Navid Najafi

Musician and Artist

Navid Najafi aka Illnomadic is a musician and artist whose practice is activated hip hop, with lyrics that explore themes of migration, culture, solidarity, and home. He is a founding member of the conscious rap collective Super Groupers and a two-time Na Hoku Hanohano Award winner (Hawaii Music Awards) — for Hip-Hop Album of the Year in 2012 and 2013. He was born in Tehran, Iran but at the age of 8 fled with his family to New York at the height of the Iran-Iraq war. After several relocations and years of feeling unrooted, Illnomadic finally found home when he moved to Hawaii at the age of 19. He is now one of the most respected and highly regarded emcees and hip-hop educators in Hawaii. An accomplished artist, organizer, activist and volunteer in his community, Illnomadic considers himself a deep ally of Native Hawaiians, Hawaiian Kingdom nationals, and all indigenous people around the world. He represents Aloha ‘Āina, the core principals of Hawaiian natural and cultural stewardship. Along with the Super Groupers, he founded and regularly conducts Soundshop, a hip hop education workshop program with high school students at the Honolulu Museum of Art. Navid Najafi is currently the Associate Curator of Programs & Social Practice at Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture and Design in Honolulu, Hawaii.