One and Another

I recorded this on the way back from Southwest MN State University yesterday, risking my life in the process...

This is my part of a song I do with Guante. He wrote the hook and two verses and asked me to do a guest verse on it. It's definitely one of my favorites. We don't often get to do it because it's so laid back and at so many of our shows we're usually tryin' to punch the crowd in the mouth with some high octane boom bap type stuff. It's a sweeping story of human connection on the road in the midst of art and philosophy. The official version isn't available anywhere as of yet, so I thought it'd be fun to share it here, since it's a little bit of a sleeper. There's an intro here with some humorous moments, so it's kind of fun all around. I hope you enjoy it.

Amani Media Interview pt. 2 (the interview)

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with Caroline Iman from Amani Media for an interview about identity, culture and community. The Interview is in two parts. The first part is an a capella version of one of my favorite pieces and in a way, one of my most personal. That video is is in the blog entry before this. The second part is more of a meditation on who I am as an artist, where I'm coming from, the community in the twin cities as well as a look at some upcoming projects to look out for. That video is below. 

Amani Media Interview pt. 1 (Self Taught A Capella)

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with Caroline Iman from Amani Media for an interview about identity, culture and community. The Interview is in two parts. The first part is an a capella version of one of my favorite pieces and in a way, one of my most personal. That video is shown below. The second part is more of a meditation on who I am as an artist, where I'm coming from, and what's happening in the twin cities as well as upcoming projects to look out for. I'll post that sometime this week.

Self Taught, from my latest solo effort Architextual Design, is an intimate illustration of my spirituality and my growth as a person through different stages of my life. These are true stories (albeit mythicized---yes. mythicized. hah) of my own life from childhood to now. Aquil sets it up perfectly with his own story, an aside of spiritual and intellectual development that shares the power of dreams and self directed learning.

The poetry of this piece speaks to the nature of my approach to education and spirituality; How I've spent my life learning from the world around me more so than from any educator or institution. While I believe it's important to learn from everyone and everything, I hold to the idea that true learning must be driven from the inside out, otherwise it's just socialization stacked against all kinds of other "ations". "Ations" and isms of which churn ugly products into the world around us in all the facets of learning, religion, business, culture, art, family, romance and everything in between.

I hope you diggit. Caroline did a great job producing this. Enjoy.

New Video - Luv 'n' Dedication (Live)

My brother Nye sent me this beat sometime ago and I immediately thought this was one of the illest beats I'd heard in a while. I've been so busy writing for other projects that I never got to write something proper to this...As I'm always looking for ways to spruce up a set or a song or whatever, I went digging for beats one day prepping for a show and tried spitting the "Luv 'n' Dedication" verses over this. Right away, it made the song feel brand new. The verses kind of skip over the beat like a rock on a pond, or maybe more accurately, concrete.

This song is actually a mash up of "LnD" and another older song called "The Lead"...It's basically two of my favorite verses to spit over a really funky beat. The drums just sink into this weird groove. It feels so boom bap, but it's deceptively in a weird time. I'd still like to write another song to this sometime, and I think that'll be a really special day...but I digress.

I hope you dig the performance here from the Artist Quarter for the 2012 Amplified Life Showcase with Toki Wright, Rodrigo Sanchez Chavarria and more. It was a good night. Enjoy!

My brother Nye sent me this beat sometime ago and I immediately thought this was one of the illest beats I'd heard in a while. I've been so busy writing for other projects that I never got to write something proper to this...As I'm always looking for ways to spruce up a set or a song or whatever, I went digging for beats one day prepping for a show and tried spitting the "Luv 'n' Dedication" verses over this. Right away, it made the song feel brand new. The verses kind of skip over the beat like a rock on a pond, or maybe more accurately, concrete.

This song is actually a mash up of "LnD" and another older song called "The Lead"...It's basically two of my favorite verses to spit over a really funky beat. The drums just sink into this weird groove. It feels so boom bap, but it's deceptively in a weird time. I'd still like to write another song to this sometime, and I think that'll be a really special day...but I digress.

I hope you dig the performance here from the Artist Quarter for the 2012 Amplified Life Showcase with Toki Wright, Rodrigo Sanchez Chavarria and more. It was a good night.

Funky Lil Earth Part One

Here's a lil video I made with a toy and a beat from 'Breaks in The Clouds Volumes One and Two'. It's also on Heidi Barton Stink's album 'A Charming Gut', which I produced! Look out for that this spring!

It's fun. I hope you giggle.