Ithaka

Who is Ithaka?

Darin Pappas, better known by his pseudonym Ithaka is an American hip hop artist, sculptor, artistic photographer, writer, poet, record producer and surfer, of partial Greek descent. He is sometimes referred to by his original family name; Pappagiannis - in Greek: Παππαγιάννης, or the alternative spellings Pappayounis or Pappayannis. Note: name was legally changed to Ithaka Darin Pappas in January 2000.

Ithaka was born and raised in Southern California, but later established himself in Japan, Greece, Portugal and Brazil.

In Lisbon he recorded his first two hip hop albums, Flowers And The Color Of Paint and Stellafly. His song, Escape From The City Of Angels appeared on the soundtrack for Columbia Pictures' feature release, The Replacement Killers. Using his alter-ego name of Korvorão sometimes spelled Korvowrong or Korvorowng, Ithaka was also the lyricist/vocalist on the track "So Get Up" by Underground Sound Of Lisbon.

During his active years in Portugal, the artist's projects were nominated for a total of nine Blitz Awards including; Best Album and Best Male Vocalist. In addition, the prestigious national newspaper, Publico awarded his 1997 release Stellafly as "Album Of The Year" and considered his most popular song from that record Seabra Is Mad as both the "Song Of The Year" and "Video Of The Year". In an end of the decade retrospective article about Portuguese music, Publico also cited his debut release "Flowers And The Color Of Paint" as one of the country's Ten Most Influential Albums Of The 1990s.