[13] In a 2008 review of Ithaka's sixth album Saltwater Nomad, the online surf-culture platform Surfline stated that "the artist effortlessly traverses at ease between all of his choses mediums of expression [music, sculpture, writing and photography]", and that "his life's journey is a soulful balancing act somewhere between the worlds of euphoric creation and aquatic diversion.

He began surfing at the age of twelve, after vacationing with a friend's family on the Hawaiian island of Maui and observing the locals riding six-foot tubes at Honolua Bay.

As a young adult he began traveling the world in search of waves and adventure, largely inspiring his photography, three-dimensional artworks and voyage-oriented lyrics and stories.

[23] After the release of F. Gary Gray's 2015 biographical drama about gangsta rap pioneers Eazy E and N.W.A., entitled Straight Outta Compton, there was renewed visibility in some of the early pictures that Ithaka Darin Pappas had made of the artists (all created while freelancing for Priority Records between 1988 and 1990).

In 2016, many of his photographs, including the cover of their 1989 Straight Outta Compton remix single release, were projected as a backdrop at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York during the induction ceremony officially admitting N.W.A into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Later in 2018, photographs of Eazy E riding a skateboard in Venice Beach, California that Ithaka had taken in 1989 were published in the photography book Contact High: A Visual History of Hip-Hop (written by Vikki Tobak).

[48][49][50][51] Although a citizen of the United States who vocalizes in English, because Ithaka was living and recording in Portugal for several years during the mid-late 1990s, at the very beginning of the hip hop movement in the country, he is often included in the genre of music known as Hip hop tuga and sometimes considered one of the founding artists along with: Black Company, Boss AC, Zona Dread, Family, Funky D, New Tribe, Lideres da Nova Mensagem, Da Weasel, Mind Da Gap, and General D.[52][53] Escape From The City Of Angels, an alternative hip hop song Ithaka recorded with guest vocalist Marta Dias for his album Flowers and the Color of Paint[54] was featured in the soundtrack of Antoine Fuqua's 1998 feature film Replacement Killers (Columbia Pictures) in a scene featuring Academy Award nominees/winners Mira Sorvino, Chow Yun-fat and Clifton Collins Jr.[55][56] During his most active recording years in Portugal (1994–1997), the artist's musical projects were nominated for a total of nine Pemios Blitz (the Portuguese Grammy Awards) including; Best Album (for Flowers and the Color of Paint in 1995 and Stellafly in 1997)[57] and Best Male Vocalist (in 1995 and 1997).