Tour update 04/2011

On December 4, 2008, I saw BusDriver live for the first time at the “Le 4 Sans” club in Bordeaux, France. It was very inspirational along with the group that followed up that evening… TTC. It was there were I was playing with my old group. I never thought that 3 years later I would be touring with BusDriver, or even doing a collaboration with him. This Spring 2011 we are doing our 3rd France tour together. The last tour was in winter 2010 and featured DJ Q-Bert. Last and not least, Busdriver features on my next album that is due to be released this summer 2011. Checkout my twitter updates and/or tour dates page for more up to date info.

The art of internet

In this time we live in, it is more easy to work with creative people abroad than ever before -one can in even work in realtime across the globe. Every collaboration I have worked on since Fall 2009, including my upcoming album this year, has been worked on away from the producers and other artists. The first group I did this with was Tribeqa, even though I had met them before at a festival. For other artists like WAT, LMNZ and Baka Sama Prod, this was different -we never met before. The most interesting one to me is with LMNZ, because not only was it such a huge project with tight time constraints, but his studio was only 30 minutes away! Due to schedule conflicts it was not possible to record at his studio, so after a couple phone calls and an email attachments, I wrote and performed the song “What’s important” with my good friend ZhiMC. within only couple months the album “Worldwide Rap” album was not only released, but praised by distributors and promoters alike, due to the album having so many collaborations from around the world in different laguages. Finally in December 2010, I met LMNZ in the Def Jam party at Universal Records. Since then I have met the member of WAT, yet I have still to meet the Baka Sama Crew. Both Baka Sama and WAT will release their albums later this year.

Better Worlds

Thanks to Ziggy, I got a chance to connect with Dilemn at the “Le Phare” festival in Toulouse France in 2009. It was not until about a month later I got a couple email attachments from Dilemn himself. Both were instrumentals I was interested in experimenting with. One track I did immediately in the moment, the second was done six months later due to other time constraints. In the middle of working on the track I decided to feature “wonderkat” from Berlin, who also wrote and performed on it. Finally, just a little over one year after the first email, the album “Future Worlds” has been released by Boxon records. On it is the single “Move yo feet” that Wonderkat and myself wrote and performed on. Unfortunately, the first song I had worked on didn’t make the cut, but nevertheless it doesn’t mean that I wont be using it for something else. In the meantime you can purchase the album or single on iTunes, Amazon and many more.

Qolors

On October 2009, I saw a Jazz/Fusion group called Tribeqa play at Festival Poulpaphone in Boulogne Sur Mer, France.  I never expected to be inspired by that particular kind of genre, but their unique style and performance led me to giving my contact details to them. Within one month I got an email with an instrumental attachment called “back in the days”, with it the manager of Tribeqa wrote: “… so what do you think of this?”.   I was so into the instrumental, that within 48 hours I had written, recorded, and premixed it and replied to the email with a few extra attachments.  Then in April 2010, Tribeqa released the album Qolors.  On it, you will find the track “Sands of Time” that I wrote and performed on. In it I talk about how fragile time is to each of us as individuals and how we should be careful as to who we share that time with. You can find the album in iTunes as well as Amazon -I hope you enjoy it!

Ready, set… go!

Photo Copyright Maria Kapek

These past two weeks have been quite hectic. Working on my album and opening for M.O.P.in Berlin were the main attractions, but a lot is going on in my life at the moment and it is time to share it with you…
Opening for M.O.P. at the Maria was a great opportunity to work with one of my favorite hip hop groups from back in the days, and also a good way to meet talented people such as DJ Mitch Alive, who was mixing for mr that night. We met a while back at some club in Berlin, but my vision wasn’t really on point at the time. I had originally asked DJ Marc Hype to join me, but he’s so busy with the release of the new album “Stamp out Reality” (that I’m also on!), he reffered me to DJ Mitch Alive. Both are great DJ’s and Mitch really got it down!
I really felt on top of my game at the concert. The crowd was energetic and responsive as I played “Walkin’ the Walk”, “Circuz” and “Killa Killa” which were big hits. I also performed “Hip Hop Calling” for the first time live -even though I haven’t even finished recording it in the studio yet! ZhiMC joined me on stage to play “Darkness Falls”, “Bounc ya Ounce” and the unreleased track called “After Hours”. As I walked off stage after my performance, M.O.P. congratulated me on my show! They really enjoyed my performance and it was encouraging and a nice touch to the evening.
I stayed and watched the East Coast heavy hitters knock off the cowd with several classics before I left the show to get back to the studio to work on my album. I was a little disappointed, it’s one of those groups that I’ve been waiting to see live for a while.
Back to focusing no the album release! I have received the artwork for “The Second Coming”, which kicks ass -I’m sure you all will enjoy it. On the website front, new features such as a Forum and a Newsletter subscription subscription have been added. Sign up if you want to get the exclusive news and extras!

I am opening for Brother Ali next week in Germany, and it promises to be an other wild ride -so stay tuned!

Have a great weekend!

*B

A night in Berlin with M.O.P.

I have known M.O.P. for years and I am a big fan of theirs. Classics like “Cold as ice” and “Ante Up” still rock on my playlist today! Thanks to my true fans and tight connects it was made possible for me to open for them.

I’ve played at the Maria several times before over the last 2 years for acts like Jeru the Damaja, Alkaholiks, Lords of the Underground, The Beatnuts, Paris, and A.M.T. It is definitely a hot club with big sound

I will be playing some songs from my new free album, which I plan to release later this month and also some of my new stuff that I wish to release in June.  With me will be ZhiMC, whom I have been working with for the past 3 years and have rocked many shows with.  As I have not prepared a full set list yet, it might be that I play some random beats to freestyle on -as always

So get your tickets and Blake it up!

*B

The making of “Walkin’ the Walk”

Hey everyone!

There is a short story behind the video of “Walkin’ the Walk” – it was a wild ride making it! Between searching for a treadmill to borrowing my friend’s car, we watched it slowly fall apart as we drove, then got stuck off the side of the highway to Hamburg at 2am before finally getting towed to our destination… Hehehe, it was well worth it, not to mention a very fun experience! The music video itself should be done soon. All i will say for now is that there are lots of 3D effects and camera tricks involved. In the meantime, enjoy the beats and let me know what you think of the making of, edited by the incredible LaBizi!

The music video is due to be released soon -so stay tuned!

Big ups!
*Blake