(No article or press-release written bio here... i dunno, i've been on MySpace for 4 years now and i've never written anything more than a cryptic paragraph in this section so i decided to give y'all the looong but actually short recount of how all of this came to be...)
I'm a spaceman walking, psychopath talking...
real ism. i was an extremely imaginative and open child, with old eyes beyond my years, who's seen his share of ghosties. i've heard the words "old soul" spoken about & around me as far back as i can remember. when i was 5 years old, i felt older than most of the people around me whether adult or child. that's some weird shit to feel when you're young cuz you can't really put your finger on it, but you feel it and it's just as real as feeling hungry, you know when it's there.
but, on the bottom and top of that, i grew up like a lot of black folk on the west coast in my generation of genocide, homicide and suicide. i lived thru the gang-banging and the hustling game. hell, i even believed for a moment that the military would save my ass .. i had learned & seen a lot more than most people in their 30's, in the five-year period from 16 to 21 years.
in my early 20's, i was at the top of "my game" bcuz of my that experience. on a personal note, it still didn't stop what was really bubblin inside, and folk still didn't see the things i saw, didn't think like i thought, nor feel like i felt about a whooooole lot of things. i now know i was never any of those roles, no matter how good i was at them, just as much as i know i had to experience them, really be them, to forward me on my path to realizing what i truly was and moreover, what we Truly Are! crazy but real ism. i had set out to "fit in" by jumping off into everything within my surroundings, from the above urban youth rites of passage to shit on the other end of the spectrum like fantasy books, D&D, a straight comic book fanatic, to even witchcraft and shamanism, the occult..across the board. whatever i could absorb, i would absorb. although i overstood them, none quite fit "me" so after years of venturing in all kinds of directions, trying to find "me", i plain out didn't give a fuck. i became a reckless soul at a point, rebelling against everything... but music, and the freedom of dancing and drawing.
some 10 years ago, my ego, personality and all that i depended on to make me who i was, got stripped away from me in an instant, a revelation and death at the same time.. super crazy ish, unless you've been thru it, but i was like a child all over again. scared as fuck, and vulnerable, very vulnerable. but thru it all, i found i was right here all along training and realizing i was capable of being all things, but being just one. me. who gets to play many roles in the lives of many cuz of all that experience. i was able to express it all thru music... and the Hip-Hop culture.
the culture wasn't a culture yet when it touched me. Dancehalls lit it up in Jamaica, where Kool-Herc is from and when he moved to NY, he hit the streets and parks with his own sound-system...and that was the coin drop...I remember the first rap song played on the radio in 1979, "Rapper's Delight" by Sugarhill Gang. it was on.. no doubt! it affected us and we were all poppin', lockin', rappin' and DJin' from then on.
sidenote: funny how a lot of things originally "black" has to eventually be turned "white" in this nation. can you believe history (not hip-hop history, of course) has "Rapture" by Blondie as the first rap song ever released? it actually came out two years later in 1981.
i was a talent yet to be discovered back then, i was honing my skills and my nerve to spit rhymes in any circle beyond my close-knit peeps, but i'd own a dance floor and draw up a storm wherever i could. the streets and the early stages of LA hip-hop introduced me to a lot of different circles, ranging from Friday nights at World On Wheels with 1580 KDAY as hosts, (where if you had a lil skill you could get your scratch before the night got going and the likes of Tony G, and other now legendary LA DJs would take over the session..), Sherman Square and the UA Theater in the valley, Hollywood Blvd (back then the circles were off the chain), to the Radiotron in Mac Arthur Park, which closed down in mid 80s. i've had the pleasure to meet, rap, dance, and/or chill in circles with the likes LA Dream Team, Dominoes, Pop N Taco, Boogaloo Shrimp, OGs like Ice-T and the Rhyme Syndicate, King Tee (pre-Act A Fool days thru my homie Sweetooth, damn where are you, my nig?), Def Jef (aahh, the homie Joe, my Lawd, just writing this makes me think of homies i haven't seen in 20 years...), um, prolly more that i can't think of right now. that was just urban LA life in the 80's. i was never an official member of any crew, ('cept San Fer graf crew TCA, big ups Plex, Clone, Kurse, Zink, Geo, and Relm, the OGs! "Tekneek" still in this.ha...and maybe the closest, my fam, FNP, Flirtation Nation Playas in this B-I...wuddup Kraminal! hahaa..) but the hustling and hip-hop games weren't too far apart (like now, but....not), it started in the streets so if one ran the streets, one might end up getting around like that if he was a sociable type of brutha (and as i stated above, trying discover himself and where he fits in all this ish). i was more a bboy, DJ, and graf artist than an emcee back then, but even those were more like hobbies compared to all the other shit i was getting into.
