“Up” …   that’s how you order them if you know what you are doing at Coney Island.  I can’t front though, I went to South and Hot Dog Annies is my preference. Anyway, check out this new local release from the dudes over at HHTT

It’s an ode to mid 90’s street rap that Brother Menelik eloquently talks about in his blog here. I’m a sucker for vocoders and posse cuts of diverse styles, and this compilation has a bunch of the latter.

Yup …  leave it to me to talk about a remix used in a revolution but not serve it up so you can actually LISTEN to it. Here’s some official linkage of the “War Cries”  remix done by my boy NFX that I talk about in my last post; along with a couple of extras since I kept you waiting. I think it’s dope how his mix changed the vibe of the song and smoothed it out verses the malice and despair of the original.

Direct MP3 Link: WARCRIES REMIX

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Direct MP3 Link: REIGNDROPS REMIX

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Direct MP3 Link: SCORCHIN REMIX

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Check this out …

a few years ago a remix of “War Cries” was used by a revolutionary anti government  leaning music movement (www.indiegente.org) using hip-hop to motivate social change against oppressive regimes in South America and Africa…. being sold in Africa, Mexico, Brazil, Italy, LA, Brooklyn etc. for pennies to people looking to change the world and be inspired. That has to be one of the illest things I can say about my music ever.

So, now and then I get people asking me for some of my old material that you can’t find anymore…

and being the miserable bastard I normally am, I refuse and keep that old stuff stashed since it makes me cringe and I hate it.  I had 3 such requests within the past week, and was contemplating but reluctant to actually post em up.  But in honor of this ridiculously hot 102 degree day here in Wor, I’ve decided to dig up the appropriately titled “Scorchin”.  Here are a few old school circa 2000-2001 joints while I’m feeling froggy…

Direct MP3 Link: WHIPLASH

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Direct MP3 Link: SCORCHIN

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Direct MP3 Link: CHECKMATE

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Direct MP3 Link: BTFU

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I remember when I finished “whiplash” and was all hyped up…  ran it down to Lietrims that night and asked the DJ (yes they had a live DJ there back then) to play it for me.  All of a sudden I heard a garbled muddled pile of shit through the speakers and learned about “mixing” the hard way. *smh*

Word, so I been here fam - just operating in stealth mode for a bit.

yes - I’m still alive

yes - I’m working on new music

yes - I will be putting a new project in your hands soon

In the meantime I’ll serve up some unreleased tracks that got left off the last CD to hold you over. Stay tuned!

Had to do some archiving and back up my music files off an ancient PC the other day and came across a bunch of old tracks. I’m still sorting through it all, but in the meantime I thought you guys would appreciate this. Full Digi download of the 2002 Wortown Hip-Hop compilation “The Revolution Begins Now … Volume One: The 7 Hill Xperience”

DOWNLOAD the full compilation and all artwork

If you’re not up on what 7HillX was or what it did for the city, here’s an old T&G article that touches on it.

The all-star squad over at Hulk Hate Time Travel just posted up a write-up and a bunch of videos from the “Insomniaddict” release party.

… For those of you that don’t know Nytmare is a staple in the Worcester hip hop scene and has been performing since the late nineties. He has shared the stage with homegrown favorites that have since faded away, I mention that only to let you know that Nytmare has been in the scene and putting in work for Worcity hip hop for a minute. I remember the first time hearing Ashes to Ashes over at Brother Menelik’s house circa 1999 and thinking to myself (respectively) “Who the fuck is this nigga ???“ It would be a few months before I met him in person. He had a dark sounding voice on the edge of being gritty with a rapid spitting yet clear delivery, the style Nytmare has is like no other in the City and his work ethic along with perfectionist approach to not only his music but his performance and stage presence is unmatched…

Check the full script HERE

Video evidence from that night is scarce, but the HHTT team managed to capture my first three songs:

Many thanks to T and the whole HHTT team for all they are doing right now for the city and culture in general. If you don’t read them regularly I suggest you get familiar.

Man, I geek out hard to this stuff! It’s like we’re catching up with Jetson’s like technology in music. Check out the new touchscreen Digital Guitar by Misa Digital :

Here’s a video of it being used live in action. WOW!

“Guitars by their very nature have limitations. To create sound you need to hit a string, so that the sound at its most intense point is always the beginning of the pluck. The left hand controls what notes to play, and the right hand controls when to play these notes and the intensity of the notes. Effects can be inserted into the signal chain, but they are usually foot pedals which makes the experience of controlling effects disjointed from what your hands are doing. Plus, you can only really make use of one pedal at a time. Even in the (rare) case that controls are mounted on the guitar, the hand needs to switch between strings and controls. This may be okay if you only use effects occasionally, but when every note you play needs the controls set differently - good luck with that.

Electronic music cannot be played effectively with such constraints. In electronic music, the timbre (or colour) of the sound can be morphed in an infinite number of ways. For a guitar to accommodate this, the right hand needs more control than just plucking strings. You need to be able to control elements of the sound, such as sustain, pitch, filter cutoffs, contour or any other synthesizer parameter, in a way that has no physical constraints.

This was my thought process when designing the Misa digital guitar. There are no strings on this instrument. The right hand doesn’t pluck strings, it controls sound. So don’t compare Misa digital guitars to acoustic guitars or electric guitars. Those are different instruments, for different artforms, for different music. This is electronic music.”

Pulse Magazine profiled me in their “Up and Comers” section:

http://www.thepulsemag.com/wordpress/2009/12/0110-up-comers

It’s the January “People to Watch” issue. Not too shabby!

Whatup fam,

I’m back at it after a little hiatus through the holidays. Had my shoulder operated on so I can go back to MMA training and hoops, and the meds had me vegged for a while. Still lots of love coming on for “INSOMNIADDICT” and I definitely appreciate that. I’ve been coming across a lot of random people who have “Empty” up as songs on their webpages and profiles. I’m pretty surprised by that seeing how that song  leaned heavy on the spoken word side, but I’m glad people find something in it that they relate to. (my homegirl Cyn said it should be on Afro Samurai!?)

That being the case here’s that track for download incase you don’t have my CD:

Direct MP3 Link: EMPTY

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If you’re wondering; I’m already back in the lab doing new music. Real introspective stuff is coming out of the sessions. Expect a new Nytmare project late 2010.

peace