Deep Rawk Dave welcomed Wave Generators, a new hip-hop collective featuring former New Kingdom member Nosaj and independent artist Height Keech. The group is on tour behind their debut Runaway with a Wild and a Rare One and will perform at Mutiny Information Cafe in Englewood. They discussed their origins, the meaning behind their name, the energy of live shows, and the importance of bringing a group dynamic back into hip-hop. (Interview: 9/19/25)
Deep Rawk Dave: And we closed the set out with the tune Cheap Thrills by the group New Kingdom. New Kingdom was a mid-nineties rap group, and I’m excited to be welcoming to the air right now one of the principal figures in that group with his new collective. This is the group Wave Generators. They pulled over somewhere—maybe from Wyoming or Montana—to come join us here on the Afternoon Sound Alternative. I’d like to welcome Nosaj of New Kingdom, who is now in Wave Generators, as well as Height Keech. Guys, thanks for joining us on the Afternoon Sound Alternative.
Wave Generators: Oh, man, thank you so much for having us. We really appreciate it. We’re up here by Yellowstone Park, near Lucky Lil’s Casino.
Deep Rawk Dave: All right—don’t blow your per diem. I know you guys are traveling on a budget.
Wave Generators: Yeah, that’s right. But that keno is whispering.
Deep Rawk Dave: As long as it stays only at a whisper. You’re no stranger to the road. One of the big songs from New Kingdom was Mexico or Bust. You’re out there on the vagabond once again.
Wave Generators: Yeah, the shows have been electric. My favorite thing about being a musician is performing on stage. This is great—I mean, this is what I was born to do. I’m happy to be back doing it.
Deep Rawk Dave: That’s awesome. So you guys are going to be playing tomorrow night at Denver’s incredible DIY space, Mutiny Information Cafe, in downtown Englewood on South Broadway. Folks, this is going to be like 8:00 PM doors, 8:30 show. A ton of other local groups are on the bill: John Tompkins of Victory Lap, Nighttime School Bus, Autumn Relic, and Shocker Mom. That’s going to be a pretty dope hip-hop occasion.
Mutiny has been the host of a lot of open mics lately, really getting themselves established in downtown Englewood as they had been in Baker, Denver, for a long time. Rising rents meant Mutiny moved, but now they’ve got a really great space. I think you’re going to be happy with the basement feel down there. So—where all have you been so far on your tour?
Wave Generators: We started in Michigan. We did Port Huron, Michigan, then Fort Wayne, Indiana—
Deep Rawk Dave: Hometown, Little Rock, Arkansas.
Wave Generators: Oh, really? Fort Wayne?
Deep Rawk Dave: Yeah.
Wave Generators: Oh, that’s awesome. That was our first time there. There’s a tight MC named Sankofa from there, and we got to meet a lot of hip-hop veterans from the b-boy/rap world. That was really cool. Then we played some shows in Texas, went up the coast—three shows in L.A., the Bay Area, Portland, Missoula last night. It looked like a traveling electric hip-hop circus.
Deep Rawk Dave: At this point you guys are really getting your chemistry locked in. So what brought together Wave Generators? You’ve both done a lot of music before this linkup—how did you start this project?
Wave Generators: I was a New Kingdom fan forever, and then I got put onto a lot of Massage’s solo stuff too—even stuff he was like, “Wait, I didn’t even know that came out.” Me and my friend were such big fans of so many of his solo projects.
The first time we did a song together was through our man Darko the Super in Philadelphia. He put us on a song, and it wasn’t even like we met—we just contributed to the same track. We kept going from there. We worked on a project called Necessary People that we were both on, and then slowly started putting together this idea for a group.
Deep Rawk Dave: Word up. Is there a concept behind the name Wave Generators?
Wave Generators: Our sound man, who’s in Albertsons right now doing some shopping, was part of it. For me, it came from the idea of riding a wave of music versus generating a wave. How do you generate a wave? That stuck in my head as one of a hundred titles. Massage dropped it in the studio on one of the songs on our first album, Lower East Side. As soon as he said it, I was like, “That’s our name.”
Deep Rawk Dave: Okay, sweet. So it was organic—emerging from the creative process.
Wave Generators: Yeah, exactly.
Deep Rawk Dave: Cool. So you didn’t just sit on 50 band names and narrow down.
Wave Generators: Well…we floated about 150,000 names. We can’t forget CX Kidron, who kind of started the band with Dan. He had some interesting names—like Jackal Maxon. I don’t know what it means, but it feels like something.
When you call yourself Wave Generators, it puts pressure on you to set the party off with something different every time. That’s what we attempt to do.
