DJ Decryption is a producer, composer, rapper, beatboxer, DJ, breakdancer, and Marshall Scholar. He is currently running Decrypt Productions, a music production company, and the Drumline, the production house for the music and marketing organization Team Business. As the founder of Rosetta Stone Records, an independent record label, DJ D composes and promotes hip-hop, rock, pop, R&B, trip-hop, world music, and film scores for a globalized future. Past and current projects include collaborations with Ana Free, Jodie Manross, Baba Brinkman, Jeremiah, Suave, and many more.
DJ Decryption is also a PhD student in Postcolonial Studies at the University of Kent in the UK. His research interests include the commoditization of global youth culture, postcolonial political movements, the aesthetics of hip-hop, and postcolonial literature. DJ D is committed to mediating the gap between the academy and the streets.
DJ Decryption's new CD SOULFIRE was just selected as a "VPick of the Month" by Indietastic.net! Here's an excerpt of the review:
"Hip-hop's underground has always been rife with social conscience but never in such a well-read package. DJ Decryption's polysyllabic vocabulary is indicative of his Marshall scholar status but his tight rhythm and urgent beats and catchy hooks will easily turn the heads of your average everyday school kid. Similarly, lines like, "Wave your hands in the air, if you're down with Stephen Colbert" will make any pop-culture nerd smile. With the assistance of sultry vocals from Focus and Jewelz, Decryption is savvy enough to make a record with a message that will unify rather than alienate." -Indietastic.net
Buy SOULFIRE from CD Baby:
Buy SOULFIRE anywhere in the world on iTunes!
Soulfire Tracklist
1. Soulfire
2. The Beauty Within
3. All My Time
4. Quadrilingual MC
5. The Present (feat. Seamus Heaney)
6. A Perfect World
7. Open Curtain
8. Ride Tonight
9. Location of the Rapper
10. You Know What I Mean (feat. Da'Ron)
11. Fear
12. The Fall (feat. Demon Divas)
13. Distant Harmony
Soulfire
Sometimes an artist creates a work because he needs to; sometimes he creates it because it is needed. Soulfire is an album for this moment in history. A reductive and debilitating national political climate coincided with a corresponding degeneration of commercial rap music. The level of discourse and debate became sterile and rancorous in many cultural, political, and academic domains. Events in my personal life reflected these trends as the public and private spheres became conflated and seemed to run in parallel. Yet, despite the urgency of this work, Soulfire also contains a poetic timelessness that transcends contemporary events and specific situations. The depth of meaning with which I composed the lyrics and music will hopefully be apparent to the close listener. Though perhaps this may seem too pretentious, I wanted to create the Ulysses of hip-hop albums - a work with so much meaning, allusion, and intertextuality that it can be studied in depth as a literary text. On the other hand, I strongly believe that the soul of the beat and fire of the delivery need not be sacrificed for such a project. There is no reason why "underground" hip-hop cannot be musically engaging on a commercial level. Rather, the beats and flow must be a foremost consideration in the composition of this next generation of hip-hop. Let no one accuse us of relegating the core musicality and skills of hip-hop to the background in our pursuit of lyrical excellence. Hip-hop is an artform with the expressive potential of poetry, fiction, theater, and film all rolled into one. Similarly, hip-hop artists transcend racial, class, gender, national, and linguistic boundaries. Why not celebrate this diversity rather than continuing the pointless debate of "authenticity"? Certain experiences will resonate more with different individuals in similar life locations, but this does not invalidate alternate renditions and interpretations. During my travels, I have witnessed hip-hop be a major unifying force for people whose religious and ethnic backgrounds should have made them mortal enemies. I have seen both the political potential and the callous appropriation of this artform that gives voice to both under-represented communities and corporate greed, to disaffected youth and violent misogyny, to artistic expression and reductive droning. Hip-hop is neither dead nor dying - like the diversity of literature, it has developed into a complex genre of music with numerous sub-categories. Why Soulfire? A combination of soulful singing (courtesy of Focus, Jewelz, and Lotus) and fire-laced raps (by DJ Decryption, including a guest appearance by Da'Ron), a blend of smooth melodies and blazing beats, a meeting of the romantic and the polemic. I hope that this project will provoke you to consider some part of your life in a new light. But at the very least, crank up the volume and get crunk to it. Your neighbors will thank you later. My final request is that you listen to the lyrics. Peace,
DJ Decryption
February, 2007 [Note: To purchase my previous CD "Tales From Decrypt," hit up CD Baby or iTunes.]
The track "History Lesson" from Tales From Decrypt was just selected for inclusion on the "CD Baby Top Hip-Hop/R&B Blend" album! We still have a few copies of Tales From Decrypt left, so get this classic album before it's out-of-print (hit the links above).
|
Online Now!
![[TST] Coffeehouse](http://c3.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/64/s_b3ad5db91831462b870ce9214b2f143e.jpg)
