KayaKata

KayaKata is a Georgian experimental hip-hop/"urban tribal" band, formed around 2014 in Tbilisi by Maxime Machaidze (a.k.a. Luna 9) and Zurab Jishkariani (Dilla) of Kung Fu Junkie. The word "kaya" in the band's name refers both to Jamaican slang for marijuana and a common word meaning "cool" in Georgian. The duo began releasing music online, freely distributed via the YouTube channel of Machaidze's web label, LTFR. KayaKata performed at the 2018 Tbilisi Open Air festival. Two musicians began collaborating with a beatmaker Nick Sabanadze, who eventually joined KayaKata as a full-fledged member. In 2019, the trio released their debut album, 24344609, accompanied by a series of animation videos created by Machaidze and Jishkariani. The album is the opening part of an ambitious cycle, dubbed by the KayKata as "Car Book," which will expand into a multimedia 'ghetto sci-fi' universe complete with four full-length albums, numerous bonus tracks, texts, animations, short films, comics, and community projects. "Car Book" is pronounced as 'qarbuqi' in Georgian, which means "the storm."