Author: Bavu
Scholar Emcee
My Bday gift to you
As sure as my mama is laying on my couch right now (and my baby sis), and as sure as I had a refreshing week in the Bahamas and Miami… here comes my gift to the world.
I want to give you these 13 tunes for Labor Day. It’s the day mama went in to labor, and I showed up. So with no further typing about it, I present to you the Channel One LP on the house, plairs.
Download it, jam it, lemme know what you think. I will not be on Facebook, Twitter, etc., after another 26 hours. I won’t be there; I’ll be here. Rest assured that I’ve got everything I need. I got that. Peace.
Summertime in the LBC
Ironically, it was my first post ever on the mothership. Now it’s literally what I’m up to. I’m heading out of town for about a week, and haven’t posted here in about a quarter of a year. But I’ll be back.
Meanwhile, it’s summertime in the LBC. Peace.
May the Best Team Win?!
I don’t get paid to watch 80 regular season basketball games and keep up with all the rosters and stats for months. The teams with the most wins may run out of endurance once it’s time to fight for the ring, anyway. So I don’t pay attention to the NBA, or any other sport, until the playoffs begin.
When this year’s pro hoops post-season started, I quickly decided that Lebron James deserved a championship because he’s so excellent. One day the Missus pointed out how even the way he strides up the court between plays is inspiring. “He just walks with so much purpose,” she said. But he lost.
Orlando Magic star Dwight Howard is just plain marketable. He’s young, friendly and the best big man in the league. But Superman couldn’t carry the Magic on his shoulders, so they lost.
There’s no denying that since Michael Jordan retired, Kobe Bryant is the last person a player would want to challenge. He is a bloodthirsty killer, and his Los Angeles Lakers are the returning champions. But after you count Bryant, Pau Gasol and awesome Ron Artest, their roster is mostly average. Plus, they don’t play so well as a group – only as Kobe and company.
Mr. Bryant has shown himself to be the baddest thing on two legs in the 2010 playoffs. I just watched him score 20-something straight Laker points in Game Five. But keep in mind that there are ten legs on a basketball team. So despite all the breathtaking Black Mamba highlights, they didn’t have the best output as a team. So they lost.
The bottom line is that L.A. fans better hope Derek Fisher or somebody besides Kobe plays big tonight, or they will earn an opportunity to go fishing on a Wednesday.
I do realize that the Lakers have home-court advantage and a great chance of winning their second straight NBA title this week, but lesbi-honest: Kobe ‘nem are not the best team.
Trippin’ Off The Power?!
It was a late Thursday night, and the Missus had just left Long Beach for a Memorial Day weekend trip to Vegas with the girls. She’d be gone until Monday night, and I knew it’d be hard for me to get much sleep that first night. This was before S1’s email showed up, with a link to a 30-second “Power” snippet and a short memo that read, “It’s Coming!!!”
[ image jacked from fwmj’s mothership ]
I replied, “How am I supposed to sleep now?” and never got an answer. The dream I’d had on New Year’s Day 2009 – that one day I’d wake up and Symbolyc One (S1) would appear at the top of the game, with the internet going nuts – was coming true almost a year and a half later.
I didn’t even get a chance to wake up on Friday, May 28, 2010. The phone calls woke me up first. Apparently while I was getting four or five hours of not-so-good sleep, the full song had leaked, Symbolycone.com had launched, and “Power” had gone from a snippet to a whole song.
At this point, I couldn’t really listen to the record. When I tried to listen, I would go into a panoramic dream state – looking back, looking forward – except for when I was grinning and making the air horn sound. Even two weeks later, I still haven’t had a full, quality listen. Let’s just say I ain’t trippin’ off the “Power”.
By that afternoon, someone had called and asked me, “Since that’s your boy and he produced the new Kanye, what are you getting out of this?”
I replied, “Great Joy!”
VIDEO::”Me On the Mic” feat Vooski
After being in a group called Reelaktz for years and years — technically since 4th grade — but not dropping any product, I did my first solo sessions with Patrick Murphy in 1999. I was living in Dallas (1997-99), and Patrick had also moved back from UT to the exact same complex as I. In 1999 I’d also gone back to Austin to work on my boy NickNack’s first single (we did a duo 12-inch under the name Soundscape) and his “Reconstruction” album.
By the summer of 1999 I’d literally moved back to Austin hoping to do the unthinkable (would it make us look crazy?) and launch an international hip-hop career straight outta the capital/casual city conveniently known as the Live Music Capital of the World. Before that year was up, a real hero named DJ Baby G had also moved to Austin. My boys from Reelaktz who’d started this event called Hip Hop Humpday (the main reason I moved back) also started a Sunday residency for Baby G at the Sidestreet Bar, which I think is now called Fuel.
By the year 2000 my neighbor from back in grade school, Bobby — the same amazing artist who did everyone’s graffiti sweatshirts, jeans, etc., at North Garland High, all the way up to my Create & Hustle album cover — who was also my ride to high school and an emcee in Reelaktz for a year or two… became the art director of a hip hop clothing store (basically) on the Drag in Austin, that was owned by another friend from school named Alex the mexican Alpha. The clothing store was the stepchild of the screenprinting shop around the corner, and I started working there as a mascot. Since we promoted the store at spots like Humpday, I met alot of folks coming in to consign CD’s as well as DJ’s, including but not limited to Jeffresh, 2DQ and UT student upstarts DJ Kurupt and Rapid Ric. Ric was doing some “mix every kind of hip hop on Earth” mixtapes with IHOP-styled artwork (not Mountain Dew, yet) and was looking for local emcees to rap on his CD’s so I offered myself.
I wanna say Hot 93.3 in Austin started around late 2001 or early 2002. And one day I heard a song by Memphis Bleek featuring Nate Dogg on my homie Deuce’s evening show. I don’t think it won “Hot or Not” or played more than 20 times, but it sure was funky and soulful. I never forgot that song, called “You Need Dick In Your Life”. I guess it was about the Vice President, to help with his approval ratings. Yes, absolutely.
LYRICS::Fire in the Firmament
Today we’re talmbot “Fire In the Firmament”, the song.
Not sleeping giant producer, singer and songwriter Dertrick “Fire” Winn. Not Dylan Dylan Dylan who, by the way, spits hot fiyah! Not Grammy nominated gospel rapper Flame. And last but not least… not Atlanta rapper and shooting victim (and son of the lady who manages Gucci, Nicki and OJ) Wocka Flocka Flame. Oh, let’s do it!
“Fire in the Firmament” is a joint I’ll share with you awfully soon. This particular Fire was envisioned by Dallas-area producer Smooth Sense and features three kings: Chucky Sly, HeadKrack and I.
I believe it to be divinely inspired. My wife says it sounds like a Jazz Liberators song. In the hands of God and/or an alchemist, a lil’ flame can make gold.
Here are the lyrics to my “Fire in the Firmament” verse in 3… 2… 1…
Continue reading “LYRICS::Fire in the Firmament”
Scholar Emcee 