Don’t say Venomous Voices is like every other hip-hop band. If you do, then you don’t know hip hop. And you definitely don’t know Venomous Voices.
While the Central Coast band puts itself in the hip hop genre, the members feel strongly about setting themselves apart from what the genre has become. The band exists on the premise that great hip-hop music is not dead—though it has become somewhat de-evolved. The band members believe the introduction of stripped-down ring tone beats, unintelligible lyrics, and a superficial pursuit of money and influence has tainted the essence of hip hop.
So Venomous Voices plays positive hip hop, a style void of the boasts of money and fame, absent the scantily clad women and over-the-top bling. It’s abundant with lyrics about life, strife, and love. The group gets back to the roots of hip hop and brings the message to the masses.
The band consists of Jaws (Justin Bonilla) on microphone, Jake Bonilla on drums, Gilbert Bonilla on guitar (yes, the Bonillas are all related), Joey Steil on keyboard, Jon Valentine on bass, and Joel de Leon on keyboard/guitar. Each member has roots in a variety of genres. The resulting blend is a jazzy hip-hop sound with a touch of funk.
“Instrumentally, everyone in the group has their own influences that come together to make this unique blend,” Gilbert said.
Lyrically and fundamentally, however, the band members all want the same thing: to change how hip hop is perceived.
“I want to grab the audience lyrically,” Justin said, “for them to listen to what I’m saying and to take away that message.”
Jon added to Justin’s comment on why the message is important: “When you hear someone on stage, you don’t take home what he wore, or his shades, or the women he had up there. You take home the music.”
“You take home the energy,” Joel said.
Audiences up and down the state have taken music home from Venomous Voices concerts. Those listeners weren’t just hip hop fans, either. The group has also played for punk, metal, and country audiences, surprising concertgoers each time with a sound unlike the hip hop personified on television. One of their favorite shows was at the Ventura Theater, opening for an act that was surprisingly far afield from their own genre.
“It was a death metal band,” Gilbert said.
“Yeah, the ambience was great, but the people were enthusiastic,” Jon said. “We got that, and we were just like ‘Wow.’”
Gilbert counts The Whiskey and even Rancho Bowl in Santa Maria as a few of his favorite locales. “It’s cool to do a show that people are just into, no matter where it’s at,” he said.
Since forming in 2004, Venomous Voices has performed at venues along the coast, including The Whiskey; the Warped Tour in San Diego, Sacramento, and Ventura; and has opened for hip-hop legends like Rakim, Del the Funky Homosapien, People Under the Stairs, Andre Nickatina, and Digable Planets.
Playing such gigs has only served to fuel their mission to bring their grassroots hip-hop sound to as diverse an audience as possible.
“We’d love to change people’s minds about what they think about hip hop,” Jon said.
“Hip hop is not what you see on TV,” Justin explained. “There’s a lot more out there; there’s a lot of undiscovered, really good hip hop.”
“Some people actually choose not to pursue the hype,” Jake added. “They figure they’ll have their 15 minutes of fame and see it fizzle, so they choose to not do it.”
Acknowledging such a reality doesn’t mean the band wouldn’t also like the spoils of a successful music career, however; it just means they’re focusing on the message.
“I would love to be in a music video, to have the cars, the money,” Joel said. “But really spreading the music, spreading the message, that’s what it’s about.”
Arts Editor Shelly Cone carries antivenin with her at all times in case she encounters something venomous. Contact her at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 14-21, 2010.