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Free the Optimus Headlines Show with Toon & The Real Laww at Boone Saloon April 5; Announces New Lineup

by Madison V. Fisler

April 4, 2014. Free the Optimus will be back at Boone Saloon on April 5, playing yet another show in the High Country with Toon and The Real Laww. The show will take place at Boone Saloon on King Street at 10 p.m. The show is for guests 21 and up and there is a $5 cover charge for the night. 

Free the Optimus is a hip hop collective of artists with emcees who provide vocal content, producers who offer layering, singers, live musicians and visual artists. The collective is an older model of music that is a throwback to when hip-hop was finding its own identity.

toonandthereallawwFounded in 2007 by Chris Shreve (C.Shreve the Professor) along with many other members, the collective began to change what the mainstream defined as hip-hop and rap. 

“Free the Optimus is an idea of people working together and having a team to fall back on while not being confined to it,” said Chris Shreve, a founder of the collective, and also a full-time lecturer at Appalachian State University.

Free the Optimus features music that is all at once socially conscious, empowering, and mind opening. 

Since it got its start, Free the Optimus has garnered quite the following in the High Country area.

“We have been very fortunate to have such a solid following around Boone and Asheville,” Shreve said.

To cater to this following, Free the Optimus has announced a solid lineup of shows in the High Country area, including shows in Boone, in Asheville and even in Tennessee.

  • April 5: Boone Saloon with Toon and The Real Laww
  • April 11: Timo’s House in Asheville 
  • April 18: Hosting “Express Yosef: A Lyrical Celebration” at Expressions in Boone
  • May 5: Boone in Blossom Festival
  • May 16: Hidden in the Hollow Festival (Butler, Tennessee)
  • May 23: Timo’s House in Asheville
  • June 7: Mecca Lounge in Johnson City

Free the Optimus has been hard at work getting their music out there, with three singles released in the last month alone. To check out those singles, click the following:

Natural Selection: https://soundcloud.com/cshrevepro/c-shreve-the-professor-martin

The Last Me: https://soundcloud.com/cshrevepro/c-shreve-the-professor-the

Swordsman: https://soundcloud.com/freetheoptimus/c-shreve-the-professor-4