Rap Reunion in Bellingham reignites the local hip-hop scene.
In the 19th-century church building known as the Karate Church of Elf Defense on East Maple Street in Bellingham, rappers gathered last month with their friends and families to relive the glory days of old.
Known as the Rap Reunion, these rappers are the self-proclaimed old heads of Bellingham and Lummi Nation, in the local rap scene for over a decade. Today, most are clean and sober. Young kids dance and chase each other on the hard wood, in celebration of the former scene and 36th birthday of longtime Bellingham rapper, T.e.k.
The host, David Hillaire — aka DJ Big Rez — started as a local DJ before helping launch Seattle Indigenous radio station Daybreak Star Radio four years ago.
“Rez is big time now, but we’re happy to bring him home,” said one of the rappers, Big J, before his set.
The opener of the show, MC Gan, was DJ Big Rez’s opener for hip-hop shows 10 years ago, Hillaire said.
“It was cool to get all those people back together that left the stage to raise families, to clean up their lives, because stuff comes along with the industry,” he said. “It was great to hear some people who haven’t been on the stage almost since I left, doing live hip-hop shows.”
Before a visual of moving color and a turntable, MC Gan took the mic with his brother, Magic.
“This is a song I wrote in rehab on Christmas in like 2018,” he said. “Yeah, I’ve been to rehab like eight times, but I’m five and a half years clean now.”
Alongside the national rise of hip-hop, Bellingham has had a vibrant local scene, Hillaire said, but “the Indigenous part has come a lot further since I’ve got in the game. I try and bring all my Indigenous artists out. That’s why I quit doing regular radio to help launch the Indigenous radio station, to give Indigenous people a platform and shed some light on us and give us our own podium to stand on as far as doing music, because everybody thinks that indigenous music is just traditional music, drum music, stuff like that.”
At Daybreak, Hillaire plays artists of every genre, he said: jazz to heavy metal and everything in between.
Big J and Will Young — formerly Wicked J and Wasted Will — recall being on tour with names like Prozak and Axe Murder Boyz and bringing industry giant Tech N9ne to town when he was still coming up in a band and staying on couches in Bellingham.
Since Young became sober in 2011, he now goes by his given name, and Wicked J resurfaced as Big J.
“It’s crazy because you recognize everybody, but everybody’s older,” Big J said. “We got dad bods.”
Despite the long hiatus, the rap duo feels the momentum still.
“There was someone in the crowd tonight that was rapping along to one of our songs, and that was sick,” said Young. “That was a really good feeling.”
The last collaboration project between the two came out in 2009, Young said, but this resurgence has brought inspiration, and they plan to release their next collaboration album in October of this year.
“I think it’s going to blow our 2009 project out of the water,” Young said. “The production’s on point. The beats are sick.”
There is something special about Native hip-hop in particular, Hillaire said.
“Native hip-hop is almost the closest thing to the core of hip-hop,” he said. “It was a way to use our voice to voice what kind of conditions we were in and the struggles that we face and just telling the world what it’s like either on the rez or being an urban Native. It’s awesome to see Indigenous artists and Native artists bring that into hip-hop instead of all the bling-bling or the drug dealing and the flashy stuff and all that. We get to tell our story about what it’s like growing up where we are from the conditions we’re in, because a lot of residents are still below poverty level, and some of them are even worse in third-world conditions, depending on where you go, and all the problems we deal with drugs and alcohol. My biggest goal was to shed some light on the trials and tribulations that not just me, but other Indigenous communities surrounding this area.”
Several of the rappers at Bellingham Rap Reunion have inspired the next generation, recording verses with their sons and daughters.
“Whatever the next generation does, pick it up,” said Big J. “Carry that torch, bro.”
— Sam Fletcher
Also read in Salish Current:
• “What’s the craic? Look inside the local Celtic music scene,” Sept. 12, 2025
• “All pumped up with nowhere to practice,” Sept. 10, 2025
• “Mentoring musicians in Whatcom County,” Aug. 6, 2025
• “Lummi reclaims traditional name for TiLeqw-iLhch at Haida Point,” July 11, 2025
• “Recognizing folk in the Salish Sea: Lopez Uncovered Music Festival,” July 29, 2024