The Deadly Art Of Survival
I’m alive. I passed the damn stone - not long after I wrote my last post, actually. Maybe it helped to release that energy out into the world. I often find that helps. The question everyone asks is: “did the pain go away immediately?” It pretty much did! The pain is caused by the blockage and once that’s clear, no more problems! It’s the damnedest thing. The final passing of the stone didn’t hurt at all. I felt it come out. It was a weird feeling. And then I rejoiced in a way that I’ve only done a handful of times in my life. God, it was such a relief for the ordeal to be over. I think my situation lasted longer than it does for most people. I was so happy that the nightmare was over.
But I wasn’t 100% right away. My doctor told me there would be a “hangover”. It took two days to get the drugs and their effects out of my body. My gut needed time to recover. That was a bit of an ordeal in itself. But it was nothing compared to what I had been through, so I didn’t mind.
As soon as the pain was gone, I went hardcore on making up for lost time working on the album. I pulled some very long days. Bottom line: it’s done. My original plan was to post it up on Bandcamp today. But I spoke with my friend Tommy (Controller 7) about it on Sunday and he pointed out that this coming Friday is a Bandcamp Friday. So I’ll hold off until then.
The plan for now is digital-only. The other day, I ordered ten blank cassettes. If they are delivered before Friday, I’ll make ten copies by hand. In true punk fashion, I’ll make the dubs and the artwork for each myself and will sell those (via Bandcamp) - also on Friday. And then, a proper physical release (cassettes, vinyl, the usual) will follow. I’ll keep you up to date on that.
So here’s what I can tell you about the new album. It’s called Punk Rock B-Boy. It’s about 40 minutes long. As I explained a while back, it’s made up of a combination of material left over from Super Dope and new stuff - about 50/50, I guess. It’s very much in the same spirit/vein of King Of Drums and Super Dope but with some subtle differences. Let me break it down for you a little bit.
It occurred to me recently that most of my all-time favorite albums have something in common: they all sound like they were labored over. They sound like a lot of time and work went into them. There’s a lot of attention to detail. Nothing about them sounds lazy or tossed off. You know what I mean? I’m thinking of albums like Funk Your Head Up by Ultramagnetic MCs (which was probably my main inspiration). The first Cypress Hill album. Where’s The Party At? by Cash Money & Marvelous. The first few Gang Starr albums. The World’s Greatest Entertainer by Doug E. Fresh And The Get Fresh Crew. It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back. Three Feet High And Rising. So I decided to go the extra mile on this one. I devoted entire days to parts of songs that last 10 seconds. I went super-micro on the details. It’s a hard kind of work but it’s the most satisfying.
Aside from the Funk Your Head Up album, another main source of inspiration was all the hip hop history books I’ve been reading lately. I’m sure that will be obvious to you upon first listen. I pay a lot of tribute to the early-early days of hip hop - even the pre-rapping days. I’ve been feeling very inspired by what was happening in hip hop between 1973 and 1978.
I think there are a few key things that set Punk Rock B-Boy apart from King Of Drums and Super Dope. First of all: bass. The biggest influence on Super Dope was Public Enemy. I was inspired by how they made powerful albums that were almost devoid of bass. I think that is so badass. But in the last hip hop history book I read (Yes Yes Y’all by Jim Fricke), there are lots of inspiring stories about the power of Kool Herc’s sound system back in the day. Those who were there for his parties talk about the enormity of the bass. And then came The Brothers Disco with their Mighty Mighty Sasquatch system. The bass would shake entire neighborhoods. Inspired by those stories, I went more bass-heavy on this new album. I was a bit worried about it making mixing and mastering difficult (because I’m handling those duties myself and I don’t really know what the hell I’m doing) but it turned out great! I play-tested the album in several different environments and I think it sounds awesome. I’m really happy with the results.
Second: this album gets a little weirder and a little darker than the last two. Not across the board! There are plenty of light moments too. In fact, I think this album also gets a bit sillier than the others in places. But it definitely gets darker. I wanted to get into a bit of the spirit of albums like Vertex and Man Overboard. You’ll hear it. Don’t be scared though. I like to think I’ve never been one to get too heavy-handed.
I guess I’ll leave it there for now. I’m thinking that in my next post, I’ll do a track-by-track breakdown for you. To hold you over until the album drops, here’s a posse cut put together by my brothers from A7PHA, which features a verse by yours truly and some legendary homies. Add it to your stash. You can get the track on Bandcamp, Apple Music, wherever. Dopeness.