Monday, July 28, 2025

"So Get Up" by Ithaka Darin Pappas is the most remixed acapella in the history of music!









The end of the earth is upon us

Pretty soon it'll all turn to dust


So get up

Forget the past


Go outside

Have a blast


Go a thousand miles in a jet airplane

Go out of your mind go insane


To a place you never been before

Eat ice cream our you'll lick the floor


'cause, the end of the earth is upon us

Pretty soon it'll all turn to dust


Goodbye my friends

Goodbye world


I'll see you in the next life


℗© Ithaka Darin Pappas 1992

Published by: Ravenshark Music/ASCAP/North Music Group


https://open.spotify.com/track/6e9rM3yTOZ2LoPja0FAkkN

https://www.amazon.com/So-Get-Ithaka-Darin-Pappas/dp/B0BMSN6PQH





So Get Up, a lyric poem by Greek-Californian interdisciplinary artist and songwriter, Ithaka (or Ithaka Darin Pappas), was written on December 13th 1992 on a cafe napkin in the Amoreiras neighborhood of Lisbon, Portugal (where he worked and resided from 1992-1998). At the time, Ithaka had been guest hosting segments of "4º Bairro" on the national station Rádio Comercial during which he would often read his own short stories and poems. Having arrived to the station that day with little or no material to recite, Ithaka wrote So Get Up and a couple of short prose pieces at a coffeeshop on the side of the station's studio, just prior to going on air. A few months later, Ithaka recorded an electro musical version of So Get Up and other songs with a production team in Manchester, England released by Embryo Entertainment with little public attention.

_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________





Information about the iconic 1992 vocal acapella song by Greek-American songwriter and interdisciplinary artist Ithaka Darin Pappas (Ithaka). As of 2025, this example of lyrical mastery has been remixed over 800 times. In 1994, a hit remix was made by an acid house project from Underground Sound of Lisbon (DJ Vibe, Rui da Silva) and presented as a 100% Portuguese project with absolutely no mention of its creator Ithaka...now considered one of the biggest musical coverups since Milli Vanilli.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Get_Up

https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_Get_Up

Friday, July 25, 2025

ithaka "Muerto Escondido"



"Muerto Escondido" is a 2004 bilingual, travel-oriented hip hop story-song by Ithaka (Ithaka Darin Pappas).

Lyrically the song was inspired by and written during a voyage to Mexico and is a dark portrayal of a seaside surfing village that is overrun with narcotics, ghosts and monsters, "where men walk on water and zombies walk the streets". 

Ithaka later pre-produced the instrumental base in Los Angeles. Final recordings were completed at Estúdio Monoaural in Rio de Janeiro including Ithaka's English language verses, the Spanish choruses hauntingly vocalized by Latin Grammy-nominated Brazilian singer and actress Thalma de Freitas and the tribalesque percussion, Pepe Cisneros.

Lyrics: Ithaka Darin Pappas ©2004

I know a place that's hot most the time, a spliff cost a quarter, a beer cost a dime. I've roamed the globe, Nairobi to Kyoto But my favorite ghetto is in the depths of Mexico. Paradise is where you make it, but this ain't for the weak, where men walk on water and zombies walk the streets The water's blue, sand black, skin brown, near a little ghost town that never shuts down. Beauty all around for miles, but there's darkness in their smiles....there's darkness in their smiles. Muerto Escondido, su alma está en peligro. La verdad será revelada en muerto escondido. Muerto's got swells that'll kick yo' ass, sprain yo' ankles or leave 'em casts. There's tropical rain to wash away the pain, but ain't nothing to keep you from going insane. Jacking straight up with a chip on her shoulder one-woman army, million-gallon liquid soldier. Muerto Escondido, not for the weak, where men walk on water and zombies walk the streets. Ants the size of roaches and roaches the size of mice. Scorpions in your shoes and beds full of lice. Inside, frogs and 'squitos in the shower. Outside, guns, knives and murder. When a house gets robbed, I mean the house itself. They kick your sorry butt out and move it someplace else. It's no man's land, It's no thugs land It's no one's land, e' loco-land. Muerto Escondido, su alma está en peligro. La verdad será revelada en Muerto Escondido. Suicide and homicide with dead dogs by the roadside .The river runs with blood the sixth of the month, coinciding with the local eclipse of the sun. Took 'shrooms at dawn and thought I saw god, (he) told me to drink more tequila, stop drinking so much rum. Went to a party at that house up on the hill, with lizards on the walls and ghosts in the halls. Sat down to a plate of fish head stew, sucking on an eyeball, I'd been trying to chew. Saw ants moving bread across the floor, through the dining room, the kitchen and out the door They didn't even wait 'til we got to desert, but neither did the skeezer with me trying to flirt. She said, "I'm from Italy, but I've lived here ten years. Now I have two husbands and I have six kids." Her mouth was melting as she tried to speak. Said, "Caro Ithaka, let me give you a treat." She started unzipping, but I was not with it, had a chancre the size of a quarter on the outside of her lippage. Left the room, left the house. But that ghost in the hall followed me out. He said, "You can run, but you cannot hide from that little dark lie you call your life. Won't you come back in and stay awhile, drink some blood with Tequila, Escondido style." Muerto Escondido, not for the weak, where men walk on water and zombies walk the streets. Muerto Escondido, su alma está en peligro. La verdad será revelada en Muerto Escondido. Muerto Escondido, not for the weak, where men walk on water and zombies walk the streets. Muerto Escondido, su alma está en peligro. La verdad será revelada en Muerto Escondido.





