Bryce Raber
Features Reporter

Photo by Chris Clark

“Para-dox-ical / is the reason I keep it me-thod-ical,” raps freestyle artist Lydon Keith, also known as Bugzlux.

Keith, 28, who has been rapping for 10 years, is spreading his craft to the CMU campus with regular “Skate and flow” sessions that he hosts outside the University Center. Although Keith is not a student, he is planning on enrolling this spring, and his sessions attract many students each week.

Keith’s lyrics and booming bass caught the ear of freshman Reh Vanatta, who sat down with her friends to listen.

“It truly is refreshing to see someone expressing themselves like this these days,” Vanatta said.

Keith grew up in Venice Beach, Calif., where he found himself inspired by rap artists like Crooked I, Supernatural and Eminem. He said that he found a community of friends who shared his passion for skateboarding and rap music.

“It was just kids off the street coming together, making music, skating at the skate parks,” Keith said.

Keith has an associate’s degree from the Musicians Institute College of Contemporary Music. He came to Grand Junction because he hoped to study opera and philosophy at CMU but found  that he was missing something he grew up with — a community of friends sharing a common interest in skating and rapping.

“When I moved here, I just wanted the same kind of community, people to hang out with who wanted to skate, freestyle and listen to music and have some fun,” Keith said.

He believes that it’s important for people to take advantage of their freedom to express themselves.

“My 1st amendment, my freedom of speech, my freedom of press, leaves me no stress,” he rapped.

Skate and Flow is meant to be a community gathering where students from all walks of life with any sort of rhyming, poetry or musical talent can come and join as a group of people who have desire for a new form of expression.

So if you happen to be passing by the west entrance to the University Center and hear a few rhymes flowing, grab a seat and take a listen or even pick up the mic and try to glisten.