Cash Hollistah Focuses on Community Involvement & Sharing Kansas Music

*Editor’s Note: This story on Cash Hollistah was written and intended to be published in November 2022.

Back in October 2022, Cash Hollistah traveled to a small Kansan town to perform for an event called Faith and Blue. Luckily, I just so happen to work in the same town. The two of us chopped it up before his performance and discussed what community involvement he’s done in the last few years, learning what Kansas has to offer music-wise, and what Die Daily has been up to.

**Also spoke with Dillon Chase during this same performance. Read that here.

Repping Kansas

Hollistah is from Salina, Kansas, a city with a population of over 46,000. Besides being a part of Die Daily, Hollistah is part of various musical endeavors around Kansas. To start, he’s a board member of the Kansas Music Hall of Fame. He joined the organization in 2021 after he reached out to them about helping with videography. Upon showing his resume to one of the board members, they wanted him to join.

“For the board, we kind of make a big list of nominees that have been in Kansas performing at a professional level or either they’re born in Kansas or they live in Kansas for 20 years,” Hollistah said. “From there we take that list and give it to our members. The members can vote. The top six or seven get voted in, and then the board gets to vote on two of the awards. One is called the Bill Lee Award, which is for international and national artists who can skip the line, they don’t need to be playing for 20 years. Then there’s the Bob Hapgood, a nominee that comes from like a small town, so like Abilene where they necessarily wouldn’t get a bunch of votes the other way.”

Cash Hollistah

The board will nominate anyone who works in the music industry or with music, like teachers, songwriters, publishers, and other professionals involved in music.

As a necessary skill, Hollistah said he has been immersed in Kansan music for most of his life. Being a board member has opened him up to more Kansan artists and other music professionals.

For example, Melissa Etheridge, Janelle Monáe, and Martina McBride are from Kansas.

Hollistah is also part of Humanities Kansas’ program Sunflower Music, meaning he travels around the state to give talks on various Kansan artists and bands.

He also chooses recipients for a scholarship named after him. The Cash Hollistah Scholarship began with Hollistah organizing a poetry event called One Mic. The event’s goal, Hollistah said, was to give Christian poets a platform to engage with the community outside of a church. A. Ward, a member of the rap battle group Four Horsemen, used to participate in that event. Hollistah kept the event going for four years, then eventually decided to retire it. After the last event, the coffeehouse that hosted One Mic surprised Holistah by creating a scholarship in his name for central Kansan high school graduates.

“Every year, I get to look at applications from high school seniors who do essentially what I do, which is use their art to influence their communities,” Hollistah said. “I get to pick one every year. So this is our fifth year now, and it’s been awesome to do and see the recipients and what they do.”

“I’m coming back”

Currently, the collective of 15 artists is focused on their own craft and projects, Hollistah said. The separation has given Cash time to be a father, focus on his community with the various organizations he is a part of, and teach hip-hop and poetry in schools. The team is still in constant contact though, so they are not drifting apart.

For his own music, Hollistah said he isn’t done with releasing his own music. He last released music in 2017.

“I took some time away to try and be closer to family and do more community stuff. Not that I feel that things are better in that aspect, but yeah I’ll be back. I’m kind of doing some things now. Got some things recorded.”

I asked if a Die Daily mixtape is coming since CHH has seen mixtapes from several collectives recently. Hollistah said it would be difficult to organize 15 people to do that.

Cash Hollistah

Timeless video

“I think Kansans in general are those types of people who get it going. It doesn’t matter what. They’ll get it going. I think it’s the same for the music,” he said about Kansan music artists. “We may not have the resources and tools, like say somebody from New York, but we find ways to make it happen.”

One example is Hollistah’s music video for his single “goRillaz.” Before the music video was released in 2013, Hollistah said not any music videos stood the test of time. They were fine, but their age showed as the years progressed.

“So in addition to making timeless music, it was, like, make a timeless video. Not just a classic Christian rap track and video, but I wanted a Kansas one too. I wanted both of those lanes. That was the aim. I feel like, Kansas-wise, I nailed it.”

CHH is part of hip-hop

Hollistah’s focus in music is to be excellent in hip-hop, not just Christian rap. He views our subgenre as a part of hip-hop. He believes his outlook on CHH has led him in part to participate in the secular side of music and events.

“I feel like that focus has allowed me to do what I would call, do Lecrae sized-things on the small scale. So, the things he does on this larger scale, I’ve been able to do on a smaller scale. I’ve been able to do shows with Common and Naughty by Nature, and then on the Christian side, I’ve done stuff with Kirk Franklin and KJ-52. It’s been good.”

Check out Cash Hollistah and his music Below:

Edward Boice
Edward Boice
Edward Boice is a freelance journalist who, like every other writer without a fortune, is grinding hourly to keep a writing career in a video-obsessed world. Mostly known for his role of copy editor at Rapzilla.com, he also writes for local newspapers and press releases for music artists. Whenever he's not hunched over a computer typing methodically, Boice is playing a board or card game with his wife and friends or jamming to Christian Rap and Post-Hardcore.
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