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KING RA “THE LAST DRAGON” EP
Woke up today, looked at my phone and saw that i got a crazy treat from the big homie KING RA outta Jersey. He sent me a message about “THE LAST DRAGON” EP and i jumped online to grab it. Maaaaaaaaaaaaan. I’ve been bumping this joint non stop. When we started working on the album we had a dope concept. To base the EP around the movie THE LAST DRAGON ( shout out to Bruce Leroy ). I hooked up the beats and movie quotes and he went bezerk on the pen. We both are very busy cats so a lot of time passed by after we initially started working on the EP. Hearing it all finished with the verses, cuts, and features just blew my mind away. R would hit me up to build about the songs so he gave me a very clear idea of what he was gonna do on the beats, but COT DAAAAMN. Hearing everything together was amazing. Shout out to Rhymeageddon, Kenny Bronson, Chinch ( with the ILL cuts ), Kitana Blade and WYME for rocking out with RA on this EP.
TOKYO CIGAR presents WU2 ( Wu tang Clan VS U2 )
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH High school. The wonder years. I was a kid in boarding school in Ireland. Running thru Dublin bugging out and soaking in all the Hip hop i could find. I was such a fiend that i remember being in Abbey Discs and buying the “I got ya opin” vinyl even though i didn’t have a record player and having the dude that worked there play the whole shit ( instrumentals included ) and record it to a tape for me. ( Shit i still got the tape i think ) I was ecstatic that they had the joint on import cause when i saw the video on Yo MTV Raps i NEEDED that song in my life. Abbey discs was also cool cause of the people i wold meet there. I’ll never forget the day this one Irish dude and i got into one of the most detailed conversations about hip hop production i ever had. I had never even thought about making music at that point, i was just a fan, but i remember the way homeboy was breaking down the Al Green drum break in “Mahogany” and telling with me that it was better on that than on the “Tried by 12″ joint. I was like “WOW dude really knows his shit.” Hell, i didn’t even really know what a fucking drum break was back then. Sampling was Fuzzy to me. I just knew the music put me in a zone and i assumed people made it with keyboards or bands or some shit. One fateful day when i was in school the big homie Hassan called me over and handed me an “Enter the wu tang ( 36 chambers)” tape and life as i knew it would not be the same for the next few decades as the Staten Island crew BLEW particles off my brain. I heard about the clan for a while and i heard “Method man” and “Wu tang aint nutting to fuck with” so i was drooling to hear the album. The cover hit me the most the first time i got it. CARTEL did a fucking fantastic job with the artwork cause you couldn’t see their faces on some ill Ninja shit. I had never seen an album cover like that before and i was struck. It looked like a damn movie poster or something. When i got back to the dorm, grabbed my walkman and popped in the tape and heard “Shaolin shadowboxing and the wu tang sword style. If what you say is true the shaolin and the wu tang could be dangerous” it was OVER. The rhyming, the beats, and everything was just too next level. I remember i played it for a couple of the dudes there and heads kept on trying to borrow the tape. I must have dubbed that 36 chambers album for like 7 cats before i even gave the joint back to Hassan. ( Who by the way i was ducking cause i didn’t wanna give that tape back ha ha ). With the exception of “Iron man” i bought all the solo albums while i was still in boarding school too. Hell, i still get Flash backs to to riding the bus to Grafton street every time i hear “Knowledge God” or “Sub Crazy”. Heads in school were really feeling the Wu as well. I lost track of the amount of times i heard “Protect ya neck” or “Diary of a madman” blasting through somebody’s boombox. Back then most cats that were into hip hop were more into the west coast artists ( Ice-t, Cypress Hill and House of pain got a lot of airplay i remember ) but when the Wu hit it just had all kinds of people open. From those years Wu tang has always been the greatest rap group of all time to me. If you think i ain’t keeping it a 100. Ask anyone that i got into a heated “Wu tang is the best of all time” discussion with.
