Tag: Matt Sonzala

featuring B.L.A.X.Smith on the hook and second verse… BETTER 2 BE is Track 4 on the upcoming SANCT EP

A seed originally planted in 2009 grew into this hook delivered by B.L.A.X.Smith. I’m pretty sure my wife was out of town when Sade dropped her first single in a decade or so, Soldier of Love.

When Soldier of Love dropped, I immediately started dreaming of lyrics and rushing to where I knew someone could record them. I wanted to remix that song Wes Sanders style by morning. [ And Tif had to have been out of town, because in my verse I blatantly mentioned the life-changing late night West Texas blizzard we’d recently driven through in a Celica. ]

When I got to the Treehouse, aka Burro Magic’s crib, he and Smith didn’t look at me crazy. They were up, and they asked if they could record on it too. I said yes. But I finished mine that night, and had a good enough version to show for it by morning. Burro went to town on the arrangement. On short notice, no less (dap).

I didn’t do much with it besides put it on a podcast I did at Matt’s house shortly after that, and randomly email it to FWMJ and V-Zilla. Because.

Smith never let go of that one line from the Soldier of Love Fleaux — that one bar, those four counts, 11 words “and if you know you’re blessed / then what’s better to be”.

So eventually I sent him a beat and challenged him to make a hook out of it. This challenge came about a year after that late night session, by the time I was settling into Long Beach life, running 10K’s for breakfast and putting together what would become the 2012 SANCT EP produced entirely by Reggie Coby. Which, by the way, is coming out in ohhh… 10 weeks! Continue reading “Better 2 Be Lyrics” →