It’s been just two and a half years and local band Deaf Judges has already crafted quite the résumé. The band has played with Ghostface Killah, RJD2, and 36 Mafia, won and been nominated for numerous Flagpole awards, and released a full-length record, “All Rise.” And according to the band, this is only the beginning.

“We’re just really getting started,” said Produce Man, one of the group’s emcees. “We have a long way to go, in terms of what we’re doing.”

The locally-based hip-hop band – which features DJ/producer Cubenza and emcees Produce Man, Louie Larceny, and Rorshak – was formed after each member had tried his respective hand playing other genres of music.

“We used to f**k around with all kinds of stuff – punk, disco, rock,” Louie Larceny said. But it always came back to hip-hop, he said.

The band notes influences from across the musical spectrum but cites the heavy-toned, jazz-infused rap of the ’90s as a primary influence.

“That era was the real golden age in hip-hop, for us, especially,” Produce Man said. “We’re trying to tap into that era for sure, but make it modern, make it our own, make it new.”

And for Deaf Judges, the innovation comes in the experimentation. The group relies heavily on Cubenza, who works with a variety of sounds when composing the band’s unconventional beats.

“He pulls live instruments, he’ll have his buddy playing some obscure Chinese instrument, and he’ll make that into a loop,” Produce Man said. “He’s not pulling from the same sources as the people who are going ‘Alright, we’re making rap music now.’”

Working with these beats, the band then collaborates on lyrics, utilizing the flexible and unrestrained nature of the genre to incorporate a variety of themes into the songs.

“All of us have a love for words,” Louie Larceny said. “Hip-hop’s got an ability to translate some s**t every once in a while. It’s definitely as poetic as Shakespeare.”

Added Produce Man: “With hip-hop, every verse you write is something like three paragraphs long. You can say more, basically. There’s more room for it. There are very few real poets anymore, but I think hip-hop is poetry.”

After all, it was the transcendent, exploratory nature of hip-hop that drew Louie Larceny and Produce Man to the genre. And for Deaf Judges as a whole, the music has become a vibrant musical mosaic, incorporating influences from a variety of genres while maintaining the traits specific to hip-hop.

“It’s kind of a collage,” Produce Man said of the band’s music. “What inspires you one day will make into the lyrics.

“It’s an effort to live musically and to live so that everything in your life becomes a part of what you’re creating.”

And though the coming weeks will be busy, the band plans on staying together for quite some time.

“I really feel like [we've] got something that people have been wanting to hear,” Louie Larceny said. “I know I’ve been wanting to hear it.”

DEAF JUDGES WITH PEGASUS XL
AND A.ARMADA
When: 10 p.m. Saturday
Where: Caledonia Lounge
Price: $6 (21+) $8 (18-20)