Soleo and I are opening for Kardinal Offishall @ Tequila Lounge on February 26th 2009.

Tix are $20, hit me up if you need some.

Props to Two Towers, BeatMatrix & Ill Movements

Nothing but positive thoughts! With the busy season and our typical last minute preparation for the show, Ricca and I kept a short set @ 12 minutes.  Turn out wasn’t as packed as JabbaWockeez which was expected because of the season and the snowfall that we’ve been having, but every single person that was in the building was happy to be there and were there to see performances!  We had great vibes from everyone, and we had the joy of performing alongside Dragon Fli Empire, The Groove Junkies, Ill FX, House of Danger Kat and an improv addition O’Mighty and various Calgary B-boys.  (seriously, House of Danger Kat, soooo sick, so original, so much conviction in the dancing!! I definite hope to see them in the future)

The thing that stands out the most to me in the night was the unity of the Calgary Hip Hop Scene, Suns of Boey were in the house, Benny Johnson, Ill Movements and even Drew Atlas (long time no see).  Due to the weather the "Super Tour" was running extremely late.  So we did what any honorable Calgary Hip Hopper would do! IMPROVISE!! Dizzy D invited b-boys on the stage as a little show case for the crowd and Ricca Razor Sharp did a great job of MC’ing their Showcase. My favourite quote of the night was Ricca "We need to exorcise these demons (referring to the b-boys)"

Pictures below, huge props to Sally @ NetCandi.

www.netcandi.com

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 - conceptual banger

Iron Lion Feat. The EquAzn (produced by Mantrakid) Recorded at the After School Math Club,

Song 11 off of Iron Lion’s new solo album "The Eye of Ra", available for purchase or download on www.neferiu.com .    This song seems to be sticking out people’s minds and I’m glad, this is the 2nd EQ/Iron Lion collaboration on the album and it will definitely lead to more.  The song concept and chorus was inspired by from Ricca Razor Sharp’s verse from the Audible Intelligence song "Nitrous Oxide"; "Mesmerizing with EQ & Iron Lion, Razor Sharp & Soleo its not surprising".   Iron Lion sourced the beat, created the concept – write, record, re-write, re-record – finished!

www.impirical.ca

Lets put it this way, I always knew I’d put a CD Recommendation section on the website and this is the FIRST CD that came to mind to recommend.  Killa Kela, one of the best beat boxers in the world hailing from the U.K.  Most people think that with a beat boxer’s CD that it will be boring to listen to, nothing but a man and a mic, but you’re wrong – on this album he incorporates all members of Spit Kingdom, violinist, the works!  I remember hearing a radio interview and Pharell from The Neptunes recommended this CD in the middle of an interview that was supposed to promote his own CD!  Another great thing about this CD is the thought process, each song flows into the next one – each song has a unique concept and theme! The whole CD is told like a story from beginning to END.

Most people who I’ve shown this album to and their first reaction is "Is this Justin Timberlake?" (That’s right! The beat boxer can sing, makes sense since he can make any sound he wants with his mouth…correct?) "Is this a secret song off Future Sex Sounds?" I understand where they are coming from, unique thick production singing, catchy chorus’, with many featured rappers… but I’m going to go ahead and say it… Killa Kela’s album came out in early 2005… JT’s album came out mid 2006… Do the math… yeah you heard me! I said it!

This CD is for all, it definitely keeps loyal to the Hip Hop Fans, but it showed that an underground Hip Hop musician can bring it to the next level.  He paved the way and broke down barriers, unfortunately I think the world didn’t acknowledge what he was doing until it was too late.

Don’t sleep!! There’s a reason why its the first CD I’ll recommend, and there’s a reason why its the only CD to remain on my Ipod since the first day I bought it.

www.killakela.com

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 - banger w/ old school respect

Ricca Razor Sharp & The EquAzn (Produced by Mantrakid) Recorded at the After School Math Club

‘Don’t stand there looking dumb, it seems you forgot where you come from!’.  Consider this our tribute to the old school, the good ol’ days, before hip hop was hip pop. (which is technically not even the old school, just the ERA we grew up in).  A prize goes to whoever can name all the BEAT SAMPLES and the QUOTABLES we’ve used.  This song will go on Ricca Razor Sharps upcoming album!!! SPRING 2009!!! www.riccarazorsharp.com

Sort of a last minute thing, but next Wedneday Ricca & I will be opening for the Dance Crews of Season 2!!

I’ll edit this post with ‘After Thoughts’ but for now, check the flyer, hit me up if you need tix!

