The Pirate Signal is a four-piece

hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...

band from

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

. The band is composed of MC/Producer Yonnas Abraham, Chez Strong on keyboards and guitar, Sam "Dj 5am" Trumper, and Hogans Daniel on drums. The Pirate Signal sound has been characterized as a mixture of

rap Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates " rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backin ...

and

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

. The band was voted Westword Magazine's Best Hip Hop Group in their 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 award showcases.

History

In 2000, Pirate Signal started as an underground

mix tape In the modern music industry, a mixtape is a musical project, typically with looser constraints than that of an album or extended play. Unlike the traditional album or extended play, mixtapes are labeled as laid-back projects that allow artists mo ...

exchange by Ben Serruto. It became a band when Abraham entered the group. Their first album was ''Norma(l) Hugh Manchild's American Revolution(s)'' (2004). "What we learned from that album is what not to do." In 2006, Serruto quit 'Pirate Signal to pursue a solo music career. At the same time, DJ A-What joined the band. The band released an EP ''The Name of This Band is The Pirate Signal'' It featured the singles on the

college radio Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produced ...

circuit, "Go!", "I Can't Wait," "An Emergence of Black Heroes", "You Will Get Dirty", "It Might Just Go Down," and "All I Know is.....It Was an Accident". In 2006, Pirate Signal received an opening slot on the west coast leg of

Kool Keith Keith Matthew Thornton (born October 7, 1963), known professionally as Kool Keith, is an American rapper and record producer known for his surreal, abstract, and often profane or incomprehensible lyrics. Kool Keith has recorded prolifically both ...

's 2006 Return of Dr. Octagon Tour. In 2007, the band did two summer tours in the United States. . In 2008, Pirate Signal released a mixtape, ''Of Gods And Gangsters Vol. 1'' that earned mix tape of the year honors in Westword. That year, the band recorded ''OneAlone''. It began as an album actually began before the EP and the mixtape and they were released to garner interest for the full-length", explains Abraham. Joey quit the group and allegedly kept all the recordings. Without an album, Pirate Signal reconfigured and began work on their project, ''No Weak Heart Shall Prosper''. "OneAlone began to become an albatross the way the first album did, and so much of it was not right for us to perform live that even though it's not what we wanted, the album being abandoned like that was probably best. As we toured more and more, the things that people loved about our live show and our music was not, we realized, on that album. We needed something immediate, powerful and full of energy, and that's what No Weak Heart Shall Prosper is, we're both much happier with this album and how it's coming together. As an album and as a band, this project contains so much more of what we've learned about ourselves in these past three years, that I wouldn't have it any other way, our time is fast approaching, and when it comes, this is what it sounds like. From this we can make the live show that much more incredible, and continue to streamline our sound and accomplish our goal of being the best band in the world." In 2009, Pirate Signal joined the 2008 Vans

Warped Tour The Warped Tour is a Concert tour, touring Rock music, rock music festival that toured the United States and Canada each summer from 1995 until 2019, and returned in 2025 for its 30th anniversary. By 2015, Warped was the largest traveling music ...

as well as an opening slot on 3oh!3's subsequent Myspace 2008 Fall Tour, In July 2010, DJ A-What left Pirate Signal. DJ Soup and Chez Strong joined the group. The album "No Weak Heart Shall Prosper" was released on August 24, 2010. Following the album release. the band went on a west coast tour of the US. In February 2011, DJ Soup was replaced with DJ 5am and Hogans Daniel joined the band. That same year, Pirate Signal released music videos for the songs "Saga of Dirty Street kids" and "Love in the Time of Swine Flu".

Media

Pirate Signal has been featured in several promos for the television network

HDNet AXS TV () is an American specialty television, cable television channel majority-owned by Canadian broadcaster Anthem Sports & Entertainment. It is devoted primarily to Music television, music-related programming (such as concert films, Document ...

, using the song “I Can’t Wait” 2007, and (You Will) Get Dirty in 2008 and 2009. The Pirate Signal song "Go!" was featured in the FSN sports program Jookt, in October 2009.

Tour history and awards

* 2009 Monolith Festival * 2008

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with 423,234 combined in-person and online viewership in 2023. The festival has acted ...

, Ed Hardy AfterParty * Opening Slot for 3Oh!3, MySpace Tour, 2008 * 2008 Warped Tour * 2007 700 World Series Tour with

X-Kid "X-Kid" is a song by American rock band Green Day. It is the fifth track on their eleventh studio album, ''¡Tré!'' (2012), and was released as the second single from the album on February 12, 2013, and is the sixth and final single from the ''¡ ...

, Alpha P, and DJ Inform * 2006 Summer with

, R.A The Ruggid Man, Tash from

The Alkaholiks Tha Alkaholiks, also known as Tha Liks, is an American hip hop trio from Los Angeles. Since the early 1990s they have produced party music with a hardcore hip hop edge, powered by the beats of DJ and producer E-Swift (he was born Eric Brooks i ...

* Winner of the 13th annual Westword Music Showcase for Best Local Hip Hop Group-2007 * Winner of the 14th annual Westword Music Showcase for Best Local Hip Hop Group-2008 * Winner of the 15th annual Westword Music Showcase for Best Local Hip Hop Group-2009 * Winner of the 16th annual Westword Music Showcase for Best Local Hip Hop Group-2010 * Winner of the 17th annual Westword Music Showcase for Best Local Hip Hop Group-2011

Discography

* ''No Weak Heart Shall Prosper'' - 08-24-2010 * ''Of Gods And Gangsters Vol 1'' - 11-26-2008 * ''The Name of This Band is The Pirate Signal'' - 06-01-2006 * ''The Norma(l) LP'' - 10-16-2004

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pirate Signal, The American hip-hop groups