Thursday, July 3, 2025

List of Books by Ithaka Darin Pappas (writer, artist, photographer)

  

















(source Wikipedia Wikipedia)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ithaka_Darin_Pappas_bibliography


Short Stories

 (published individually)


  • Oxygen Falls
     (series: Ravenshark Chronicles)[1]
  • Stellafly (series: Curson Avenue Archives)[2][3]
  • Zé dos Cães (José of the Dogs) (series: Ravenshark Chronicles)[4][5]
  • Independent Surf Publishing, 1993 / Sweatlodge Publishing, 2022 / ISBN 979-8371652379
  • Charles Didn’t Surf (series: Peace, Love & Portugal)[6]
  • Miracle at Malibu (series: Ravenshark Chronicles)[7]
  • Moments of Insanty: Part One (series: Ravenshark Chronicles)[8][9]
  • The Forgotten Four (series: Ravenshark Chronicles)[10]
  • Moema (series: Ravenshark Chronicles)[11]

Poetry Books

Art & Photography Books

  • Beyond South Central: Rap legends N.W.A. as seen thru the lens of Ithaka Darin Pappas (1988-1990)
  • Mini Ith
  • Umbilicus: Belly-buttons of Tokyo
  • Murakami Yawns at Mars
  • Aliens of AkahtiLândia
  • Sun Temple Sojourn: (Peru Through the Lens of Ithaka Darin Pappas) (series: Saltwater Nomad)
  • Rangamala: रंगमाळ (series: Saltwater Nomad)
  • Chiapas Heart Expedition (series: Saltwater Nomad)
    • Axolotl Grupo Editoral, Mexico, 2023 / Sweatlodge Publishing, 2024 / ISBN 979-8300303730


Collective Literary Book Appearances

  • Surfer – Volume 41 – Issues 7-12
    • University of California /Surfer Publications, California, 2000

Collective Photography/Art Book Appearances

  • Ice Cold: A Hip-hop Jewelry History by Vikki Tobak
  • Taschen, 2022 / ISBN 978-3836584975


Tuesday, July 1, 2025

Forget the past, go outside, have a blast are words that, at one point in the 90s, had as much impact around the world as Timothy Leary's famous expression: Turn on, tune in, drop out.


































Ithaka Darin Pappas photographed by Dede Fedrizzi (São Paulo, Brazil)

****************************

Forget the past, go outside, have a blast são palavras que, a dada altura durante os anos 90, tiveram tanto impacto pelo mundo quanto a famosa expressão de Timothy Leary: Turn on, tune in, drop out. O seu autor é o norte-americano Ithaka Darin Pappas

*************************

Forget the past, go outside, have a blast are words that, at one point in the 90s, had as much impact around the world as Timothy Leary's famous expression: Turn on, tune in, drop out. Its author is the American Ithaka Darin Pappas. The song was called 'So Get Up' and became, at that time, a true anthem for dance music fans. 

https://expresso.pt/blitz/2025-05-07-quanto-mais-louco-fosses-melhor-do-alcantara-mar-a-bimotor-quando-o-movimento-rave-em-portugal-foi-um-paraiso-0550d5d3

Olvida el pasado, sal, diviértete son palabras que, en algún momento de los 90, tuvieron tanto impacto mundial como la famosa expresión de Timothy Leary: Enciende, sintoniza, abandona. Su autor es el estadounidense Ithaka Darin Pappas. La canción se titulaba "So Get Up" y se convirtió, en aquel entonces, en un verdadero himno para los aficionados a la música dance.