Deep Rawk Dave: That’s the picture I get from the name—generating big radio waves. Radio waves are huge, and you guys are doing this regularly. That interaction with the audience you’re talking about is so critical.
Hip-hop has so many different little lanes. New Kingdom existed in a cool lane—you guys really captured a slacker aesthetic that was very different from the rest of hip-hop at the time. Your imagery stood out too—you’ve got a honey bear bong when everyone else was rolling blunts. It was more nineties than a lot of nineties rap itself. That connection with the audience and popular culture really stood out to me.
Wave Generators: Yeah. It definitely triggered the audience. What’s really great about returning to the stage is that at shows we’ll see as many new people as old New Kingdom fans. You’ll be in a small town in Montana and there’s a line of New Kingdom fans excited that now they have something contemporary to listen to—that they don’t have to go back to New Kingdom just to get that feeling.
They’re freaked out because Wave Generators are giving them that feeling all these years later. Personally, I’m a huge hip-hop fan. I lead a certain lifestyle, and hip-hop is basically the soundtrack of that lifestyle. That’s what I do.
Deep Rawk Dave: Dig it.
Wave Generators: My lifestyle is just more Frank Zappa-ish.
Deep Rawk Dave: And you had to keep it 100 with the life you were living, right? The authenticity of the sound reflected that—like, yep, this is these brothers’ lives.
Height, I think you’ve put out quite a bit of work yourself. I met you at a show here in Denver, got your Moves the Mountain album—which we’ll hear a little something from later. You’re certainly a veteran of being an independent artist. Tell us a little bit about your journey.
Wave Generators: Let me see. I started doing this kind of music with a group called Wounds in the late nineties. We put out our first album and toured. Then I started doing solo stuff shortly after—late nineties, early 2000s—and I’ve been steadily doing it on small labels or on my own. Touring’s always been a big part of it—independent tours, just getting out there.
Deep Rawk Dave: Word up. Yeah. I’m always lamenting the lack of groups in rap music. Everybody’s a soloist anymore. Just to see new formations, new groups—it’s great. There’s such capacity to build energy when the mic is going back and forth. I’m like, why aren’t there more groups right now?
But there is a group. There’s Wave Generators. And they’re coming to Denver this Saturday.
Wave Generators: Yes. That was definitely part of the pain and the purpose during the pandemic. So many indie hip-hop heads were home, collaborating online: “Let’s make an EP, let’s make a collab.” Post-pandemic, some of those turned into bands. Some were good, some were one-offs. But we decided not to be a one-off—we wanted to make a touring band.
Deep Rawk Dave: Nice. That’s dope. Wrapping up here—if people come to the Mutiny Information Cafe tomorrow for this 8:30 PM show, what can they expect from Wave Generators?
Wave Generators: Excitement. Funny you ask—I’ve been doing post-show testimonials so people who saw the show answer that question. From what people say: it’s exciting, soul-stirring, wild, fun. A little holy in certain parts.
It’s just wild—a good time, super energetic. Sometimes we forget we still have that in us. That person who went to the Beastie Boys show to hear Sabotage—that enthusiasm is still there. No one’s triggered it yet at this age.
Deep Rawk Dave: Oh, I love that. And Mutiny is small enough that no one’s going to leap off a speaker trying to reclaim their old glory. Safe environment to let loose. In fact, the album you’re touring behind is called Runaway with a Wild and a Rare One, and that’s exactly what you’re describing.
Wave Generators: No slam dancing. I’m more into dancing like a toddler in a padded room.
Deep Rawk Dave: That’s the soundtrack.
Wave Generators: And if you come to the show, steal a whistle from your kid and bring it—blow it the entire time, anytime you feel like it.
Deep Rawk Dave: Okay, I’ll see if I can dig up a whistle—or some other noisemakers are welcome too.
Wave Generators: I’ll have one on stage.
Deep Rawk Dave: Sweet. Big shout out to KGNU’s Sean Mau for making this happen. He’s presenting the show tomorrow at Mutiny. You know him on KGNU’s airwaves as Bob Cosmo, and he’s always got a great ear for underground stuff.
We’re gonna get out of here with a tune called Bonjour. Then we’ll hear Height Keech’s Moves the Mountain just to keep everything balanced, and then get into our hip-hop part of the show.
But I just want to thank you guys for pulling over and taking some time to chop it up with us here.
Wave Generators: Oh man, thank you. Thank you. Bonjour, bonjour, bonjour.
Deep Rawk Dave: Bonjour—and safe driving.
Wave Generators: All right.
