RTillery

Joshua Holness (also known as Rtkal, Rtillery and RT) is a rapper, actor and spoken word artist from Birmingham UK.
At 12 years old Holness was signed to Robert Plant's M.A.S Records as part of a Hip Hop group called Prophecy Cru. Prophecy Cru worked with West Midlands Police, Kidderminster college and other youth organisations performing shows throughout the Midlands. At 15 Holness was selected to take part in auditions with Punch Records a Birmingham based music development agency. At 16 Holness and the newly formed Decypher Collective opened the show in Amsterdam at the Black Soil Film Festival, pioneering the concept of grime theatre, a fusion of grime lyrics with modern day drama and theatrics (with music written by Mark De Clive-Lowe). The show that the Decypher Collective created, 8sixteen32 (written in part by Holness) has gone on to complete four four-date showings since 2007. 8sixteen32 is due to tour the UK this summer with dates in 12 cities across England, Scotland and Wales
In 2007 Holness met with Don Letts and was invited to be a part of Letts' 'Speakers Corner' tour. A collection of spoken word performances examining the concept of slavery in today's multi-cultural generation. The Collective performed 12 dates across the UK. Here Holness met Skinnyman, a performer in the UK Hip Hop scene and began performing shows with him as part of the Mud Family. In Nov 2008 Holness, alongside Skinnyman and other MudFam members supported GZA on a UK tour performing 7 dates throughout the country. Also in 2008, the Mud Family toured the UK promoting the Skinnyman single 'Smokin Ban', performing a 10 date schedule. That year also saw the release of 'Anomaly' a mixtape created by Holness (under the moniker RTillery) and fellow Decypher Collective member Professor D. The project was an unofficial release. Holness also hosts many dubstep/grime raves under the name 'RTillery' and has performed at promotions such as Urban Nerds, X Atg, Dubmatik, Goonies, Bigger than Barry, Vagabonds, Dubstep Warriors & Love Music Hate Racism and also performed on the Dub to Dubstep tour alongside Jazzsteppa in late 2009.
Since the beginning of his career Holness has supported and shared the stage with a number of legendary performers from Hip Hop originators Kurtis Blow and The Furious Five right through to present day stars such as Faithless, Sway and Wu-Tang Clan and has performed at an array of venues across the UK including The Birmingham Repertory Theatre, O2 ABC Glasgow, Royal Festival Hall. In 2009, Holness began working with Eat Good Records. He is currently recording an EP produced entirely by Kelakovski scheduled for release summer 2010. His debut video 'Wa Gwan' was released April 2010 under the name 'RTKAL'. The track - produced by Unbreakable - is taken from a forthcoming project currently in the works, entitled Ear Drugs.

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