Tokyo Cigar The Firefly Mixtape

The Firefly Mixtape

A collection of joints i have done over the years. I complied all these songs as a retrospective leading up to my compilation album. Various tracks, remixes etc combined like the Voltron Lions for your listening pleasure.

Fun facts about the mixtape:

1. This joint makes me MISS the homie Troublefield crazy cause hearing how talented he was is still mind blowing. He hit me like a mix of Jadakiss and 50 cent but on some Bronx shit. Rest in power.

2. ASN killed his joint with so much raw emotion that i had to throw the fresh prince intro to balance it out.

3. The homie Michael Morstein is gonna FLIP when he sees I put Revolutionary scarface style out on here. I played the album for him a while ago and he went nuts and he always used to bring up that song like “Yo you need to drop that joint”

4. The Felt remix album was arguable the MOST BLASTED i have ever been while making a project. 3 days to make it and i was mega roasted for all them days. Funny thing is fam that was at Rhymesayers told me that people were hitting them up trying to buy physical copies of the Felt 3.0 remix album i did with the Nancy Sinatra samples and they had to tell em “we didn’t put that joint out. You have to contact Tokyo Cigar directly to get”

5. The homie Tone Blunt gets more refined yet more raw as time goes by. That nigga embodies Brooklyn on some overlord shit. The money Green Boyz joint was so rowdy i was scared the song would get mad parties shot up cause of how buckwild it was when he rhymed on it.

6. I was HELLA SCARED to remix Enjoy The Silence. That song is one of my security blankets when life gets crazy. Easily one of the best songs ever made. Maybe even THE best song ever recorded in my humble opinion. The only way i could remix it was by using other Depeche Mode songs. I used about 3 different Depeche songs to remix it.

7. When Kebo called and told me he played the song for Slug and he dug it I was like WOW. When he hit me that Slug got it posted on the Atmosphere Twitter I spazzed out for days.

8. The WU2 ( Wu tang clan vs U2 ) remix project was dedicated to my boarding school days in Ireland cause U2 repped Ireland crazy and while living there was where i heard 36 chambers for the first time.

9. When Tina came through rocking a Wolverine shirt and doing cartwheels in the backyard i was like “this is a LIVE chick” haha

10. A friend of mine knew Tribe of Judah for like 12 years before Hell Razah introduced me to them.

11. Dangerzone is one of the most LOVED and yet HATED remixes i ever did. Straight up. I had to put the Archer clips cause when they were playing the ad it would have that song and it just got stuck in my head so the idea popped up and i flipped it real quick.

12. Rasheed Chappell showed me love EARLY. People would hit me up and i would ask where they heard about me and they would always say “Rasheed Chappell was talking about you”

13. Rast RFC was supposed to rhyme on the Psycho beat for my compilation but he loved the song so much that when we spoke he asked me if he could keep it and then do another song for the compilation. Me being a HEAVY fan of his i was like “HELL YEAH. The song he ended up doing for the compilation is CRAZY EPIC OH MY GOD HE KILLED IT. Wait till yall hear it.
Side note: the version of Psycho on this mixtape is the demo mix. Go to Rast soundcloud page for the official final mix.

14. Getting on a J-Love mixtape and hearing him shout me out will forever be one of my favorite memories ever. Up there with playing beats for Wanya Morris and him wilding out and also the time I went to Chung King to record. The fact I got on a J-Love tape with The Regiment made it extra dope. Side note: The song i sampled for that was by The RZA on the Afro Samurai soundtrack.

“Constant” Featuring Substantial and Tanya Denise

“Here we go yo, here we go yo” *Tribe & L.O.N.S. voices

Something to relax and vibe out to. A divine collaboration that cools out your summer and heats up your winter. Supreme thanks to Substantial and Tanya Denise who not only represented with excellent vocals but also for the visuals as well. Shout out to Garrett Lynam for filming Tanya’s parts out in Dublin. When i saw the footage it made me feel nostalgic, flashing back to my school days out there in Ireland. The response from anyone who heard the song has been overwhelming. Lay up and zone out to this one y’all. Peace

TINA TONER “THE APPLE” EP available now

What can i say about Tina? Cool chick, real cool chick, one of the coolest i ever met in terms of how radiant her personality is and how focused she is with her creativity. The day i saw her rock a wolverine shirt and she broke down how it was the original wolverine color scheme from the classic comics i was SOLD. Working with her was interesting cause not only was she able to go over beats that i had made but she played guitar and piano on 2 of the songs and i added instruments to it and we came up with some really dope stuff. The studio sessions were insane fun and hanging out with her was always epic conversation wise.

Musically this EP holds a dear place in my heart cause its the first project i ever finished with a singer and represents me branching off in another direction but still loving the art and craft of making music that is different from my normal repertoire.

Anyway………………………..enjoy

Tina Toner “The Apple” EP

Gravity Academy Records

My associates and I would like to inform you about the new movement.

Gravity Academy

Visit the website for new music, interviews and general epic events.

“Inhale Deep” music video

Laced up some visuals for “Inhale Deep” from THE OTHER SIDE OF ILL mixtape. Concocted it over 2 days of running around different spots.

The song is one of my favorites. The lyrics were the type that made me realize how crazy life has been. Everything in that song came from memories and thoughts i think about in the dark.

The Primo beat still gives me nightmares till this day. Nas crucified the original ( of course ) so i knew i had to keep it real on this joint and put my unfiltered life on the page.

