Marvin Aborca Sotelo

Marvin Aborca Sotelo (Born March 3, 1987) who usually goes by M.A. Sotelo or "Knife" Sotelo, he is better known by Knife, Knifer, or Knifey. He is an American gangster as well as a rapper, producer, occultist, writer, and record executive from East Los Angeles, California. He is also the only rapper of Filipino and Spaniard descent to be labeled under Chicano rap since the genre is mainly rappers of Mexican descent. Although his style is generally considered Chicano rap, his ambiguous ethnicity may have caused him to declaim the genre, preferring to style himself as a "Maravilla rapper" or "Greenlight rapper", in the Philippines he coined his music Chavacano rap since Filipino rap is heterogeneous, encompassing rap in languages such as Tagalog, Chavacano, Spanish and Ilocano, as well as English. Knife is considered by many to be a driving force in bringing back the Gangsta rap scene and is regarded as the first (LaVeyan) Satanic rapper in the world. He was a pioneer of New South rap and a crusader of Alternative music, being one of the first rappers to embrace an antisocial persona without explicit irony.

Overview
Knife's first songs were composed in 1999. Raised in Los Angeles, California, in the start of his career, he was on Triumphant Records as a guitarist of UrBin Chaos from East L.A. He then became a rap performer and was praised in Guerilla Underground. Knife at one point turned to turntablism after being inspired by the band Slipknot, after listening to Rage Against The Machine Knife wanted to start doing lead vocals and knew UrBin Chaos would hold him back, hence the solo career. An honorary member of Ruthless Propaganda, he called himself "Knife Dogg," rapping alongside Dirty Red and even doing a song with former Ruthless Records member Tairrie B.

That same year, Knife was featured on a single of Eazy-CPT's mixtape which instantly showcased the young rapper's talent, the song even featured the late Eazy-E. In 1999, he recorded and released his first self-titled album known as The Black Album, which became a good success within the genre, and featured his debut single "Full Clip." Knife is currently signed to ADP Records, notably popular among indie rap audiences, Knife became one of the label's premiere acts.

Style and technique
Known mostly for his flow rather than lyricism, Knife's style and technique can be described as complex yet dark and aggressive. His flow is sometimes interwoven at a high speed melodic pace or slow harmonic pace. He also tends to ride the beat that he's rapping over. Sometimes there are very few choruses separating his verses from one another. In the beginning, circa 1999 compilation album, Knife used a pseudo-Mexican patois delivery with his trademark style, though he rarely does this now. Knife's subject matter has both spiritual and occult undertones (e.g., "A Spartan In Wake," "Eastside Story," "Loyal 2 Da Game," and "Exodus"). At first, his subject matter was always exclusively about Maravilla, gang violence and smoking marijuana. Today, however, his subject matter includes other topics such as urban socio-political issues although Knife still raps about gang life and stays true to his style. Besides minor changes to subject matter and sound, his lyrical style, locution, and overall methodology remain intact.

Retirement
On April 20, 1999, during an interview with Guerilla Underground of Los Angeles radio station KillRadio which airs every Monday PST from 12pm -2pm called "The Civil Disobedience Project", Knife announced his retirement from music. This was during the promotional period for his second album, 1999, and its lead single, "Are You Ready". The rapper declared himself a Satanist and continued with school in Los Angeles, where he would later study at ULC. Knife received an honorary Ph.D from Templar University of the Order of the Chevalier and addresses himself as Dr. "Knife" Sotelo. He is a priest of both the Satanic Chapel and the Sinagogue of Satan in Mountain View. He was also a former Church of Satan member then later became a member of the Unholy Orthodox Church in the California suburb of North Highlands.

His Return
In September 2003, up and coming DJ Portia Surreal (known as The Topless DJ) helped release an internet-only enhanced CD for Knife called Hood 4 Life, featuring four new tracks (with two of the songs being produced by DJ Portia Surreal) and two videos (live show and behind the scenes video). It was only available for a week.

