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500 Festival to benefit flood relief

10-02-2008 | Music

By Cole Cheney

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Neither a sequel to the movie ”300” nor a race in Indianapolis, the Iowa City music festival 500 will capitalize on both local talent and a national interest in flood recovery.

Named after the 500-year flood zone inundated by the Iowa River in June and hosted by former KRUI disc jockey Sid “The Kid” Mali, 500 will feature Three Armada, Chen Lo, Backdrop and Joey Ashby playing Saturday night at the The Industry, 211 Iowa Ave. Doors open at 9 p.m.

Proceeds from the concert, which will also feature appearances by DJ NYJ and MTVU Networks manager Yomi Desalu, will go toward the Iowa City and Coralville Flood Relief Fund. Admission is $15.

“Iowa City got me where I am today,” Mali says. “I feel obligated to help this area out.”

Born in South Africa, Mali spent much of his childhood listening to and imitating local hip-hop musicians before becoming a DJ himself. Since moving to Iowa City in 2000 to stay with his mother (who taught Zulu at the University of Iowa), Mali attended West High School, Kirkwood Community College and the UI. At KRUI he hosted a Friday night show called “DJ Sid the Kid’s Hip-Hop Amaza Show.”

In a nod to his roots, “Amaza” means “wave” in Xhosa, an African language that branches from Zulu.

Mali went on to work with MTVU, a division of MTV Networks that broadcasts a 24-hour television channel available on more than 750 college and university campuses nationwide. He also started his own entertainment web site called the Amaza Show, and used his connections to attract bigger-name acts to play the festival alongside local artists.

Bands playing the festival include Thee Armada, an electro-punk band from Houston recently nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for their hit single “Rock, Shock and Load”; Brooklyn-based rapper Chen Lo, a socially-conscious rapper who stands in contrast to megalomaniacal rappers like Kanye West and 50 Cent; and BackDrop, a band of Iowa city natives who use heavily distorted guitars and cymbal-heavy drumming to compliment young garage-rock vocals.

Completing the diversity of the show will be Joey Ashby, a Des Moines R & B upstart who sings of love, lust and friends through multiple forms of synthesized and natural vocals.

The artists were all recruited by Mali and Harrison Wheeler, the festival’s marketing director.

“This festival helps everyone,” Wheeler says. “Iowa City gets aid, these bands get new audiences, we get publicity and fans get a great concert.”

Mali is already hoping to bring the festival back after this year.

“So long as good causes keep coming, we’ll keep having an event,” he says.