The North Marion graduate, who goes by Flyvek, will perform in Portland on March 28
Photo By: Submitted photoPerfect Change
Ty Brack (center) has joined fellow rappers Victor Herwehe and Nick Harris to from the group Perfect Change. They will be performing March 28 at Satyricon in Portland.
WOODBURN -- North Marion High School graduate Ty Brack is trying to break stereotypes of rap through the release of his first album this month.
The 2002 graduate was an honor roll student and played baseball for his father and current NMHS baseball coach, Randy.
So when he branched out to rap, it was surprising.
"My high school friends didn't see it coming," he said, adding he enjoys reading about history and current events. "My dad can't tell what I'm saying. My mom and brother are country fans. But they've been supportive."
Brack's rap name, Flyvek, is actually from his middle school days.
"(My friends and I) used to be really big into wrestling, like WWE, back then I was really small and light," he said. "They rhymed Ty with the 'fly.' I don't really understand where the 'vek' came from but they just put it on there. It kind of stuck and I kept it."
Now 25, Brack will release his first album, "The i.S.," at a concert party in Portland on Sunday.
"'The i.S.' is a double entendre -- it stands for identity search, but it also means to live in the present only and don't dwell on the past," he said.
Brack's album is set up like a book, with three parts sandwiched between the first song, "Prologue," which introduces Flyvek as a rapper, and "Epilogue" which wraps it up.
"Part one is all really personal stuff, like depression. I had a girlfriend in college who got into a car accident and died," he said. "Part two is a lot about race and class and ... as a white person in hip-hop, I have to be able to respect it and not try to come off like somebody I'm not. Part three is basically story songs that get people thinking about other people's situations."
He also added bonus tracks to the album.
"It was stuff that we did that I liked but didn't necessarily fit in with the concept of the rest of the album," Brack said.
He said he hopes people understand that rap isn't always about guns and belittling women, as it is often stereotyped to be.
"There's a lot of hip-hop out there that's a lot more positive -- yes, there's vulgarity in it, but it's not just for vulgarity's sake," he said. "A lot of people that are going to be at our show are positive artists.
"They do things in the community, they do things for each other and try to uplift rather than make you feel worthless."
Brack got involved in recording when he met Victor Herwehe, whose rapper name is HavQ, at Satyricon, the club where their joint album release party will be held March 28.
"I started working with him in his apartment and he produces music, so that's where I started getting all the instrumentals from," said Brack.
They teamed up with Nick Harris, another Portland rapper, to form the group Perfect Change.
"We're all kind of working on our solo stuff," he said. "It just so happened that our solo stuff is ready before our group."
Brack started writing poetry in high school and, while attending Western Oregon University, he began attending Poetry Slams, competitions where writers perform their work.
"It's a lot about words but it's also about the emotion and the way that it's presented," he said. "So I sort of took it and put it in with the music."
But he didn't put his poetry to music until he met Herwehe and Harris.
"We've gotten really close as friends. It's not just a business thing," he said.
"We've done some work with other groups in Portland and their recording process is way more serious than ours. Ours is really laid back and lots of joking around."
While the Portland rap scene is mostly accepting, Brack said he's not sure if he would want to pursue rap as a full-time career because he enjoys his current job as a special education assistant in the Vancouver School District.
"There are good and bad things about both," he said. "In education ... the kids look up to you. But in both, there's a sense of community and ways you can relate to different people."
But writing and creating rap songs has been enjoyable.
"I dealt with depression, losing my girlfriend in college," he said, adding he's been to therapy and is overall a happier person now. "This has been helpful letting it all out. It's definitely great therapy."
The album release party, hosted by Perfect Change, will be at Satyricon, 125 N.W. Sixth Ave. in Portland, at 7 p.m. March 28. It is open for all ages but it may only be appropriate for ages 13 and up. Tickets are $8.
The event will also feature 151 Click, The Early Bird Project, Eternal Family, Cloudy October, Tommy Daniels and Slye Lawrence. For more information or to purchase tickets, call 503-369-0859.
