"One Time" is from Tales of the Troubadours - It was one of the last songs that we created. This albums went through quite a few changes - Originally we were going to release 12 tracks as an album and 5 different songs as an EP before the album. The EP was a partial 'concept' idea, "Pull Me" was the fist part of this batch with another song "Push Me" at the polar end of the EP. "One Time" was going to be stuck in the middle. This song was written in a completely different way then the rest of the album - this beat was fleshed out almost in it's entirety before Colin even heard it. I had the urge to add banjo along with organ to the instrumental but opted to leave it out because it felt cluttered.
Colin wrote all the words without my input - there is only one other song on the album that came together like this: "Running Away" (THIS song however was created in a very abstract way itself). This is interesting because the entire album is a mash-up of my musical thoughts and lyrics with Colin's lyrics and themes. Colin would set the tone for the lyrics and I would match to him and we would re-asses and revisit segments. This song allowed him to freely roam through the instrumental without me poking my ideas into it.
I'd also like to point out this song contains Analyrical's 2nd singing part - I didn't help him or dub his sung parts. I like to think that this song still fits between "Pull Me" and "Push Me" - my bridge lyrics speak to the idea that no matter where you are or what you are doing, you are either being pulled to something or (conversely) pushing someone towards something. People play both roles simultaneously and continuously.
 Powerful and proud, MaLLy shines brightly for the Twin Cites. His booming voice takes up space over top of any instrumental. MaLLy is very aware of his presence and you can hear it in his verses. MaLLy spits with a purpose; with a passion.
MaLLy started gaining momentum with his first release "The Passion" - oddly enough I started recording this project with MaLLy, our version didn't see the light of day though. TQD had slipped me some of his lesser known projects (both are available on his Bandcamp). "The Moment" was my first exposure to him. It was clear, powerful and uplifting. I mentioned his presence once before, but hearing it will make the concept clear. He is blessed with a voice that demands attention, he jumps out of your headphones. Coupled with clever lines, deep metaphors and just enough ego to make you envy him - his verses quickly become mini-anthems. On more than one occasion he references 'The Renaissance' - this is what he is building. It's a return to classical Hip-Hop with the knowledge of today. MaLLy sounds at home over ear-knocking drums and thick samples, or with his go to producer: The Sundance Kid filling in with synthetic synths and atmospheric noise. He is one part familiar/one part new, the perfect union of old hip-hop soul with new energized sound/ability. This trailer for his newest project "The Last Great" showcases his great use of metaphor and creative process. The album is a head knocker from front to back - showcasing MaLLy at both highs and lows of his life. He will be releasing a video for "Winner" sometime in the very near future, otherwise his YouTube Channel is full of visual goodies. Thanks to MaLLy for hosting the Common Labor "The Tales of the Troubadours" Release Party Feb. 9th
I thought I would profile some songs off "The Tales of the Troubadours" - starting with this one.
Dust Storm was created because I had recently become obsessed with the FourOnTheFloor drum pattern - you know what I'm talking about. Constant kick on the downbeat, make you shake your rump type stuff. I had never created a song with this pattern throughout the entire track - I got the kicks sounding nice and picked up the bass.
The blues felt right at home - so I ran with it. It's a classic 12 bar pattern, Colin decided it would be cool to play with the turn around segment and repeat a phrase instead of a classic hook. We initially got the song idea from a friend of mine, we posted on Facebook for ideas to write a song about and my buddy responded "Dust storms, cause that shit is real."
Right before the center I wanted the energy to pick up, adding the swirling guitar solo, along with the syncopated snare hits achieved this nicely. I wanted the center, or the 'eye of the storm' to be calm, so I broke the beat down and put my voice all alone in there. After the eye comes the chaos once again, and then the song tails off into the distance.
It's the perfect opener for this album - come hear us perform it Feb. 9th at Hells Kitchen in MPLS.
 Some people just make music. It's rare and powerful when an artist goes beyond the scope of just 'making music' and becomes an entirely different being. Guante is more than just good music, he is a force of creative energy, and activist and above all: a teacher.
He lives here - Why is Guante so angry? It's not merely a website for his music, it's a dedicated news feed to the thoughts and mind behind Guante. He has made appearances on numerous lists, including: URB Magazines "Next 1000" and City Pages "Artist of the Year" - but his music alone isn't what makes him so magnetic, he is literally a teacher to the younger generation. Lightning is taken from his latest release with his go to producer, Big Cats! To me this song embodies all that Guante is: powerful, creative, uplifting and haunting. It's the type of song that you spin once, and immediately have to spin it again because you want to catch everything you missed the first time through. It teaches you something about yourself that has always been there, you just might not have seen it right away. Couple songs like this, with him actually teaching kids about Hip-Hop and poetry and you start to see how important Guante is. | |
Imagine Superman sitting down to draw his own comic, imagine Wonder Woman not just saving peoples lives but taking the time to get to know them, joke with them, comfort them - to build real relationships.
Guante - Hope is Something You Build
| After hearing his words, you slowly start to grasp the spectrum of Guante. He is a moving target, a puzzle piece of emotion, excitement, struggle, pain, hope and change - his most powerful feature? He invites you to express your story, show your excitement, pain and hope. He is bigger than a MC, he becomes art.
 Not much needs to be said about Mike the Martyr. A quick Google search for his name will yield a shit-ton of results. Needless to say the man is making moves locally and nationally.
He lives here: Lake Street Store But what about the tunes? Simply put, it's like a home cooked meal.
