AxiXs

Since making a huge impact in hip-hop as a part of the Fugees and executive producer of their Grammy award winning album The Score, Pras has been working towards assembling a new group as creative and original as before.  His new group, AxiXs, represents a fresh hip-hop mix with electro funk, alternative rock, and reggae, set to innovate through each of the unique talents in the group.  Pras Michel, producer, actor, and rapper, fully presents his blend of high energy, socially relevant rhymes through such tracks as lead single “Hipstar.”  Also rhyming for AxiXs is Selina Carrera, a poet first, she has been able to transform her writing abilities into lyrical originality. “It feels good to be surrounded with two other amazing talents, when you can just combine all the goodness into one, kind of like Captain Planet,” says Selina.  Pras and Selina are backed by Stefi Nova, a singer with a style all her own, she plays the bass and gives vocals to AxiXs’ songs.

AxiXs’ eclectic mix of backgrounds contributes to the distinctiveness of the group.  Pras, of Haitian heritage and New York upbringing, is an industry veteran.  Aside from The Fugees, Pras has had solo success with the Grammy nominated, worldwide smash single “Ghetto Supastar.”  Pras’ multi-talents include executive producing The Score, acting and producing in several feature films, including his own documentary, “Skid Row,” where he abandoned his celebrity life and lived as a homeless man for over a week.  The experience inspired Pras to create the PRASperity Project, a non-profit organization that provides aid to those who suffer from homelessness and poverty.

Like Pras, Selina Carrerra also co-founded her own non-profit organization, The Lyrical Playground, a poetry driven youth-on-youth program in high schools/middle schools and colleges.  Born with a mixed background of Puerto Rican, Italian and Brazilian, and raised in Philadelphia, Selina has trained in music since the age of nine.  Her musical abilities include playing drums and guitar.  Her passion for poetry originated at the Creative and Performing Arts High School of Philadelphia, her talent for writing grew into her skills on the microphone as an MC.  Selina’s diverse talents led her to being signed with Sony/Columbia Music Group as a solo artist at age 20.  Two years later she served as a songwriter/vocal arranger for Monarch Music Group.  It was there that she met Pras and they launched plans for what would become AxiXs. Stefi Nova became involved in AxiXs when producer Roy Hamilton had left the group to pursue a solo career, his exit led Pras to search for a new member.  In finding Stefi, Pras says, “A difficult task, the vibe with the three of us was incredible; nonetheless it had to be done.  So I decided it might be better to add a girl instead of a guy.  I met Stefi and instantly I fell in love with her.”  Once Selina met Stefi, she also agreed that she would be a good addition to the group.  Coming from a Russian background, raised by a father who was a jazz musician and a mother who was one half of a famous Russian sister act, music has always been a part of Stefi’s life.  At age 12, Stefi began her professional music career by singing as the opening act for her parents and other established artists.  She continued to expand her talents by picking up the Bass guitar at 14, since then she has recorded two solo albums and most recently completed an EP.  Among her accomplishments, she has won 1st place Vocalist at the Berlin Music Festival and was a finalist on “The New Wave” singing competition in Latvia, which held a live television audience of over 100 million people.  Stefi’s influences include Gogol Bordello, Led Zeppelin, Nine Inch Nails, Prince, and Tina Turner. AxiXs’ diverse group of talent is ready for listeners to experience their distinctive sound.  Their debut album, Recordtoire, is slated for a third quarter release in 2010.  The two lead tracks from their album are “Hipstar,” a fun, high-energy club banger, and main single, “If These Walls Could Talk,” written by Anita McCloud (Usher’s “U Remind Me”).  The songs work together to illustrate the dynamics of AxiXs and what Pras, Selina, and Stefi each bring to the sound of the group’s music.  With each artist’s style complementing each other, AxiXs’ Recordtoire will prove them to be nothing less than original.