all the air was out of me and I wanted to just crawl up somewhere and die. So we turned around and went back the way we had come.
I remember driving out of Atlanta with the worse feeling I had ever had in my life. I did not want to go home and my girlfriend at the time was moving to East St. Louis with her family, so I had my mother drop me off there. I did a couple of semesters at the Belleville Community College (now Southwestern Illinois College), but eventually returned to Minneapolis and attended Minneapolis Community & Technical College. I moved in with my best friend Silenthiases and his family with plans to somehow get to Atlanta. Silenthiases and I came up with a plan, we would go to Morris Brown College in the Atlanta University Center. MBC was cheaper and I knew from my research I could still take Morehouse College classes through cross-registration. I still had scholarship money left so we applied and got in. So once again, I packed up and took that trip down south to Atlanta.
Eventually, we could not afford MBC, so after a semester, we moved off-campus. I was not going back home this time. While working full-time, I took classes at Georgia Perimeter College (now consolidated with Georgia State University). We were running wild in Atlanta, going to shows, going to the club from Wednesday to Sunday- living that ATL Life. After a few years, I knew I needed to finish school so after some research, I found The University of Georgia in Athens. I needed to get out of Atlanta. I was getting worn out. So we moved to Athens where I now call home base. I have been in and out of UGA for many years, for many reasons.
During my time in Atlanta, I studied Hip-Hop shows, artists and the whole industry. I was not involved directly but I sat back and soaked up plenty of Industry knowledge. So when I got to Athens, I started a campus group called The Dreaded MindZ Family (DMZ), an artist collective of poets, Hip-Hop artists, intellectuals from UGA and the Athens community. We eventually went on to throw big events in the living room of my loft apartment. We called it the Lounge. It became infamous, community members, UGA students- everyone knew about The DMZ Lounge. We started a poetry cypher, a Hip-Hop cypher, and many other events right there at the Lounge. Eventually, they got so big we had to find a venue big enough to accommodate 100’s of people.
At first, we did shows on campus but we just continued to grow. We ended up at Tasty World, Element and Caledonia Lounge, doing weekly showcases of poetry and Hip-Hop. We went on to create festivals, more weekly shows and make a name for ourselves on and off-campus. College was not on my mind as I was in pursuit of making a name for myself in Hip-Hop. I quit school (again) to hop on the “Keep Right” tour with KRS-ONE and Ishues, an Athens based artists that started to make a national name for himself. After getting off the tour, I had nowhere to turn. I was homeless, I had dropped everything to go on The Keep Right tour, so when I returned nothing was there except for the name I had built up. Luckily a good friend of mine Giovanni Richardson, let me stay with her.
After substitute teaching for a while and continuing to throw shows at night, I eventually partnered up with Athfactor Entertainment (John Vereen (producer), Hope Iglehart (local businesswoman), Travis Williams (an emcee/law student) and Reggie Sykes (DJ Chief Rocka). We went on to push Travis Williams as a solo Hip-Hop artist. He set Athens on fire almost immediately after we started putting out projects. Trav Williams was selling out shows, being paid to do out of town shows, getting recognized by several major websites like Okayplayer and doing all this while he was attending UGA Law School.
After he graduated, he moved to Gainsville and we just could not keep the connection tight. John Vereen moved away and Hope got busy with her family business. So Chief Rocka and I grabbed the torch and decided to continue doing shows at Tasty World and Caledonia Lounge. We have built up a well known brand and still to this day have some of the best events Athens has to offer. It has been a whirlwind of weekly shows, monthly shows, festivals. It has been a non-stop Hip-Hop tornado since I arrived in Athens in 1999.
I have lived a fast and sometimes crazy life, but I have always managed to keep family first. They are my rock and if it were not for them, I would not be able to still do what I do. I have created a dope home in Athens, I have a house, five children (Brayana 13, Sekayi 12, Brandon 10, Gyasi 10, Liam 6) and a beautiful fiance (Ymmilia). We are a modern Hip-Hop family.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
One of the main struggles has been getting recognized in an Indie-Rock dominated town like Athens. We have had to fight an uphill battle on ice with venues, media outlets, and the Athens music community just to get a little shine. Nobody can ever say we have been given anything, we earned everything we have.
Also, just being financially ready to take on some of these projects through the years has been very difficult. We have never had any sponsors or financial backing. We somehow always got it done, but financially it has not been easy. To be completely honest, we were losing money for many years. Then we started breaking even and just in the past couple of years started making some crumbs on the table.
Please tell us more about your work. What do you guys do? What do you specialize in? What sets you apart from competition?
We are an entertainment company that specializes in event planning/managing, artist booking, artist management and even manage to help put out a few Hip-Hop projects here and there. Right now, we have “First Tues,” a monthly Hip-Hop showcase of local and touring artists we have been doing for the past three years at The World Famous. We recently (Jan. 2020) started a new showcase series “Hip-Hop Don’t Stop,” another monthly Hip-Hop show on 3rd Saturday each month at That Bar. During these events, DJ Chief Rocka plays the soundtrack and I serve as the host, together we are “Chief Rocka & mon2”. We also serve as booking agents/managers for Caulfield, Kxng Blanco, Seline Haze and Motorhead 2X, all Athens based Hip-Hop artists.
We have also done an annual MLK event at Lyndon House Arts Center for the past 13 years, help do stage managing for Hot Corner Fest for the past ten years and Athfest for the past five years. A Few years ago, Chief Rocka and I partnered with Khaalis (Kaliko) Brooks of Liberty Entertainment to form ATHfactor-Liberty Entertainment. Recently we help put together and release Athens first all Hip-Hop Vinyl compilation, “Classic City Wax vol. 1. The thing that I am most proud of is our ability to stay steady and keep growing. Our roots run deep here now they are starting to extend outside of Athens.
We started with a small team and now we are growing almost every month into something that is not only doing some of the dopest events in Athens but we feel like we are putting money in people’s pockets. We are bringing money to Athens and shining a light on people and areas of Athens that usually get ignored. We are being recognized regionally from Ashville, NC – Pensacola, FL to Baton Rouge, LA and many places in between. We have built something special and we are not going nowhere.
What were you like growing up?
I was a kind, quiet and always highly intelligent Hip-Hop kid. I was always the type to study something before I tried it. If I got into something, I would nerd-out on it and when I applied it, I was usually one of the best. But honestly, I always remained humble. I was that weirdo, nerd that also played sports. It might sound crazy but I could run with the jocks, hang with the nerds, walk with the loners. And because of my wild cousins and where I lived, the gangstas did not bother me, they pushed me to be better believe it or not. These were my circles. I have always been pretty universal.
Contact Info:
- Phone: (706) 372-5375
- Email: athfactor@gmail.com
- Instagram: @athfactor
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/athfactor/
- Twitter: @athfactor
Suggest a story: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