Download a new Neferiu album, Shep & Stilz – Radio Gente

www.neferiu.com

Since his self-titled debut album, Shep hasn’t kicked back for a second, despite what the silky smooth backing beats may imply. Shep joins forces once again with his right hand man DJ Stilz, who constructs yet another album’s worth of mind massaging production while Shep’s soul raps drench the top track. Like the double cherry on top, Angie Hills and Suzie Got Skillz blend their sexy voices into the mix, making this yet another Shep album worthy of the bedroom, or the lounge, or the den, or the v-dub, or the…

EQ: Shep the soul man with beats from Audible Intelligence’s DJ Stilz… a sure hit, if you like the chill out music and trying to win over a woman, this is for you =P   ***also, there is a free download once a month from Neferiu.com, don’t sleep, check the site out.

CD Review to follow.

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 - a political / opinionated joint

You Can’t Hold Me Down – Ricca Razor Sharp, EQ, King Louie, Mantrakid, Soleo & Wyzaker (Soleo on chorus) - Beat produced by Mantrakid 2008

This is one of the tracks from the Audible 36 Hr weekend V3 (October 18th 2008).  I think this is the only track where we all stayed in the same room writing at once, it got a little crowded, but damn we all concentrated on our verses and hammered it out.  "So much to write about, just keep it flowing…"  Soleo kicked the chorus and 32 Bars, he’s an animal!

Peep it, please leave feed back.

 What’s up,

Alongside the Iron Lion CD Release, he also released a Video for the song "Whatever" it features King Dylan, Ricca Razor Sharp, King Louie, and myself… This song was created during the 2nd 36 Hour album (January of 2007…?) where Iron Lion made the beat and the concept was ‘write what’s on your mind, whatever’… you can definitely tell what/who was on my mind while I wrote my verse =P.  Everyone who has seen the video says the same thing "EQ, writing a verse while txting on his phone, being EMO" how very fitting… hahaha

This video was shot by Cole Binder www.binderproductions.com (which has a few extra videos on it with me).  It was editted and directed by Iron Lion, I can still remember him shouting "not so much arms" on the road we shot it at =P "more passion! more cow bell!" Please enjoy the video, leave comments if you’d like.  Well done by Iron Lion, peep his new CD!

http://www.youtube.com/v/Z7qC7crpnfo

Hmmm… Only a couple of weeks ago now that I think about it, but it was long overdue.  It was a sad sad day when Mantrakid moved to B.C, mostly sad for me I guess – so after 5 months of pouting and crying, and with the Wifey off in Vegas with her friends… it was time.  hahaha. Great hospitality from the Mantra’s as expected, they brought me out for dinner, showed me the spots, we hung out played video games and caught up like old times.  I hope to do it again in the Summer when things are ‘poppin’ and when a certain someone has ‘popped’…

Comox is definitely a dope place to visit, the most critical thing that stood out in my mind was the flavour bursts of silence… I remember nights just coming back from dinner and we’d step out of the car and I’d stop… and I’d have to wait for someone to speak to make sure I haven’t gone deaf (rap music)… its something we overlook in our city lives, silence – I think we FEEL it from memory but don’t realize we forgot what it sounds like.  FOOD, I gotta be straight up I was skeptical, can I go a weekend without Pho or Sushi?!?! but I was wrong, maybe with only 150K people Comox/Courtenay actually has time and consideration to prep their food??? Sure I’m a little opinionated being a tourist and with MK bringing me to his favourite spots… but I must say FOOD was awesome, and trust me, I’m a food guy!  One major thing that struck me while I was there, the atmosphere really reminded me of the trips to Vancouver to see the family… now I’m family sick… yikes

Anyway, THE MAIN POINT OF THIS POST!!

Mantrakid had the courtesy to bring me to his radio station and let me special guest in an episode of CreamReefer… check the links below, from www.neferiu.com , catch him every Saturday, CHLY

Started off with some instrumental downtempo lovin’ then got into a little introduction with Calgary Battle Rapper The Equazn. After dropping some of his collaboration work with the Calgary Audible Intelligence work, he got into a full blown live freestyle session on-air. Then we wound it down with some newer stuff from Canadian artists like Shep & DJ Stilz, Virtue, and Iron Lion.

Click here to subscribe to the weekly podcast or, click here to download the full episode to your number machine. The air date for this show was Saturday November 22nd . Tune in next Saturday at 2pm-4pm Pacific on 101.7fm in Nanaimo or http://www.chly.ca online.