A quick breeze through his Soundcloud page and you almost immediately hear what I'm referring to. He contains the ability to mold those organic, soulful samples into the beats that painted my earliest Hip-Hop dreams. Thumping drums, vocal samples wrapped around pianos, flutes, guitars, saxophones and organic melodies. It's soul-food for your ear. This is the sound that made me fall in love with hip-hop, it's the wisdom of the ancients refreshed by a new pair of ears. The drums are dirty, the bass is full and the head-nod is on full-automatic. One of my favorites off of Lake Street Bar 3 - "09 September 23" Instrumentals like this sort of hug you, it feels a bit cold like Minnesota which he proudly reps so well, yet warm like the Street he constantly pulls from. Headphones on and drift out.
 His latest effort finds himself splitting production with a few others, along with microphone time. His flow fits perfectly with his production. They are mirror images; smooth, clever and unpolished to perfection. I don't mean unpolished like it's lazy, or unclear - I mean unpolished like a blues solo, like a groove, it's hypnotic. He managed to get a few local MC's to step a hair out of their comfort zone, specifically Prof on East Lake. I find some of his best work is when he's alone rocking over his own production - Different Stages.One of the best parts of all of this awesomeness? It's free - just click and throw it in your headphones while you move through the city, Mike dishes out a perfect soundtrack. I really enjoy the flip up on Lake Street Lauryn - Also can't complain with the Lauryn Hill sample.
 Kuley - or as I would call him, an infectious mix of positivity, self-made production, creative energy and lightning fast machine gun rhymes. It's hard to not be drawn to him, he's lyrics contain so much positivity that it's hard to not believe him, it's hard to not sing a long, and it's hard to not pay attention.
A member of the Breath of Life Audio camp, their YouTube channel is practically a dedication to him. A few loose tracks here and there and an official video for "We Are The Change" "We Are The Change" finds Kuley at his best. Simple production, enough to keep the head nod in full effect, occasional busts of rapid fire delivery, nicely placed between nuggets of ego and enlightenment. After casually mentioning the possibility of starting a riot he preaches:
"Just kidding, real name is Ryan - Stand for peace, love never violent."
Quickly you can sense his overall presence and theme: he will kill you with delivery and word play, but there are no guns here. This line actually appears visually on the screen. I believe it is completely intentional because Kuley's music carries this theme throughout. On "Dreamers" he touches on a little bit of everything - love, heartache, humor and above all - hope. All tightly bound by the passion to create Hip-Hop. After a few more verses of quick-wit-quick-spit wordplay, the infectious hook rings clear: "They try to bury us, but we just carry on.
We know we are the change, our nights are very long.
We stand here, not afraid - rain right before the dawn.
Raise up the sun inside, and silently we make a song."
While the bulk of his catalog remains positive, he's not afraid to throw down:
Oh yeah - and maybe I made light of this point up above so I'm going to stress it now. HE MAKES ALL HIS OWN BEATS (except where noted - there are a few guest productions). Enough can't be said for MC's that are able to craft with words and with music - my hat goes off to him on this fact alone!
Well well well - Common Labor has finally done it. We have created and are about to release to the public our first album! Yay!! To celebrate, we've created a sweet music video (down below) and are throwing an AWESOME release party. Seriously I'm crazy excited about this one, the line up is absurd - crazy, ridiculous good. It's soo good that right here, on The Basement, I'm going to profile each act individually:
Sunday 13th - Kuley
Sunday 20th - Mike the Martyr
Sunday 27th - Guante
Feb. 3rd - MaLLy
(He's no stranger to the basement - Catch him TWICE on the podcast.)
So kick back - enjoy the video - enjoy the album - and come enjoy the Release Party with us!! Common Labor "Tales of the Troubadours" Release Party
Common Labor
Guante
Mike the Martyr
Kuley
Hosted by MaLLy
Saturday February 9th 2013
Hells Kitchen, MPLS MN
Common Labor will be performing at the 2nd Funovation! Analyrical (from Common Labor) hosts a monthly concert at Honey and we will be performing, and I will be giving out a new batch of Surprise Samplers! Facebook Event Page
If you weren't aware - Common Labor is going to release our Debut Album Tales of the Troubadours January 22nd, 2013. We were down in Lawrence, KS a few weekends ago and we shot an AWESOME music video for our first Single off the album, "Burn Down The Old School" The song is available to stream here: http://commonlabor.bandcamp.comORYou can just listen below!I really can't WAIT for you all to see the music video! Thanks for stopping by and please, enjoy the music!!
Ello Ello!! A few days ago my group Common Labor dropped a very low budget, self produced music video for the song "Lights On, Mic On" - You can check it out below! The song appears on Everybody Does This Vol. 2 - You can download that by clicking the title. Analyrical and Myself started making songs almost a year ago. We had been talking about making a project or an album together for years, but we never seemed to make the time. We started finding the time and we quickly realized that we had a really good recipe for clever, interesting and exciting songs. All the songs we've done thus far are written, created and recorded in the same room all at once - in other words it's a very real and true collaboration. I start building the music and he immediately goes to work on lyrical content, we then smash the two together, making any tweaks necessary, and bring it to you. All the instrumentation in these songs is live and played by me. It gives Common Labor a very 'live band' type sound - the banjo you hear in "Lights On, Mic On" was a Christmas gift I received from my parents. This is it's debut song but don't fret - there are a few more Common Labor songs that utilize the Banjo.
Thanks for watching!
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