User:Smithson1900/Manny Phesto

Manny Phesto

Manuel Levins Holden better known by his stage name Manny Phesto, is an American hip hop musician based in | Minneapolis, MN. Pitchfork listed his music amongst the "Best MN Hip-Hop Releases of 2014". | City Pages named his debut album Southside Looking In one of "The Best Minnesota Rap Albums of 2014". | 89.3FM The Current awarded it their "Album of the Year" title

Career
In 2010 Manny Phesto and a few friends began performing locally at demonstrations, benefit concerts, and small shows at parties and venues such as Acadia Café, and The Madusa. 2011 saw Manny curating his own events at local Italian restaurant Italiani's and playing other hip hop shows around town.

In September of 2012, Manny Phesto co-founded a day long hip hop festival in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood of | Minneapolis at which he released his Social Capital EP collaboration with Julian Fairbanks. The festival, Hip Hop Harambee ran two consecutive years 2012, 2013 and featured local and national recording artists, dancers and DJs including: | Big K.R.I.T., | Talib Kweli, | Devin The Dude, | Shabazz Palaces, Gritty Committee (Greg Grease & Freez), Mike the Martyr, Axel Foley, Metasota and others.

April of 2014 Manny released his Mike the Martyr produced Southside Looking In project online, followed by a release party in June.

In May of 2015 Manny Phesto was featured on the bill of the 8th annual | Soundset Music Festival which was named the "Best Hip Hop Festival Around" by MTV" . Manny was featured on | Sway Calloway's Sway in the Morning show on | Eminems's Shade 45 channel aired on | Sirius FM. In June, Manny Phesto toured four islands of | Hawaii on The Intra Island Music Tour He performed at the 26th annual | Saturday in the Park on July 4th in | Sioux City, Iowa. Manny was named one of NoMute.MX's 11 recommendations for Festival Ajusco in | Mexico City November 14th-15th and is booked to perform at Summer Set Music and Camping Festivalin Sumorset, Wisconsin. Manny Phesto is the co-founder of the HiGH MiNDS Tour which is touring the Midwestern United States with fellow Minnesota artists Baby Shel and The Rotation throughout July and August.

Manny's upbringing in a working class family of artists and activists including | Richard Levins, | Rosario Morales, and | Aurora Levins Morales has influenced recurring themes in his music. He has worked with the Poor peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign as a | Community organizer and was an official endorser of it's directors 2012 bid for Vice President on the Green Party ticket

Discography
EPs

(2012) Social Capital EP Albums

(2014) Southside Looking In

(2015) TBA