Musical bio

Luke Kohen is a heartist, MC, singer songwriter, and poet with a heart on fire for unity & creative solutions for our rapidly changing world.

An archetype of the Bard, his story telling gifts coupled with his musical abilities bring an empowered message for the upliftment of the human spirit. Luke’s music and message touches on the very edges of what it means to be a human being alive on the earth right now.

With a diverse range of vocal harmonies and lyrical dynamicism, his vocal depth is likened to the late Jim Morison meets a fusion of contemporaries like Matisyahu, Kendrick Lamar & Eliot Moss.

Luke’s voice blends worlds, sharing his unique ability to both rap & sing. With genres ranging in classic hip-hop & Neo-soul, to future folk, spoken word and more. The music production backing his voice, message and singing range from diverse collaborations with other artists & producers across a broad range of music, making Luke’s sound not easily conforming to cliche’s within genres. 

“I’m constantly trying to push the edges of my creative expression and love so many genres I’ve always found it challenging to adhere to some kind of niche, not only as an artist but also as an entrepreneur. In fact I’m all for breaking out of the myth of needing niche audiences, I think we truly need to learn to just be ourselves”. -LK

Born and raised in NYC, Luke started his hero’s journey in 2006 after a full healing crisis, leading him to take a road less traveled. Luke spent the subsequent years dedicated to healing himself, helping others and pioneering a path of exploration through world cultures, differing healing modalities & deeply immersive apprenticeships with world renowned mentors. His hero’s journey informs a lot of the soul-infused content he shares with the world.

On the musical side of Luke’s journey, it all started with hip-hop and freestyle cyphers in his youth while growing up in New York City. Deep in that emerging scene, galavanting across the five boroughs consumed by Hip-Hop culture, writing graffiti, running with gangs & being a genuinely self-destructive misfit.

After his healing crisis, life brought him down a different path, one that would lead him out of self-destruction, health challenges, depression, codependency and addiction.

As Luke’s lifestyle became more holistic & heart centered his relationship to music transformed as well, bringing him into the study of Kirtan, medicine songs and traditional healing songs from the lineages he became connected with. During this cycle in time he was known to his community and following as ALOKA, a song carrier, ceremonialist, community builder, activist & singer songwriter.

Luke moved to California in 2012 and became the front man of his then band “Suns of the Earth” with his best friend at the time Elah Scott, and producer Duke Mushroom (EarthRise Sound System) forming a dynamic trio, pioneering a unique genre of folk-hop-medicine music.

After the band broke up in late 2015 Luke, went solo as ALOKA, a touring and recording artist, releasing two albums & helping curate a series of culture-changing events. In 2019 Luke retired his “tribe” name as ALOKA, which now serves as a side-project focused specifically on folk, medicine and sacred music.

Luke is now primarily focused on his full circle return to hip-hop, expanding his expression into neo-soul, future folk, lo-fi and other genres, as well as continuing to share his gifts as a storyteller, spoken word poet and Bard.