This mixtape is a collection of all the freestyes I recorded in the past year. Some I posted online, some I kept to myself only to see the light of day on this mixtape. Download now either from this ( http://bit.ly/nAec4a ) link or from the mixtape tab!!

I wish everyone out there nothing but the best for the new year!

Well I aint quite cross the finish line yet but I’m meeting my short term goals one by one. Oh yea, this aint a game. I’ll remember those who been ridin wit me!

The Declaration of Independence Ep is available for download!!

Direct Download link:  http://www.sendspace.com/pro/dl/4fkbfo

In the past few months I’ve had folks asking me about my new album and some about my new mixtape. Both times what they were actually asking about was my new EP, “The Declaration of Independence”. Yes I am working on my second album, the follow up to 2005′s “History’s Child”, but the “Declaration” ain’t it. Nor is it a mixtape.

By the end of this year I will have released two EP’s, “The Capitol State of Mind” and “The Declaration of Independence”. EP’s evolved from the old Demo tape. Artists who wanted to give label reps and fans more than just a two or three song demo tape to familiarize themselves with their music began to add a few more songs to the tape and thus the “EP” (which stands for Extended Play) was born.
EP’s are shorter than albums, but longer than three song demos.

Many artists today use EP’s as brief introductions of themselves to listeners, and others artists use them as “concept” projects where they can briefly focus on one particular vibe, mood, theme or idea. Mine serve as both.

The reason I titled this EP “The Declaration of Independence” is because I believe there comes a point in everyone’s life where they must decide if they will continue to have reservations about showing people exactly who they are and what they’re about. We all have ties that bond us with family, friends, co-workers and others. And at times, some of these bonds may put pressure on us to subdue or mask our true feelings or personalities. I believe in order to fully reach your true potential as an individual human being, you must declare your independence!! So I wanted to create a brief project where I didn’t just make songs about stuff (clubs, getting money, partying, girlfriends, ex-girlfriends or jumpoffs) I made songs about ME. I felt that in order for me to grow as an artist I had to focus on writing about myself, my life, my experiences, my beliefs… really just look at who I am, who I was, what I’m doing and what I’ve done, in order to continue to move forward unafraid of what may be to come.

I worked with a producer named Script from Uptown (D.C. that is), a we crafted a project that really captured what I needed to let out at the time. If you read my last post you know that this project was originally recorded back in 2008 but never made it out of the studio, so I have grown a lot since I wrote much of this material and well… I do somethings differently now.  But to really understand where I’m at, and appreciate where I’m going,  you gotta know where I’m coming from.  So… with all that said, stay tuned cuz I got so much more in store and I hope you enjoy it all!!

You know, the “Declaration” EP is about 2 years in the making. It almost seemed as if the Universe didn’t want it to come out. I actually began recording it prior to releasing RWTP Vol.2, but every time I tried to record it, there’d be some sort of calamity.

The first studio I was recording it at, the engineer we were working with got fired and was instructed to clean everything he was working on off their computers. So we got what we had done so far but we had to find another studio. This is the whole reason I did a second mixtape. I felt it was taking too long to finish this project and I needed to put out something for the summer so I put the Declaration on hold and recorded Roll with the Prince Vol. 2.

After Vol. 2 was done and out, I decided to resume working on the Declaration. I took what I already had completed to a new studio and began to work. About a month into it we were almost completely done with the project when the studio computer crashed and we lost everything!!! I enjoyed working at this particular studio but now not only would I have to re-record everything, but I had to wait for them to replace the computer as well. It took a couple months for them to get everything back up and running but by this time I had become rather uninspired to re-record these songs again so I decided to make another mixtape and come back to the Declaration project. This is how RWTP Vol. 3 came about.

