“…a style that brings to mind the likes of RZA and MF DOOM.” -The Japan Times

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Long Island, MeccaGodZilla is a music producer, MC, visual artist, and founder of indie record label MANAFEST VISION. 

Working alongside Omowale Adewale, m1 of dead prez and Immortal Technique, MeccaGodZilla got his start in NYC’s underground Hip-Hop scene as a founding member of the nonprofit Hip-Hop union G.A.ME (the Grassroots Artists MovEment) which made free healthcare, free dental, free legal advice, and show bookings available to independent Hip-Hop artists from New York and Philadelphia.  Forging countless relationships with both underground and top 100 artists yielded MeccaGodZilla’s first music production on Rodan’s “Theophany: The Book of Elevations” (featured on allhiphop.com). Theophany was also Mecca’s first graphic design placement in collaboration with NYC graffiti legend KEO aka SCOTCH79th of the X-Men. Mecca drew the main cover illustration and took the photography for the album.

Described by The Japan Times to have “…a style that brings to mind the likes of RZA and MF DOOM,”  MeccaGodZilla featured in Black Enterprise magazine after being the first rapper in NY to successfully complete a Kickstarter campaign to create the Street Fighter “Hip-Hopera” album “PERFECT 天” under the moniker RYU BLACK. Musically he has worked with NIKE, Capcom, Spike, Universal Japan, Warner Japan, Armani Exchange Japan, and Eric Bobo of Cypress Hill while moonlighting to model (for Applebum Tokyo) and secure other creative opportunities in Japan. 

After leaving the Monsta Island Czars in 2008, Mecca went on to receive 1 Million plus downloads on the Mininova torrents for “American Monsta: the Jay-Z American Gangster Remix album.” In 2012, the success of his efforts as an indie artist, as well as his collaborations with artists in Asia, Canada, Europe and more led to a collaboration on Capcom’s 25th anniversary box set for the legendary video game Street Fighter II.

In 2018, is a United States Cultural Ambassador for Hip-Hop via Next Level which is an initiative of the U.S. Department of State, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Meridian International Center whose mission is to use Hip-Hop music, dance, and art to foster cross-cultural creative exchange in diverse communities, promote understanding and conflict transformation in these audiences, and support the professional development of artists in those communities. Mecca participated in the Next Level Uzbekistan residency and is scheduled to participate in the Next Level Nepal residency.

Currently Mecca releases music through his indie label MANAFEST VISION, runs the music production house Kreative Kaiju, owns a streetwear brand called arigatz, and is an organizer for the vegan activist movement/network Black VegFest.

MeccaGodZilla aliases: fka RAVAGE, fka ADUM⁷, aka RYU BLACK, aka MeccaGodZilla

Photo by: @angielmv