Killa Gens

Leaving all the bullshit behind
Killa gens, Pat Evangelista says hip hop put him on a straight path

Pat Evangelista had a number of reasons to use his basement to record the debut album for his rock/hip hop group Killa Gens.
And lack of funds for studio time was not the most significant one.
No, when most of the recording was being done, Evangelista, now 21, was 17 years old and was under house arrest for graffiti charges. Evangelista would write the lyrics, have a DJ friend send in digital background beats and record over top of them.
Quite frequently, he would be visited at home by police officers, who were enforcing the house arrest.
Evangelista said hip hop helped him get past the things that got him into trouble in the first place.
Born and raised by a middle class family in St. Catharines, Evangelista fell into a routine of subtance abuse around 15, a time when he also developed a passion for graffiti.
Eventually, he discovered another outlet, music, finding he was attracted to the honesty in underground hip hop.
An early influence was Toronto’s Corrupted Nostalgia; another was J Dilla, who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit.
Evangelista said it was turning point for him, when he decided he should do something for himself.
“I grounded myself out, started making music, and it just went from there,” he said. “If I wasn’t doing that, I would probably still be in the darker ways and getting in trouble. If I didn’t have it, I’d be going through a whole lot of bullshit.”
Evangelista’s group, Killa Gens, combines his love of hip hop with soulful guitar, provided by childhood friend Madison Venditelli. His debut album, Stay Gold, came out in February, and is a tribute to his late friend, Graham Dakin, who passed away last August. His passing was an inspiration to finish what he had started four years ago, Evangelista said.
Though Stay Gold only came out this year, Killa Gens has been performing the music for a few years now, playing S.C.E.N.E. two years ago. They’ve played in venues all over St. Catharines, including Red Hot Chilli Pepper, where he played with KO from Toronto, and Mikado, where he opened for D12.
This Sunday’s S.C.E.N.E. will see Killa Gens returning to the Chilli Pepper, where they play a show upstairs starting at 11:40 p.m. - Mike Zettel - Niagara This Week