Press Kit

Atama spent most of his early

childhood either on a tour bus or backstage, accompanying his father, Ambrose Mudi, a legendary Dusun singer / songwriter/ composer and originator of Bamboo Orchestra Music ‘The Sompoton Singkokolu’. He began his professional career at five; when he performed alongside Peter Dicky Lee, Flora Santos & John Gaisah on the live screens of RTM Sabah. Atama attended the Unity Point School in United States, where he studied music and it was there he embraced the Hip-hop Culture. During this time, he performed for their Music Festivals and International Events for Southern Illinois University. He continued singing and dancing while majoring in Tourism & Hospitality Management at Stamford College Kota Kinabalu. After graduating, Atama moved to KL to pursue a career as a Club DJ where he was the lead DJ at Arena, Bali Sunway & Modesto’s Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

In 2005, claiming rave reviews from Daily Express, The New Sabah Times & The Star Weekly, he released ‘My Tribal Roots’. The debut album which fused hip-hop/soul and indigenous songs with bobohizan samples sold 30,000 units in Sabah alone. Unfortunately, the hit album didn’t become an international zest doe to an ‘injunction’ filed in a local high court. The rapper was forced to retreat in bitter frustration.

Atama later began to compose new materials at Milestones Studio in 2008, and there he began writing his new sounds and created a new theme.

He wanted to create an album which could define his passion for eclectic dance music, versus the pulsing struggle of gangster rap overlapped with a vitality that would go beyond the endemic magnetism of his tribal identity. Ablaze with this concoction, Atama began to express his emotion.

When the fundamental synthesis he had created in ‘My Tribal Roots’ opened up a whole new perspective to the younger generation, and became a revelation to the other; the older generation moderately accepted change. However, Atama was labeled as a destroyer the KDM identity, as some quarters typically politicized which propelled to a step higher. This fired up his poetic psyche. But, although critics have their way, Atama is nonetheless proud of his tribal roots and resilience force of his generation.

In the new album, he continues to voice out angst and vents frustrations with radical poetry and stalwartly answers back his critics. A testament of the struggles of a young indigenous man becomes the base flavor of his design. Faced with the lucid spectacles of the struggles and contentions of his indigenous community, he expresses hope through his rhymes.

Bakakuk is executive produced by Atama, and in just three months he spent countless hours writing, recording, and producing. The album was mixed & mastered by John Lee, and features Sabahan sensations, Gzell, AJ, As Bow, Carl, Alvin MY & pop sensation Ivy Alexandra. Atama is also featured on Clarice John Mattha & Rash new album having collaborated on Diva and Daling Daling.

Atama timelessly merges Hip-Pop and R&B with the sexiness of Reggaeton and Dusun Blues, mixes elements of the streets with Mandung-Mandung melodies of the Kulintangan. Bobohizan samples and classic sumazau are injected with a pulsing hip-hop beat in addition with synthesized sounds over on dusunic harmony. With a unique, dusunic voice, and artistic caliber that competes with the best in the business, Atama is a… Bakakuk.

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Contact:Atama+6016.828.6654Atamakatama@gmail.com