in the early 90's, i started working the club circuit and got heavily involved again. first thru dancing once again, then on to free-styling at clubs (a lil later with Key-Kool, haha..basically how we met) and on to finally writing and dropping verses on random cuts with peeps i met in the circles. i made my way thru the underground movement, popping up here and there to drop a guest verse, or hype a show. i was in a bboy/emcee crew called "Overlords of Rhythm" (ha!) when i met Key-Kool and DJ Rhettmatic, thru separate circles. Those cats weren't Kozmonautz then. i don't even think they knew each other yet (brothers correct me if i'm wrong). Soon after i met Dannu, again thru doing shows at clubs, we along with another cat, Lingo (wuddup Jon-Jon), formed a group called Disciples of the Sound, that became Writer's Block a few years later. i met LMNO thru Key-Kool, they used to be in a group together, and are part of the Rhyme Syndicate mentioned above so we may've crossed paths before and didn't know one another, and lastly, at a radio show Key-Kool used to have at UCLA, i met 2Mex, who's a Mid-City native so he and i have most likely crossed paths many times in the past, the age difference kept us from meeting till later, i'm sure. they were all cool cats that were, and still are, livicated to the preservation and the evolution of Hip-Hop, and music in general. Most importantly their individual culture, and humanity period... we clicked like 18th Street, started hanging out, free-styling and recording together whenever we could. we decided to do a white label with all of us on it...that album turned out to be a full release appropriately named Galleries and the rest is history...
Four albums later, we're still making it happen...
crazy how Hip-Hop brought us together, thru them i was able to discover different cultures and more of my own related culture (pinoy!).. we are reflections of the same force. and i discovered different philosophies, religion, spirituality, and ultimately Oneness on this Journey.. music and the ever-expanding Hip-Hop culture were doorways.
i've had a lot revealed to me, and although i now know why i overstand Life, metaphysics, esoteric and sacred knowledge, geometry, Universal Law, chakras, and energy patterns the way i do, i'm still learning how to condense my spiritual experience, and regular life experience into words everyone could overstand, especially when words can't really explain it.
yet and still, i put my being into everything i do, hopefully those who feel my music or even have a chance encounter with it along this journey will feel and be affected in the most enlightening ways, whether they know where it's all coming from or not. . .the songs on this playlist actually show the progression, if you listen.. from DOS, straight hip-hop lyrics written in 1999 (Universal Energy inspired, nonetheless, a verse indirectly aimed at the self-proclaimed righteous to say, "everything is God, don't judge"), to after years of processing and working with the New/Old energies coursing thru me and inspiring me to write the likes of Medicine Man.. is the world ready for that kind of message in their music? i guess, or i wouldn't be Here, Now, doing it. hopefully my Visionaries and Writer's Block fans will follow me into the Age of LVX and join our Collective.
it's the weirdo, talking craziness into your earlobes...mystic, 7th of a six-man crew... Visionaries, Writer's Block lyricist, zen r.el.z.m., the Esoteric Chariot.
LOVE/LIGHT.. Jah Bless
Alternate Realities:
Invade My Personal Space
Cruise Around The Block
Vibe With The Crew
What's New:
VISIONARIES NEW ALBUM IN STORES NOW!
ORDER NOW (click the album cover)
or pick it up at: AMOEBA MUSIC (HOLLYWOOD), STACKS VINYL (CERRITOS & ONTARIO), FAT BEATS (LA & NYC), BEATS VINYL & LIFE (O.C.), RADIO FUTURA (POMONA), ACCESS MUSIC (SAN DIEGO),
ALSO: WHEREHOUSE RECORDS, VIRGIN MEGASTORE, BEST BUY, FYE, ITUNES, EMUSIC
IF YOU DON'T SEE IT, PLEASE ASK THE STORE WHEN THEY WILL GET IT IN!
VISIT: UPABOVE.COM (click here) for more details, info, music, merch...
RESERVE NOW (click)
RINGTONE NOW AVAILABLE:
VISIONARIES "ALL RIGHT"
produced by JAY DEE aka J DILLA
GO TO: VISIONARIES RINGTONE STORE (click here)
Check LVX Collective:
A collab effort featuring zen r.el.z.m. and Dannu of Writer's Block/Visionaries Crew, Goddess Azul, dance hall emcee, Jah C, Greg Reeves on bass and production by David Harrow, coming out this September!!
Add Them!!
QUEENS OF THE EARTH!
... or KINGS THAT HAVE QUEENS IN THEIR LIVES, CHECK THIS SITE!
For simple, quality t-shirts with positive messages that inspire and empower women, check:
SELF Apparel
Support the Cause
There's plenty of worthy causes to support in our own backyard;
nonetheless, I've been exposed to these thru benefits and tours
and've found them extremely worthy of our attention.
|
|
..
