DJ Akio Kawahito appointed as Step-Up 4 Life Goodwill Ambassador

American-born Hip-Hop artist DJ Akio Kawahito aka DJ Intelligent Design was appointed on Monday as Step-Up 4 Life’s Goodwill Ambassador. Akio is excited to be on board and look forward to through his music and networks advocating for youth development across the globe.

Akio says"In DJing, understanding and reaching out to the youth is a priority. In the development sector, it’s a necessity. I'm proud to represent Step-Up 4 Life as an Ambassador because I believe that they do this in a manner which will positively influence the youth and their communities for the future".

Described by his peers as “eternally positive”, Akio has spent time living in Australia, Belgium, Japan, Spain, and the Netherlands. One year after graduating from Rhodes College with a B.A. in Economics and a Minor in Art History, Akio bought his first pair of Numark Turntables and a mixer. This seemingly insignificant purchase and the love for spinning records that followed, laid the foundation for the future creation of ConsciousFlowz.

In 2002, Akio created Collide-A-Scope Records, a consortium of DJs, in Nagoya, Japan and regularly put on events. During his travels through Southeast Asia, Akio was initially struck with the reality of living conditions in developing countries. This inspired him to pursue a Masters Degree in International Relations at the University of Amsterdam. Throughout his Masters course in the Netherlands, Akio maintained his passion for music, DJing throughout Amsterdam. His belief in music’s ability to uplift society spawned the concept for ConsciousFlowz during that long Dutch winter. Upon graduation in October of 2005, with optimism in his eyes and music in his heart, Akio began to breathe life into the project and teamed up with three young and passionate optimists to create the current ConsciousFlowz staff.

As a DJ, Akio is known as I.D. (Intelligent Design) and runs the popular events company Kool Out Entertainment. He also is a member of one of South Africa's top crews ILL-Literate-Skill and has performed alongside Slum Village, Ready D, People Under the Stairs, DJ Babu, Tumi, and HHP.

The Step-Up 4 Life Trust aims at developing networks of service orientated and values driven youth, participating in community development, inspired by the upholding of social rights and responsibilities. Our mission is to build social networks of youth, promote an ethos of social service and care, facilitate giving and volunteering partnerships between youth and community development initiatives and advances and understanding of social rights and individual responsibilities through education programmes integrated with community development.