2009: The Year In Review

2009 has come and gone.  Crazy, to think that it feels like it only just begun.  This is my first blog entry in quite sometime.  No real reason, other than laziness and the complete lack of desire to write anything.  Yes I am in one of those weird “writers block” style moods.  I do this to myself from time to time.  Its what I do.  That being said I felt like it was time for me to look back on the 365 days that made up two double zero nine.  I do this listening to my favorite album of all time, Illmatic.  One last thing before i “reflect”, this is not in any kind of order just as things come to me.

RHYME AND REASON:

We had a interesting year to say the least.  We celebrated our 1 year anniversary in March.  Very dope show, we we lucky to have some of AZ’s finest come through and bless the mic.  It was good for myself, Mattlocks, Element and Rich to see a milestone reached.  I’d like to thank everyone who came through that night and blessed us.  My personal favorite verses were spit by Random, Hannibal Leq and Trap.  Then came the bad news.  We lost our time slot do to some serious bullshit that I wont mention other than it being bullshit so we went on hiatus.  It was odd not doing the show for the time we were off but luckily my man Ramses came through with an opportunity for us to continue doing what we love to do!   Yes it was different than the old Jamz studio but The Beat feels like home.  Its not what you would really expect from a studio but it has that college radio feel and we still vibe the fuck out.  The move to The Beat also meant a different time slot, one that I think suits us very well.  I got to say thank you once again to my brother Ramses for putting this together for us and allowing us to bring you Rhyme and Reason each and every week!

THE RESURRECTION:

What more can I say about this event that I havent mentioned already.  This event really was the culmination of lots of hard work and was more of a celebration than a show.  The scene was The Blunt Club, the date was September 24th 2009.  The line up consisted of Myself, Hejus Trife and J-Luv as well as the producer showcase that featured The Council Productions, Slop Funk Dust and Taurus Scott.  The night was a benefit that went to supporting the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and we had their full support.  Did I mention it was a great night?  The crowd was so much more than I had expected and there were so many familiar faces in the building that night, most importantly for me was my mother who was there for part of the show.  We were also lucky to have some incredible support behind us from the extended famlay that is The Fresh Fiends and DearlyDeparted Clothing.  I cannot thank Summer, La and Shew enough for being apart of this event and I hope we can collab in the future.  The same goes to Slim and Rook from Dearly Departed!  The show opened with J-luv’s set, which set the tone for Hejus Trife.  My brothers did their thing and I can remember sitting in the back trying to calm myself down as I knew it was soon to be my turn to bless the stage, something I had never truly done solo.  My set was short and to the point and i was lucky to have been able to showcase the artists I hand picked to be on the record.  Mpress came through and made “Majestic Material” a crowd pleaser, my brother Judgement blessed the crowd with his interlude and Deonte from CTL came up and spit his verse on “Roknowledge”.  All in all the energy was good and the performance went off very well.  This night would not have been possible without the support from everyone involved and extra special thanks go to Dumper and Doug from The Blunt Club for working with us on this show!

CALI TRIPS:

No year in review would be complete without mentioning the road trips to my home away from home which is Temecula, California.  I was lucky enough to get out there a couple of times this past year and as always the trips did not disappoint at all, they never do though.  Good times with the family, laughs, drinks, memories, music, rock band, more laughs, more drinks and yes more laughs.  I truly love each and every moment I am able to be out there with my fam and look forward to returning a few times in 2010!

SOUL REFLECTIONS:

September 1st 2009 saw the release of my long awaited album “Soul Reflections”.  It was a long journey, one that I have chronicled quite heavily in this blog (just scroll down a few posts, its all there).  I will once again mention that this album would not have been possible without the input from my good friend Marlos (formerly known as Blaze Rock) and the incredible music back drop I was give from The Council Productions.  This album began as a small idea in 2006 and shaped in morphed into so much more.  I want to once again thank everyone who was involved in this from the artists featured, to VCM for the incredible graphic work and also to everyone who took the time to listen to a little piece of me.  I must however apologize to my brother Cisco and say that I wish I could have made the release more than what it was.  There was so much that I wanted to do and wasn’t able to due to financial constraints.  Next time fam…Next time…We are not done!

NEW FRIENDS:

I met some great people this past year and I am glad our paths crossed.  Shout outs to my man Random, DN3, Trap, all of the extended CTL fam, Mpress (you know you made me irrelevant on “Majestic Material”.  Two very important mentions go to Melly Mel and Mikaela!  I met these two thanks to two of my best friends, Kenny and Cisco and I can only say you two are fam.  Its great seeing my brothers happy and I look forward to many more classic nights and countless memories, and shit even a few more “Rok Tantrums” LMAO!!!

FAMILY:

The most important thing to me no doubt!  It was a good year for the fam.  I’m blessed to have my sister Monica.  She is my best friend and I love her more than I could ever say or express.  My mother, my rock, she is everything .  I could not do any of this without her smile, her laugh and her presence.  I am blessed.  Then there is my brother Marcus who is seemingly growing by the day.  Its hard to believe you are learing to drive.  My father, a great man, and someone who values time with his kids like no one I have ever seen.  I love every moment we spend together as a family!  To my sister Angelene it is also hard to believe you are a college graduate and becoming a beautiful young women .  I still remember the first time we met and you were just a litte kid.  Time flies!  Love you all!

Civil Disobedience Part WU:

A great night in October this was! I had the pleasure of performing at ASU’s Gammage Auditorium for this event and it was amazing.  The crowd was crazy to say the least and I was able to do my thing and walk off stage to applause, always a good thing!

The “Soul Reflections” Listening Party:

This was an incredible night for me that took place at Groove Candy in August.  So many thanks go to another one of my best friends Karlie for allowing me to take the first part of her night and play my album for a small crowd who came to hear that  I had been working on for the past few years.  It was a dope night and we played the album front to back and the feed back was amazing.  Thank you to everyone who came and supported and showed me love this night.  I do this for all of you!

“Illmatic” just ended…on to “It Was Written”

“Blessed To Breathe”:

This was a great day for myself and one of the best songs I have ever had the pleasure of being on.  This song was created during a recording session at Hejus Trife’s “Muzik House” Studios that was for Blaze Rocks “All Things Come to an End” album.  I never had any intentions of being on this record, and if I remember correctly none of us did.  It just kind of happened.  Random was in the building to record for something else, Ocean came through and once he heard the beat started writing a hook.  At this point the creative energy was at an all time high and I asked Blaze if I could get on this.  The rest is history.  The record was recorded in the span of a few hours and the end result is pretty damn amazing.  The order of the song goes Random, Blaze, Ocean and Myself.  A great moment in AZ hip-hop history took place that day!

this is all for now…there might be more…