Perfect Sivion Innerview

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Sivion’s 2006 Spring of the Songbird LP gets lots of play to this very day at BavuBlogs headquarters, and even in our Accord and Camry. It’s that banging soulful Hip Hop style popularized by groups like Slum Village, Common and Strange Fruit Project.

Sivion, who studied architecture at the University of Miami, has personalized the genre through his presence on the Dallas underground scene by adding two unique elements — his saxophone skills and his embrace of the Christian gospel. But he’s not the guy who only raps at churches, more like a man of the people.

I did a show with him around 2005 at the Gypsy Tea Room in Dallas, and have kept up with his music ever since. And even though I have three Sivion CD’s and a cassette of he and his twin brother’s old group, Phat Kats, something about the Spring of the Songbird LP stuck to my ribs.

This album has endured, and there’s always been something special about the song So Perfect produced by the ARE. I was playing it as I typed this, and my wife said “what song is that again? I like that one.”
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Bruno x Bars

Don’t try to fight it / There ain’t nothin’ that you can do

— Disco Mike

At first I was hesitant. Perhaps my pride kept me from reaching out. For years, I’ve had a mostly silent affinity for various “Christians who rap” in Texas — folks like Playdough, Sivion, L. Moore, The Warriors ATX, D-Kutz, etc…

To make a long story short, I hit up Bruno.
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That’s Fred Bruno, or Freddie Bruno.
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Not Bruno Mars, although I admire the hustle, the songwriting ability and a knack for writing hooks that could bring Shamu home for dinner.

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