This takes us to late 2009 and I know decide to record this EP again. I book the studio time planning to record this material and Jay-Z releases his Empire State of Mind single. It was hearing his single that inspired me to record the “Capitol State” EP with the studio time I had booked for the Declaration and release it earlier this year. I actually decided not to release the Declaration after that for fear that the material had become dated, but when a friend was snooping around on my computer, he heard some of the old recorded material I had backed up on an external hard drive. He convinced me to put it out so… I re-recorded the material and here we are!! 2 years in the making, I hope you enjoy The Declaration of Independence EP! The official DayOne album will be arriving soon after, stay tuned!!!

‘In 2007,  I was doing a lot of business handling so I wasn’t able to record like I wanted to. So when ’08 crept in I was like, I gotta put out something quick before my lil buzz go away. So I aint really get around to it till like March or April and I started looking for beats.

What I noticed from the response I got on Vol.1 was that alot of die hard hip hop fans loved it because of the lyricism and the throwback beats I used and what not…but some of the more casual listeners…some of the folks who are more into a beat and a flow than lyrical complexity and substance, would listen to it and it’d seem like some of it was i lil over their heads. So without compromising what I was about lyrically I decided to focus more on the flow and having fun with it on Vol.2. As it turns out, it happens to be my favorite one of the series. I was sure after this got out that people was just gonna go nuts and I’d get the recognition I deserved, but the grind continued…

If on Roll with the Prince Vol.1 I was focused on the lyricism, and on Roll with the Prince Vol.2 I was focused more so on the flow, Vol. 3, to me, was more a bout WHAT I’m saying than how I’m saying it.

There was a lot going on with me at that time and I was really unsure about the whole rapping thing. You gotta understand, I wasn’t making any money off rap. Some dudes were and still are deep into the rap game without making any money with it because I guess either they expect the money later or they just love making the music. Well both of those things are true with me but the fact of the matter is, I had a thing going on that had my focus and I wasn’t gonna really place my attention on rapping until I really felt it was worth it. This is where Vol. 3 came in.

Vol. 3 is me saying things and putting things out there in case I never make another Mixtape or album. If I decided I wasn’t going to pursue a rap career, these are the verses I wanted to get out before I stopped. It’s a mixture of new verses I wrote during that time mixed in with a few verses from my album History’s Child put to new beats. Alot of people never heard History’s Child and if there was a chance they were never going to, I decided to put certain verses that I wanted heard on Vol. 3 because I knew I’d be giving thousands of them out so there was a good chance they’d be heard.

The response was so good that it’s actually one of the reasons I’m still making this music. As opposed to it being my swan song, it actually revived me. And here I am…

They use to say “Yo your lyrics and flow is bananas, you just don’t sound hungry…”  Cuz I aint hungry!
Sometimes I wish I was this broke struggling artist who had nothing left but to put everything into his music and live or die with that choice.  But the fact of the matter is…I’m not. I’ve always had a hustle of some sort and I always ate. I always loved hip hop and I always loved and still do love  to write rhymes but my homies made me take it seriously. THEY said I HAVE TO rap. That if I don’t, I’d be denying people from hearing some real shit that they NEED to hear. So how could I say no?
Not comparing myself to Jay-Z or in anyway implying that I’m the (alleged) big time coke dealer that he was at the time that he was transitioning from the streets to the music, but I feel him when he talks about that moment in his life. Flirting with the rap to see the response…putting rap to the side while you focus on your grind…everyone telling you how you need to just go hard with the rap and leave everything else alone…Okay Okay I hear you! I’m trying!
Just know, that I’m coming and where I go, good music follows. I don’t care about fame, super-stardom or none of that. If it comes it comes, if it don’t it don’t. I’m too used to trying to be low key and off the radar as it is. I just want to make good music that people will enjoy for years to come. Matter fact, I WILL and I DO!!  IM JUST WARMING UP!

Which way will you choose?

This year is one of growth for me. I’ve put out an album and three mixtapes that get a lot of love in my hometown area (DC). Only problem was that I had no online presence in which to keep my fans engaged and gather them together. My website, facebook page, twitter page, and all these other pages I have, have been up for maybe 2 or 3 months now. I avoided computers like the plague.
All of this is to say, I appreciate all who are with me during this time of growth and I promise you I will not let you down!!