Playing center was the basso profundo of the Chicago-born Charles Stewart, AKA Chali 2na, named after the Starkist tuna mascot. His was the voice of reason, jocular but authoritative, flowing like giant dominos.

Now in his mid-30s, with J5 broken up for good four months ago, 2na is about to drop his long-awaited solo album, "Fish Outta Water." 2na started the project three years ago, but set it aside as J5 worked on its last album "Feedback."

Since picking it back up, he's recorded "damn near another album and a half." He's been working on the album in Seattle with longtime beat-collaborator Vitamin D, formerly of Source of Labor. And he's joined this tour as a guest to try out a couple songs and maybe even roll out some classics.

Legendary DJ Cut Chemist, also from J5, was originally going to make the trip to Alaska as well. But the plans didn't work out.

"It's called 'Fish Outta Water' not because of what took place with the group, but because I wanted people to see who I was on the outside," 2na said. "My thing is to identify myself as an artist, just to learn and spread my wings and plant my seed."

"I'm just tagging along for the ride," he said. "It will be cool to shoot a couple tunes at you guys in Alaska and see what people think. If something happens that's sick, I'm going back to the studio to change some things."

"I've got honor and respect for all them dudes," 2na said. "We met (Living Legends co-founder) Luckyiam, and we asked him if they knew any promoters. We weren't heavy on the e-mail back then. They gave us numbers and said their fax machine was their agent. They were able to sell a lot of CDs and secure new shows and go to new places."

Hip-hop was still somewhat foreign in Europe when J5 first started touring. "When gangsta rap first hit, we were in London and I could see that people weren't really feeling it to the fullest," 2na said. "Police don't even carry guns over there.

"As a person who has participated in hip-hop for the better part of my life, it's always amazing to see hip-hop in new places," he said. "I was able to see it being born. I was able to see what it went through and what it is today."

"The only thing that's really changed is my age," he said. "As a teenager and an adult, you really put a lot of trust in people. With age comes wisdom.

"I just want to be in the situation now where I'm better prepared for things to come," he said. "That's the one thing about getting older, you never know."

2na grew up in Chicago and got into hip-hop through his first love, painting. He took art classes to avoid foreign languages, a decision he partially regrets today. At night, he'd sneak out the window with his friend Dave and graffiti-tag walls and freight cars.

"I started with pencils and pens, and took it to markers and then painted from spray cans," 2na said. "In class, I learned about watercolors, charcoals, pastels. And seeing that, I applied for a scholarship to (art school).

"It looked like I was going to get it, but I started in on some hip-hop s*** and I was going to do that no matter what my mama said," he said.

2na has posted some of his paintings on MySpace and hopes to sell one day. His dream is to perform in a space with his own paintings decorating the room.

• Korry Keeker can be reached at 523-2268 or korry.keeker@juneauempire.com.