fly or fresh to death, head to toe till the day I rest

Go get your some gears yo.

RIP

Still reeling from the loss of a true hero of mine, in music and in life.

The Manawatu Standard interviewed me for a reaction on the day. You can read it here.

playing @ khuja

Playing at Khuja Lounge tonight with Mikey Rockwell and Manuel Bundy. Come on down!

herald reviewage

The notoriously tough music critics at The New Zealand Herald gave Bazooka Kid a glowing 4 star review. Click the image above to read it in full size. Thanks to Scott Kara for showing love.

Behind The Music (part 7)

07:"Gone" featuring Che-Fu (produced by Fire & Ice)
I heard the beat early 2008 from Jordan of Fire & Ice, but he told me they'd already sent it to Smashproof for their Weekend album and were waiting to see what they'd do with it. I decided to write the verses to it anyway, knowing I could always adapt the lyrics to another beat if necessary. The original demo was even more stripped back, and the piano loop to me had a real graceful yet sombre feel. I guess the inspiration for the subject matter going with this beat was movies like Donnie Darko and Requiem For A Dream that utilized emotive piano lines and coupled them with images of sadness and pain. The two people in the song are a combination of people I knew or heard of growing up. I kind of describe this song as the anti-"Saturday Getaway". That song was a dedication to the good times growing up in Palmerston North, hanging with friends, club hopping and what not, but this was the negative side I saw. Addiction and violence are the two factors that impacted peers of mine to ruin their lives the most, specifically gang affiliation and meth.

Once Jordan gave me the word that Smashproof weren't going to use it, I started thinking who I could get on the hook and there were a few different people who gave it a shot. Awa recorded a melody drunk as on my Garageband one night. Then when I was chilling with Chong Nee he wrote a hook and laid it at his studio. I decided neither worked completely, so we thought it could be nice trying a talk box version of Neezy's version. We tried to emulate the Roger sound with various plug-ins Evan had, and when that didn't work we actually bought a talk box. In the end we realized with that effect the lyrics became pretty unintelligible so, it was back to the drawing board. In the meantime, Jordan switched the beat slightly, as the original version had some Danja-esque synth chords that seemed a little out of date. He took them out and added the guitar lick.

I thought from the very start that Che Fu would sound right on it, but I hadn't seen him in a while and I hadn't repaid the favour for his appearance on Rookie Card yet, so I felt a bit shame to ask him at first. It was getting close to the album deadline though, so I decided to bounce a version and give it to him anyway to see if he was feeling it. He didn't answer his phone the first few times I rang, and people had always said that Che can be hard man to track down. Funnily enough, when I walked out of P-Money's house to go drop the CD to Che's manager, Che himself was standing at the mailbox. He was helping Pete's next door neighbour (Che's dad) move house, so I gave him the track there and there. Suffice to say, he was digging it and we recorded it the next week.

This is my party

You're welcome, you're all welcome! ©Kanye

And to get you in that "party" zone...

real groove x free mp3

In the new issue of Real Groove I have my first really extensive article in mainstream media, with a three page spread about Bazooka Kid written by Duncan Grieve. He's been a major supporter of the album since his review of "Take Me Home", and its much appreciated.

Also if you want to grab a free MP3 of "It Doesn't Matter" off the album, click this link. There's a dope mini-review of the album too, if you want more proof before purchase.

Behind The Music (part 6)

06:"VSOP" featuring David Dallas (produced bt Beat Kamp Muzik)
As long as I'm making albums, I think its safe to say your gaurunteed two things... a song about drinking and a David Dallas feature.

This was one of the last songs we did for the album, but it was a beat that I'd had for a while. One day, after a heavy night in the clubs with Dave, I showed him all the stuff I'd been working on for Bazooka Kid. None of the songs I'd done were really screaming for a rap feature, so at that point I didn't think I was actually gonna have another MC on the album. So I played some of the instrumentals I had in reserve, and Dave was instantly vibing on this Beat Kamp one, unceremoniously announcing that it was "better than any of the beats on the album". I already had a verse, so I wrote another, came up with the hook and sent that demo to him to write his verse to it. When we recorded it though, we had nothing for a bridge from the chorus to the verses, so we came up with that on the spot. I don't think Dave wanted to do the singing, but me and Evan made him, and it turned out nice.

Aaron from Beat Kamp is someone who I really wanted on the album too. I'd met him through MZRE and done a song with them on their mixtape when they still lived in NZ. I went over and hung at his pad in Brisbane too (he has an ill studio set-up) and I was just impressed by his diversity as an artist and his dedication to music. Some producers would just rest on their laurels after producing something like "Swing", but his work ethic is right up there.

Sometimes instrumentals will just put a picture in my head of a scene, and the vision I got from this was just dudes driving around town, city lights reflecting off the bonnet of the car. The porno sax at the start gives it that 80's Miami Vice type swag, so if we ever did a clip it should probably look something like this.

Lyrically this song is Roc-A-Fella influenced all day, something that is no secret to anyone who's listened to me and Daves stuff. I've always thought our collabo's have dope chemistry, similar to a Sigel and Jay, and we got something coming up for the masses soon, so keep yo ear to the street for that one.