So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, So Get up, 

Monday, June 9, 2025

Ithaka "Flowers And The Color Of Paint" 30th Anniversary (1995-2025)







Released on June 15th 1995, this week Ithaka's album Flowers And The Color Of Paint celebrates it's 30th Anniversary.

Flowers And The Color Of Paint was recorded in early 1995 at Namouche Studios in Lisbon, Portugal

The album was nominated for three Premios Blitz (the Portuguese equivalent of the Grammy) in the categories of: Best Album, Best New Project and Best Male Vocalist. In an end-of-decade retrospective of national music, the prestigious newspaper Público considered Flowers And The Color Of Paint to be one of the ten most influential 'Portuguese' albums of the 1990's.

In 1995 two songs were used in the surfing documentary G-Land Pro produced by Quiksilver. In 1997, acclaimed Hollywood director Antoine Fuqua used the song Escape From The City Of Angels (featuring Marta Dias) in the soundtrack for his feature film The Replacement Killers [released by Columbia Pictures] starring; Mira Sorvino (academy award winner), Chow Yun-fat (academy award nominee) and several other known actors such as Clifton Collins Jr. and Michael Rooker.

Escape From The City Of Angels also appeared in the television series Good Girls Don’t (which was shown on Oprah Winfrey’s Oxygen Channel) during its June 18, 2004 episode entitled, ”Addicted to Love”. All licensing inquiries for "Escape From The City Of Angels" by Ithaka should be directed to North Music Group [USA]






Flowers And The Color Of Paint Album Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/6SQM0XuCzlWduBwDu5LM05

”Escape From The City Of Angels” is a hip hop song recorded in 1995 by Californian-born lyricist and vocalist, Ithaka (featuring Marta Dias) which, in 1997, appeared in Columbia Pictures’ feature film release The Replacement Killers starring Mira SorvinoChow Yun-fat, Clifton Collins Jr. and was directed by Antoine Fuqua, recipient of the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Director. The song has also appeared in the television series Good Girls Don’t (which was shown on Oprah Winfrey’s Oxygen Channel) during its June 18, 2004 episode entitled, ”Addicted to Love”.

The song was first included on Ithaka’s debut album, Flowers And The Color Of Paint in 1995.
Although Ithaka is from Southern California, the track and entire album were recorded at Namouche Studios in Lisbon, Portugal where the artist had lived from 1992 until 1998 and both song and album are often included in a genre of music known as Hip hop tuga, or Portuguese hip hop.

Most of the self-reflective lyrics for Escape From the City Of Angels were written by Ithaka Darin Pappas over the flight required to arrive from Los Angeles to Lisbon. A destination where, it is said, he arrived with a one-way ticket and less than a hundred dollars to his name, yet remained over six years.

Produced by Joe Fossard (engineer) and DJ Grez, the song included backing vocals by São Tomean Portuguese singer Marta Dias – and also featured bass guitar by Francisco Rebelo, tenor saxophone by Paulo Muiños and trumpet by Nuno Reis (all members of the Portuguese band, Cool Hipnoise.

The original pressing of Flowers And The Color Of Paint was fifteen-hundred copies and although Escape from The City Of Angels appeared in a main stream Hollywood movie scene with three Oscar-nominated actors, (resulting in upwards of 600,000 downloads in China alone) there was never an official soundtrack released other than the classical score by Gregory Harrison which excluded Escape From The City Of Angels and also other film tracks by The Crystal Method, Talvin Singh, Tricky,
Death In Vegas, Hed PE and Brad.



Friday, May 16, 2025

Ithaka "Ninety-Eight in the Shade"


"Ninety-Eight in the Shade" from Ithaka's 5th album Saltwater Nomad (Sweatlodge Records). Produced by Tito Gomes, Recorded at Studio Fibra in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil



Friday, April 25, 2025

Ithaka "The Day Was Hot" produced by Mario Caldato (Beastie Boys)


 Ithaka "The Day Was Hot" produced by Mario Caldato (Beastie Boys)


177 views • Premiered Apr 8, 2025 • #alternativehiphop #undergroundhiphop