The First time i ever heard U2 was when i was living in VA. I remember being in the whip with my family and the radio being on and “With or without you” being played a lot. Something about that song just always stuck out as being beautiful but sorrowful. Ironically when i was living in Ireland i was not into U2 cause i was such a “strictly hip hop” kid. I remember hearing the “Joshua Tree”, “Zooropa” and “Achtung baby” bumping but i would tune it out cause i felt “That’s that other shit” Damn shame cause i still remember the way everyone in school was going crazy cause of this one show U2 was gonna play, in retrospect i wish i went cause as much as i love their music now it would mean so much to have the memory of seeing them live. As i grew up i fell in love with U2′s music. They have mad emotional power and a dope cinematic feel to their music that started to resonate more as time went by and i began to understand great music is great music regardless of genre. But i cant front even back then i was digging the joint that had the Edge rhyming on it. The video was crazy too. When i hear U2′s music now it give me a feeling i cant even describe. That shit just hits me like “Thank God i’m alive to hear this”. As i got more of their albums i also respected the fact that they always reinvented themselves. I can understand why some who swore by “WAR” may think “POP” was too out there musically but hey……………..THE MUSIC WAS ALWAYS CRAZY. Bottom line. I love the fact they always did what they felt like doing cause no matter what the fuck they did they always had joints that would send a chill down my spine when i hear it start. U2 gets into the same zone of some deeeeeeeeeeeeep soul music. Think of the feeling you get when Marvin goes “ohhhhhhhhhh makes me wanna holler the way they do my life” in “Inner city blues”, that soul music that is so raw and strong it actually burns. U2 takes that and spreads it over mad various styles of rock. Crazy!!!!!!
Putting this project together was fun. I originally planned on doing something like my “Black faith mixtape” with Depeche Mode but one random day the name WU2 popped in my head and i couldn’t get it out. I went and grabbed the vocals and when i put em together it was Zen like the way it all fit. Even down to the titles of the songs and the way U2′s music matched the feel of the Wu’s rhymes when blended together. It took about 5 days for the production ( i did the beats for “Love in Daytona” “Holla First” “God’s Zoo” and “Run to the Exit” on the same day matter fact ) and 2 days of mixing in the vocals. When it was all said and done and i listened to it i caught a very ILL feeling.
I hope yall enjoy it
The Plexiglass Fountain “Concrete Mythology ( The Year Of The Dragon )” album
I could go on and on but i’ll let the music speak for itself
Much love to everyone that came thru for us on this album. Much love to keb0, The Cause, Czarina, Cee, Kyle Hubbard, DJ Po’ Safe beatz aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the incomparable Donny Goines.
Peep part of the review we got for the album
“Concrete Mythology is all about giving the hip hop listener something different. It’s about switching the the contemporary for something a little bit more avante garde. It’s taking the industry standards and changing the expectations. There as so many so many different nuances to this album, that you will pick up on something new with each listen. So give this album a chance and see how this duo and their guests put a little polish on this hip hop gem.”
The Plexiglass Fountain – “The It” Music Video & Single
Alright folks. Here it is. The first single from the “Concrete Mythology ( The Year of the Dragon )” album. This is also our first video. I know right? We finally do our FIRST video on our 3rd album. CRAZY!!! The response has been great though. Check out what THE HIP HOP DEPENDENCY had to say about it
“This is the first single off of The Plexiglass Fountain’s forthcoming album, Concrete Mythology (The Year Of The Dragon). Musically this track is exceptional. If you listen carefully you can hear so many different components ofTokyo Cigar’s production. It’s really dope to hear someone craft a hip hop beat like this. Lyrically, it’s coming from the heart. They’re not dropping crazy punchlines…they’re dropping sincerity.”
Keb0 & Tokyo Cigar “Live on Cloud 9″ EP
Keb0 and i have come full circle. EP to album to EP again. In between we made a lot of dope joints. I put a lot of emotion into my beats and when i find an MC that can match the emotional content neck and neck is always the biggest blessing. This EP came together seamlessly as all our collaborations do but this one took some extra time and grew a lot as a result of the extra time put into it. Scope out the breakdown.
1. Reverse Oragami – This is personal introspection mixed with a “walking past a swamp barefoot” type murky soul beat. Kebo jumps out the helicopter with the flow off the break. Its almost like the space at the start is the only chance you have to cath your beath cause once the onslaught starts it doesnt stop till the end. This is the start of the movie and introduces the lead characther in a funky way.