After his four-year absence, Knife recouped and returned to music and Triumphant Records with G's Up, and the like-titled single, which contained a sample of Lil Scrappy's G's Up Mixtape. Despite returning to secular entertainment, the rapper still claimed the status of a priest. Though, the album contained only 3 curse words and was not derogatory in any way toward women.

Two years after his G's Up hit indie airwaves, Knife disbanded Scrub Records and it was later rumored that Knife had defected to Three 6 Mafia formerly "Triple 6 Mafia." After much speculation, he appeared at a concert in the Fine Line Music Cafe wearing a Triple 6 Rap shirt. In addition to being produced by Three 6 Mafia's own DJ Paul on Knife's So Satan album with "A Spartan In Wake". Knife's current single is titled "Reppin' My Block", from his album, Money Sex Power, released on 07/07/07; recently, Ronnie Neely made it official that Knife is signed to ADP Records.. Knife, a gangster rapper, was surprisingly signed to the label in late summer 2007 after the artist expressed his distaste with the Scrub Records imprint label SC Records after his East Los Most Wanted album (presented by DJ Clueless) didn't sell to expectations. Recently, a couple videos of Knife's sermons have been posted on MySpaceTV. In the sermons, Knife speaks about how "Man is God and God's are liars" which brought him back to music to preach this truth as evident on the song Eastside Story, which made a huge reference to the Devil. The videos are not dated and it is uncertain when they were filmed.

An independently produced documentary titled "What is INDIE?" features Knife in a cameo appearance, debuted in Canada on May 25, 2007.

Albums (Studio)

 * Money Sex Power - (2007)
 * East Los Most Wanted - (2007)
 * Still Satan - (2007)
 * Marvelous City - (2006)
 * Brown and Proud - (2006)
 * Battle of East Los Angeles - (2006)
 * So Satan - (2005)
 * The Black Album [Remastered] - (2004)

Singles/EPs

 * Money Sex Power [EP] - (2007)
 * The Statements [Single] - (2007)
 * Fuck Love Revisited [Single] - (2007)
 * Rest In Peace (Remix) [Single] - (2007)
 * High Times - [EP] (2005)
 * G's Up - A Maravilla Extra [EP] - (2004)
 * Hood 4 Life [EP] - (2003)
 * Frecuenze X (Remix) [Single] - (2001)

Demos/Promos

 * East Los Most Wanted (Demo) - (2006)
 * The Double Black Album (Demo) - (2006)
 * Greatest Shits (Live Promo CD) - (2006)

Material on compilations

 * We Want Eazy [Mixtape] - (2007)
 * Livin' Eternal-E [Mixtape] - (2007) (Ruthless edition)
 * Wager (Soundtrack) - (2005)
 * Anthology - (2002)
 * Heroes Del Tekno Vol. 2 [Compilation] - (2001)
 * Makinator IV [Compilation] - (2001)
 * 1999 [Compilation] - (1999)

Bootlegs

 * Money Sex Power [Sonific Downloads / LP] - (2007)
 * Unreleased Demos [MySpace Downloads / LP] - (2007)
 * Greatest Shits - (2006)
 * The Double Black Album - (2006)
 * The Black Album - [Self-released] (1999)
 * The Covers - [Demo Tape] - (2000)

Appearances on Songs

 * Eazy-E
 * Blayza Jay
 * Dem6n6l6gy187
 * Mr. Lil Man
 * Malicioso
 * Tommy Grafitti
 * Killa C
 * Hassan Ansari

Involvements with Knife

 * Michael S. Margolin
 * DJ Portia Surreal
 * UrBin Chaos
 * DJ Clueless
 * Three 6 Mafia
 * DJ Mambo Del Diablo
 * Blood of Abraham
 * Tairrie B
 * Mr. Evil
 * DJ Green Lantern