Chris Iijima
Cee-Lo Green
Ben Harper
Mos Def
Prince
Sam Cooke
Nas
Bill Withers
Lyfe Jennings
Gil Scott-Heron
Curtis Mayfield
Bob Marley
Jeff Buckley
Tracy Chapman
Lauryn Hill
Anthony Hamilton
Sade
Otis Redding
2Pac
Taiyo's music gets under your skin like a warm heartbeat. Pure as moonlight, gritty as N.Y.C., brave as a young man standing tall in the face of his own shadows. Paladin, seraph, young sage come-of-age, we welcome your songs into our dangerous, beautiful world.
-Ishle Yi Park
Taiyo tells a story that is both his and his people's, and he tells it well. There's a fearless humility that bleeds through this record. Emotion, but with substance - in a world that sees and hears too much of one without the other.
-Geologic of Blue Scholars
With Love is Growth, the singer/songwriter/MC establishes himself as a multidimensional talent with a unique creative voice that fuses the rhythms of the city that raised him with the soul of the Asian immigrant culture that birthed him.
-OkayPlayer.com
There's something undeniably soul-rootsy about Taiyo Na. Na's debut album, Love is Growth, is storytelling through music at its finest, with all its fragile and spirited nuances. -Boston Progress Radio
Love is Growth is soulful, passionate, real. Especially affecting are "Moonlight City," "Lovely to Me" (Hwang's violin is a stand out) and "Take My Breath Away." The layering of styles is unique—a true synthesis of love and dedication. Far more than a poet-singer, this is politics down to the basics.
-Professor John Kuo Wei Tchen
Moving swiftly and easily between so-called “genres,” lapping the hardcore MC, soulman/loverman and poet for the people two times… All hail the young prince. -Denizen Kane, excerpt from liner notes for Love Is Growth
Hi hi!! ur music is awesome!! i like the song: Moonlight City!! :) n always loving the video of Closer remix!! still on my profile since the first day i saw it!! lol...well anyway...just dropping by to show sum luv...have a nice day!! ~Rady
please share your stories, poems, photos, visual art, articles, essays, and more with us for our upcoming issue, "Generate." the deadline has been EXTENDED to JANUARY 20TH, 2009, so it's not too late!
for any questions, send a message or email m22submissions@gmail.com. feel free to pass along this information.