2. Drifting – This beat makes me wanna slide across the hood of a car “Dukes of hazzard” style. When keb0 sent me the vocals i was like WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?????? The smoothness yet ruggedness of Keb0′s delivery really struck me about this track. They lyrics were poignant as always. Painting a scene of his stomping grounds in such a way that i tend to listen to this joint with my eyes closed just to visualize it.
3. Middle fingerz up – This is one of those joints that makes you feel invincible. Arrogant in confidence levels and overdosing on adrenaline. I went for a triumphant layered beat with a lot of texture in it. I barely jog but if i jogged a lot i think this would be in the playlist cause something about it just screams “go the extra mile” even if your tired. The delivery on this was waterworld. Keb0 really expanded his tones and flows on the EP and this song is one of the strongest examples of that.
4. Live on cloud 9 – This is what i would consider a hip hop version of “Eye of the tiger” if the rapper was a pimp. The beat screams EPIC but the verses whisper LIFE. Life in all it’s glory and misery. Compacted and spit out in the form of a song that makes you wanna snuff someone then turn around and hug your mom’s two seconds later. Build ups and instrumental breakdowns mirrior the build ups and breakdowns of the narrator. Life in techicolor with some static thrown in for good measure.
5. Late at night – This is the anthisesis of the extreme emtional highs the EP has. Keb0 sent me 2 versions of this joint. The first one was very fitting for the beat already but the second version damn near made me tear up. This song is the manifestation of every bad day you had. I dont mean getting your car towed type bad. I mean total devastation borderline suicidal type bad day. The loop is based on some strings i played while going through a particularly rough time in my life and when i sent it to keb0 he honed in on the misery of the beat and created rhymes that took the beat by the hand fucked it hard in an abandoned building then took it to Vegas to marry it. if this EP is a movie the movie ends like something like “Gone baby gone” Where you find yourself comatose at the end of the movie cause you are stunned at the sad ending and find yourself wondering how the characters journey would ultimately end.
Salute to Keb0 for the next chapter in the saga.
Check out the post we got on 2dopeboyz.
http://www.2dopeboyz.com/2012/07/25/keb0-live-on-cloud-9-freep/#comment-939539
M-PHATIK SOUNDS – ON THE VERGE MIXTAPE hosted by J-LOVE
This is officially the heaviest jumpoff i had in music to date. J-Love is my favorite mixtape DJ of all time. I lost count of all the fantastic unreleased gems i heard fucking with his mixtapes. So many uncleared joints by Ghost, Nas, Meth, Mobb etc that i never would have been able to hear if it wasn’t for J-love are flying around in my head right now. The other thing that really stuck out about his tapes were the demos he would throw on. I never even knew stuff like the original version of ”Wu tang 7th chamber” existed till i grabbed the Method Man J-Love tape. It got to the point that whenever i would see a J-Love joint i would cop it without even looking at the damn tracklist. He delivered so many bangers from the best era cats that it was always a no brainer to get it.
Peep the pic if you think i’m just saying this shit to say it
Needless to say to be on this mixtape is an HONOR. Not to get on some mystical type shit but the fact J-Love is from Queens is also fitting cause the first time i heard hip hop in my life was Run-Dmc so thats a dope connection right there.
Major shout out to M-Credible for putting me on to this. Hearing J-Love shout me out on the production tip is the type of shit i’m gonna tell my grand kids about. I produced 6 tracks ( the intro, all the interludes, “Thats Hip hop” By The Regiment & “The book of 7 fists” by Heavenly Cartel ) and hearing the final mix of everything with the shout outs ranks up there with getting the best piece of nookie i ever had. CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY. Apart from the fact i’m on it the tape is ILL as well. A lot of gutter cats on this joint throwing titanium darts on it. Plus got some production bangers by the homies M-crdible, Nick wiz ( i still got cella dwellas on bump ), Confidence, Purpose from Tragic Allies ( these dudes are the TRUTH ) and others as well. 100% banging Hip hop no contaminents.
Download the mixtape here
