“Hip Hop Music that sounds like what being from Hawaii feels like…”
I.A., born Jordan Salud is a local Hip Hop Artist from Nanakuli, Hawaii. I.A. is the son of Hawaii's own World Boxing Champ Jesus Salud. I.A. was born in Hawaii and raised in San Diego during his dad's career in boxing. He was exposed early to music by his mom who would play popular 80s tunes in the house while doing chores with the family. I.A.'s early influences were icons like Michael Jackson, Prince and the Polynesian group The Jets to name a few. When the industry transitioned from cassettes to CDs, I.A.'s uncle gave him his old hip hop cassette tapes that included LL Cool J, The Fat Boys and MC Hammer. Thats where I.A.'s love for hip hop began. The same uncle that gave I.A. those tapes was also a hip hop artist, and his group scored an audition to be guest performers on the set of the classic movie House Party in the early 90s. Being heavily influenced by his uncle's journey I.A. would go on to start writing his own rhymes and recording on his boombox in middle school. Being a fan of the culture, during high school I.A. tried his hand at every element of hip hop from Bboy, DJing, Graffiti art but MCing is what he gravitated to the most being inspired by controlling a crowd with his rhymes. Shortly after high school he moved back home to Hawaii and began to pursue his music which he started with in High School with friends.
I.A. stepped on the scene in 2005 with his single "Dat Island Sound" with local Hawaii group B.E.T. and landed on regular rotation on urban/top 40 radio in Honolulu. I.A. would follow the single release with his first album "The Kama'aina Classic" in 2006 which also included the hit "808 Party" the was in heavy rotation on mixshows and TV. He would go on to release 5 solo albums, 2 collaboration albums and 8 mixtapes. He's a 4x Nahoku Hanohano award finalist(considered Grammys of Hawaii), and a Hawaii Music Award winner for his album "Beyond Paradise". In 2010, I.A. was recognized in the national publication "XXL Magazine" as one of the hottest artist from Hawaii. In 2008, I.A. became the first local Hip Hop artist to sign a ring tone deal(Mobi PCS) and holds the record in Hawaii for having the most music videos by an artist with 48 to date. I.A. has made a name for himself as a live performer as well opening up for some of the biggest names in the music industry and festivals/concerts like Drake, Lil Wayne, Chris Brown, Neyo, Baby Bash, Lauryn Hill, E40, Bone Thugs N Harmony, The Jabbawockeez, Kodak Black, Mya, Rae Sremmurd, Dumbfoundead, P-Lo, Kool John, Ty Dolla Sign, Lupe Fiasco, The NFL Pro Bowl Block Party, The Mayjah Rayjah, Birthday Bash, Love Festival and half time at an And1 Basketball game. Along with his local performing resume in Hawaii, I.A. has also been on tour in the U.S. mainland with The Rebel Souljahz and Fiji and landing his first international tour in Asia in 2019.
In recent years I.A. has crossed over to TV, film and acting. He has hosted various TV shows on OC16(Spectrum) and made his acting debut on "Hawaii 5-0" as "Jamie Kamaka". He would go on to play roles in multiple local commercials and do work in films Jumanji, Triple Frontier, King Kong vs Godzilla, Finding Ohana and The Wrong Missy. I.A. most recently found his way back as a starring role as "William The Hunter" on the remake of popular show "Magnum P.I." Along with acting I.A. was also the host of the radio show FLYGHT808 on the Dash Radio app.