 

“Looking From within: 5 film narratives”

Denee reached out to me to get involved in this film project. We put together a nice piece of work with this. She had directed 3 of the films and I got my director on Nolan style for 1 of the films then we collaborated on the last one. I then went and got my maestro on with the music. We all fed off each other and everyone involved brought they A-game. Things went very smoothly with the shooting and post production. We spoke about the ideas we had and how to incorporate all the parts into one unified work.  The premiere was great too. People were clapping opera style and i heard the talk though the night was extra heavily positive. Still weird to see myself on the big screen though haha. Much love to Denee for getting me involved with this. It was a great experience all around.

Big L vs Kenny Loggins “Danger Zone”

Hooked up a remix real quick.

Tokyo Cigar “The Other side of ILL” Illmatic tribute mixtape

For the 20th anniversary of Illmatic i decided to highlight Nas as well as the producers that made the album the masterpiece that it was. I gathered up different beats from Primo, Pete Rock, Large Professor, Q-Tip and L.E.S. and went bezerk real quick. I do so much production that i forgot how much fun it is to just catch wreck over a classic beat you grew up on. I sequenced their beats to match the tracklist on Illmatic and i also got Tone Blunt to fill in the Brooklyn guest spot role.
I also used lines from Illmatic to title the freestyle.

The second part of the tape is me remixing Illmatic era Nas. It was dope to zone out to the vocals and really appreciate how incredible he is as a lyricist.

This took about a week to hook up and i gotta say it was mad fun to put this together because it brought the fan out of me. I was in the middle of finishing up the project when the homie Slew hit me up and we started to build about why Nas is so dope and he was dropping so many fly stories i decide to tape it and put it throughout the second act.

Salute to Nas, AZ, Olu Dara, Primo, Pete, Extra P, L.E.S. and Tip for what they did. That album raised a whole generation of MC’s to sit down and really think before they put pen to paper and by extension birthed other classics in that already exceptional era.

 

2014 TedX Baltimore performance

One random day, i got a phone call to perform at TEDx Baltimore. Reeling from the fact that i was asked to participate in something I’ve watched for years i said yes and began worrying about the show till it happened. “What the F?” was the constant thought that popped in my head about it. TEDx had people that were making huge strides in society and i’m just a dude that is obsessed with music and loves to make it. I bumped into a friend at the store one day and he said he looked me up online and was amazed at everything i have done so far. The money that I’ve got from music never really registers to me cause it’s all about the love and any accolade I’ve received makes me feel good but i tend to always be stuck in the “Whats next to make” mind state. I felt like “damn i’m not a huge star so what can i say?”  As i saw the speakers lined up my sense of confusion grew exponentially, Harvard Graduates, Chess masters, business owners and……………me, crazy haha. Backstage i was a nervous wreck cause it was hard to read how this would go down. I performed “1995”, “I wonder ( remix )” and “Here Now” and the applause i heard after each song eased my nervousness. Post show my twitter blew up with people giving props and asking about the lyrics. The interview backstage really boosted the experience cause i make a lot of music but i rarely get to talk about it. This was a great experience and i hope to go back and actually speak at TEDx in the future. The dope thing is after i did it i saw that GZA, Combat jack and Comic Book Girl 19 did TEDx talks so it was dope to know that i at least have that in common with people i respect.

 

Here is the video of the performance 

 

Here’s the interview as well

 

Tokyo Cigar Rocks TEDx

By Jourdan Ash

March 12, 2014 2:05 PMComments OffViews: 27

There are many different ways to tell a story.

At the recent Tedx Baltimore, an inspiriational conference filled with leaders of all different backgrounds and works, some speakers seemed to relive their story as they spoke to the audience. But, artist and producer, Tokyo Cigar took a different approach.The artist, formerly known as Oraza Allam, chose to tell stories through his music.

His choice of songs, “I Wonder” and “Here Now,” touched on everything from his international childhood to growing up fatherless. As the last of 18 speakers, his method of personifying his life through lyrics left the audience on a good note.

“It went from a love to an unhealthy obsession,” said the artist while speaking about his craft. Influenced by a love of music and by rappers such as Nas, KRS-One, and Jay Z, Allam was once insecure about his rapping abilities. “I felt like I wasn’t smart enough to rap,” he said. But, after hearing Jay Z’s 1996 hit “Politics as Usual,” Allam knew rapping was something he had to do.

Growing up, Allam traveled frequently but it never impacted his creativity. In fact, it only influenced him more. “Moving around played a huge part in my education,” he explains. With Nigeria’s corporal punishment, Ireland’s more relaxed approach, and America’s grading system, Allam always felt disconnected from the educational system. After three years at Montgomery County Community College, music became his “main thing.”

“I always thought of Ireland as the place with leprechauns,” he says about his boarding school experience in Ireland. But, Ireland was nothing like he expected. He witnessed rallies and protests for Philadelphia political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal. Though he expected some racist moments, Allum says “The Irish and black have a special kind of bond.”

With fifteen years in the music industry, Allam still gets star struck. He is currently working with Wu-Tang affiliate, Hell Razah, on a new album. “Wu-tang, to me, will always be the greatest group in hip-hop,” he said “[When Hell Razah called] I had to pinch myself.”Tokyo Cigar plans to release the mixtape he’s working on with Hell Razah, “Spiritual Kung-Fu” in the spring. “’Spiritual Kung-Fu’ is for anyone who’s ever been through anything,” he says. “If you’re fighting every day, you might as well learn Kung-Fu.” Though “Spiritual Kung-Fu” is his current focus, in thefuture, Tokyo Cigar plans to write a script for a movie, work on a solo album, go platinum and hopefully work with Jay Z.