Under Sound Music

Brandon Soderberg gave a great review of Ullnevano‘s The Color Brown mixtape today on Splice Today.  Check it out here.

I’m not sure if many people know of or have seen the film The Wackness.  When I saw the trailor for it I was actually really hopeful.    With the exception of movies like 8 mile and Notorious (don’t knock it unless you’ve seen it!), Hip Hop usually tends to not transfer well to the screen; coming off contrived or corny.  I was all excited for film The Wackness because it not only boasted a soundtrack filled with mid 90′s classic Hip Hop, but it also starred Ben Kingsley, whom I really admire as an actor, as a pot smokey shrink who lives somewhere between morally rightious and totally fucked up.  I was unfortunately disapointed and the film was kind of a silly New York teenage love story with some really good music in the background.  Never the less I was interested when my friend I-Ron of  Tempo Tandrum and Status Apparatus sent me this mixtape by his cousin Sir Tizzy.  He did a number of the tracks on this album and in my opinion the best tracks.  Sidenote: He also has a beat on The Major Major Mixtape coming soon! (Shameless plug! LOL!).

I immediately took notice that Tizzy used an interpretation of the movie art (it’s not everyday someone puts Ben Kingsley on their album cover!) and a couple of clips from the movie in the intro, because the overall concept was being conveyed off the bat.  The ever adorable Olivia Thirlby’s (Juno, Bored to Death) character says that she always sees the dopeness in things and he (in this case I take it as Sir Tizzy himself) only sees “the wackness.” And that gets us underway, letting us know that Tizzy might be as  cynical and anxt ridden as many of us were/are in our teens and early 20′s. (Does that make me sound old?)  That statement might even exceplify how many artists feel about the state of their chosen avocation.  Just sayin’.

We learn that Tizzy isn’t trying to be another rapper but he has his own approach and though sometimes he can over enunciate his words in my opinion, (never cared for when indie rappers, i.e. Eyedea, Esoteric, etc… over enunciate), there is a sense of urgency when he rhymes, which can pull you into a track.  With The Wackness, you get the feeling that Tizzy is finding his sound.  Like many new rappers his beat choices range from synthy experimentation to classic boom-bap.  Something that I personally find really interesting.  About half of this tape is proper mixtape form where he rhymes over other artist’s beats but instead of the latest hot tracks he chooses to go in over J Dilla and 9th Wonder tracks.  Again, I can’t be mad at that!

At times Tizzy can come off a little stiff or sounds like he might be reading his lyrics from the notepad but there are times when you can definitely hear his potential. One of those times is on the track “Let Me” when he leads off with a Pac-like cadence and his confidence seeps through making you believe his boasts.  He drops lines like “You’re not McLovin’ so stop trynna act Super Bad” which will definitely get at the very least a chuckle.  I-Ron actually rounds out the track with a verse spitting “When this boy meets world, Hip Hop is my Topanga.” (LOL!) Oddly, the track that Tizzy sounds most comfortable on “The Entrance,” is a song where he wraps almost the whole thing in double time, something I can appreciate as an emcee for it’s difficulty.

Overall, Tizzy has created a nice first effort and as I just stated, he has great potential.  There are slight missteps that many artists of the greener variety make, but given his obvious interest in nonconformity and his introspective approach to lyricism, it’s easy to see  that Sir Tizzy is someone to start checking for now.

Download The Wackness for FREE HERE!

Be on the lookout for a remix to the track “Let Me” featuring new vocals from I-Ron, myself and more; coming soon.

~E Major

Top 10 Albums
1. Mos Def – The Ecstatic
2. The Black Keys & Guests – Blakroc
3. Melanie Fiona – The Bridge
4. Drake – So Far Gone*
5. Wale – Attention Deficit
6. Diz Gibran – Soon You’ll Understand*
7. Raekwon – Only Built For Cuban Linx II
8. U-N-I – A Love Supreme*
9. Paramore – Brand New Eyes
10. BLK JKS – After Robots

*These were released as mixtape free downloads, however they played out like albums and the quality of the music was far to good to leave them off the list.

Top 3 Films
1. Inglourious Basterds
2. The Hangover
3. Black Dynamite

So we just keep moving a long bringing you the BEST.   Lets start with THIS POSTING on the popular blog DC to BC about Eddie’s upcoming album “Sound Wandering.”  Big shouts to Modi and Quinn for holding us down on that.

Follow DC to BC on Twitter.

Secondly, DJ Impulse just posted a video of behind the scenes footage from the “Paper Runnin’” on HIS BLOG.   E Major x DJ Impulse = The Demonstrators.  Figure it out now.

Behind the scenes of the Paper Runnin video shoot from Dj Impulse on Vimeo.

Lastly, there are some dope shows coming up with this weekend.  E Major will be playing at NY’s Finest Grinds atop Mountain Creek ski resort with a small band.  See the flyer below.  Then the following day he’s in NYC to perform at “End of The Weak,” a weekly Hip Hop event at the Lower East Side’s The Pyramid.  DJ Impulse will be joining him for that one and both shows E, will be assisted by none other then zu_keeny.

If you’re in the tri-state come check us out!

See the full article HERE.

I didn’t even know about this until tonight when I got a text message from my brother congratulating me.  I was like “what?”  Well Under Sound Music has done it again.  More accolades for our little label/production company.  My album “Majority Rules” was named in the top three best albums of 2008.  That’s ALL genre’s ya’ll.  Thanks to the editors who gave the nod, much appreciated.  But definitely a big up to the talented people that put there stamp on “Majority Rules.”  I mean, I know I can rap but the album wouldn’t have been great without help.  The singers, producers and guest MC’s that helped me make it a great album.  I gotta list them!  This is like my acceptance speech! LOL!

Cuts by DJ Impulse and DJ Excel

Native Son (poet)

Vocals – Cynthia Hawkes (a BIG player in the sound of the album), Tia Harris, J Soul!

MC’s – Face and We-n-Us, Ab Rock, Yah El, Hezekiah (he got the video seen in a lot of places)

And of course the PRODUCERS who made “Majority Rules” a soulful beautiful mix.

Wendal Patrick

DJ Face

Dre Belovid

Reggie Ruckus

Heroes 4 Hire

zu_keeny

Ms Tris Beats

DJ Excel

and Sean Tour

Peace,

~E Major