Colorado Rapper Driving Her Wheelchair Right To The Top

posted on May 09 by Admin in the Disability News, Fun, Health category

Kalyn Heffernan is known for her fearless and tough demeanor.  That’s a huge contradiction when you look at Kalyn’s 3 feet 6 inches and 53 pound stature. Kalyn has a genetic bone disorder called osteogenesis inperfecta that leaves her bones without collagen and very fragile, and she must use a wheelchair. This 24 year old University of Colorado graduate has completed the audio engineers program using her education to follow her dreams of being one of the hardest hitting rappers in the Denver area.

Despite her fragile bones, Kalyn lives her life on the wild side and is known as one of the most risky and exciting MCs in the city. She has had over 100 broken bones due to the genetic condition. “I’ve had lots of surgeries. I’ve been rodded in my femurs and other major bones. I’ve had some of those since I was 9 months old” says Kalyn.

Kalyn was hardly sheltered while growing up. Her parents enrolled her in public schools in elementary and high school. A force to be reckoned with, Kalyn has a pierced lip and a stomach tattoo that mimics Tupak Shakur’s “thug life” in Old English font. Her tattoo however says “Cripple”, a pun on the gang the “Crips” and a good natured attitude regarding her disability.  Kalyn has been with her girlfriend, Jennah Black for almost 5 years and is a proud, card-carrying medical marijuana patient.

In 2008, Kalyn had been rhyming and goofing around while participating in the annual Rocky Mountain Wheelchair Sports Camp’s talent show.  It was here that she met an old friend and collaborated beyond talent show level rhymes and cut a demo with the name Wheelchair Sports Camp after the annual trip.  When Kalyn and her friend reached a creative block, she reformed the band to include sister/brother duo Abi and Isaac McGaha Miller. With Abi playing saxophone and Isaac on the drums, the band took on a new sound.  A recent addition of  DJ B* Money whose skill on the turntables rounded out the band’s new sound.

“When I first heard her CD, it sounded different to me. And with the way hip hop is nowadays, that ‘s a hard thing to achieve.” DJ B* Money

Wheelchair Sports Camp plays a hip hop that alternates between driving bass-line grooves and free jazz sax bursts. On stage, Kalyn has a PowerBook and keyboard set up that allows her to trigger samples and beats. Behind her are the drums, sax, and turntables.

As Wheelchair Sports Camp grew in popularity, a Rhode Island rapper named B. Dolan took notice and booked a mini tour. “My interest is in somebody who is capably performing and presenting hip hop in a way that has integrity but is also coming at it from a different angle… In Kalyns case, she’s gay and handicapped and that ‘s a point of view I haven’t seen in hip hop” B. Dolan

Recently, out of 11,000 applicants, Wheelchair Sports Camp was one of 2,000 acts to perform at the South By Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas.  Kalyn and her band mates lived every bit the life of a rock star at the SXSW festival. In addition, she has a habit of getting drunk and falling out of her wheelchair, a possible life altering experience with her genetic bone disease.  She and her band mates were even arrested on the way to the festival for graffiti and possession of marijuana.

Her performance at the festival caught the attention of a major record label, and Kalyn is excited but trying not to get her hopes up too much. “A really big label talked with me after the show, and I’ve been in contact with them twice already this week,” she said with a sly smile. “I don’t really know if it’ll go anywhere, and it probably won’t, because it’s a major label, and I’m passionate about retaining control and owning my masters, but that’s still huge to me. I can’t even put words to how weird it is that I’d ever consider turning down such a thing as a major-label contract.”

Source: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/e33f8454c5ec4c43a69171908e8d243b/CO–Disabled-MC/