Back in the summer of 2004, as I did almost every Tuesday night around that time I ventured down to the Carbon Lounge in Hamtramck, MI. Carbon was a spot that would showcase different local hip-hop artists every week and would follow their performances with a cipher of freestyling emcees that would show off their best or simply sharpen up their skills. Being that I have never been an emcee, just laying low and watching the overflow of talented kats pick up the mic in that place was satisfying enough for me. One night in particular, I was in the spot checking out this duo who called themselves The Runaways. Now normally, being that I’m always so immersed in the music and trying to take a song apart and put it back together in my head I have never been one to really pay attention to lyrics like that (it takes me forever to learn the words to songs) – but one of the kats by the name of Asylum 7 stood out as he rhymed with the hunger of a young LL (circa 1985). His wordplay, stage presence and command of mic was undeniable. So after the set, I walked up and introduced myself and suggested that we should work. The next day we were on the phone scheduling a time to meet up…a couple days later 7 was at my house picking out music we should work on (I ended up constructing the beat right then and there for him to take home and write to)…and a few days after that, we were in a studio in Ann Arbor, MI recording our first joint together, “Listen Up.” We ended up working together on another joint that ended up closing A7’s debut EP Brown Study entitled “Observe (Remix).” With the feedback we received from these couple of songs and the ease at which the results came, it was almost a no-brainer – we need to start on an album, or at LEAST continue working. We talked about that even before I moved east in early 2006…

We recorded the first song for the album back in July 2007. At that point, we were both working on other projects and we decided to let the music dictate the flow of the album without forcing creativity. Soon after all of the production work was finished for the Zo! & Tigallo Love the 80’s album and 7 finished working on his Lights Out project with producer Eddie Logix, the production for our album was then put into overdrive. I basically went from Phonte‘s great work ethic to Asylum 7’s…and what an easy transition that was. Everything I was sending A7’s way was being turned around in 24-48 hours with a, “Send the next one through when you get a chance” message attached to it. Those who we asked to be a part of the album recorded without even a second thought – This lead to contributions from emcees such as: Asheru, Buff1, Finalé, Miz Korona, Metasyons and talented vocalist AB. DJ’s Roddy Rod, Dirty Ice and Crate Digga came through for us on the cuts…Hundreds of back and forth emails, thousands of tweaks and 13 songs later, we now have a complete product on our hands….

Stay tuned as we have some special things planned for this project. Next, be on the lookout for the cover art and tracklisting…

Zo

For those who are unaware, The Foreign Exchange album was released today in physical form (last week was the digital release). I am definitely honored to be a part of such a wonderful project. Soon after I completed production work on “When Everything Is New” for Little Brother, Phonte hit me back up and told me that he and Nic wanted to mess with a joint called “If She Breaks Your Heart.” When I heard it I got right to work by laying my very first idea down, which in this case happened to be the drums. The next day, sent Phonte an instrumental. We must have been in each other’s heads that day because it was exactly what he had envisioned for the song. A couple weeks later, he sent the joint back to me with YahZarah’s vocals on it and LAWD have mercy! I was always a fan of Yahz’s singing, but hearing her voice on the raw instrumental version of this song gave me a newfound respect for her talents…her vocals on that song still gives me goosebumps and I have heard the joint at least 500 times. Once the first part of the song was finished, Marc Mac from 4Hero arranged the strings on top (another LAWD have mercy moment) and Nicolay added the change to the end that was just ridiculous. The result… track #8 on the Leave It All Behind album by The Foreign Exchange… “If She Breaks Your Heart” produced by Zo! & Nicolay…

I’m starting the blog updates more frequently again. Being that I am currently scouting someone to redo my current site due to the fact that it hasn’t been updated in a year and a half (the story behind is too trifling and entirely too long to type), I will continue to redirect everyone here for new updates, music, videos, or just to listen to me run my mouth from time-to-time I guess… haha

This year has been interesting so far, to say the least. I took my first summer off from teaching music and it was WONDERFUL…

Late July saw the official release of the Zo! And Tigallo Love the 80’s album with Phonte. We kicked the summer off by first releasing the cover art that left people laughing and scratching their heads all at the same time. We ended up releasing it through Fat Beats and it became a #1 seller on their website. As a matter of fact, we only have about 200 copies left of it. For those who have picked it up, a huge thank you for supporting our music. If you are wondering where you can purchase it, look here…

The craziest thing that has happened as a result of the 80’s album, Joe Little who is the lead singer of The Rude Boys contacted me on MySpace in September… WOW. He had positive things to say about our cover of “Written All Over Your Face”…What an honor, much love to Joe Little.

I’m feeling pretty good right now y’all. My girl YahZarah just stopped through the studio this afternoon and picked out a couple more joints for us to work on (in addition to the couple we are currently working on).

…AND, I just added a secret weapon to the studio! Whooooooooo LAWD!!

I’m on such a high right now y’all. I’m just getting back home from rocking a show with two legendary figures in hip hop: Kurtis Blow and Afrika Bambaataa.

This event was actually almost a year to the day we played “I Got it Made” behind Special Ed in the same venue (The Puma Store in Georgetown). The set-up for the show was the same as last year’s – We played classic hip hop joints behind some of DC’s most recognized emcees.

Wes Felton took care of Kwamé’s “The Rhythm” and Three Times Dope’s “Funky Dividends.”

Tabi Bonney handled Special Ed’s “Think About It”, Eric B. & Rakim’s “Microphone Fiend”, Too $hort’s “Life is…Too Short.” (they all use the same sample)

While Grap Luva performed Ricky Walters’ “Children Story.”

The show was already going well when the next thing we knew, Kurtis Blow grabbed the second mic and started doing adlibs behind Hezikiah’s performance of Whodini’s “Friends.” Once we were finished, Grap introduces Kurtis to the crowd and he begins to give a testimony recalling how he nearly lost his life while surfing. Immediately after that, he went into an acapella verse and then said, “I wanna see what the band’s got! I know the band knows some old school!”

Brock hit the guitar lick for “The Breaks” and I spent the next 20 minutes literally confused – I was caught between playing with no mistakes and actually watching the show. When we dropped the rest of the music in, Kurtis was right on top of it sounding exactly like the 12” record that I first heard my uncles playing when I was around 4 or 5 years old. I had instant goose bumps.

Just when I thought I couldn’t take it anymore, here comes Afrika Bambaataa and two of the original members of the Soul Sonic Force (Mr. Biggs and G.L.O.B.E.). Soul Sonic Force stepped out first and started singing…yup… “Planet Rock.” So now we’re playing this all-time classic joint behind Afrika Bambaataa and the Soul Sonic Force and I’m in total disbelief. I was playing and reciting the words at the same time, it was just crazy.

So next, Bambaataa made it clear that they couldn’t perform in D.C. without hitting some of that “Go-Go Funk.” So we slid into the Chuck Brown’s classic “Bustin’ Loose” as well as an impromptu version of “(not just) Knee Deep.” Soon after, Bambaataa started to call out solos…HELL yeah, getting called out for a solo by Afrika Bambaataa? Works for me! Check the footage…

All of what happened tonight didn’t really hit me until I was in the car driving home. Both Kurtis and Afrika were real cool kats and it was an honor to play behind them both. It’s always a trip to meet folks who you just finish reading about (I just finished reading Yes, Yes Y’all a couple weeks ago). We took a ton of pictures and you can check those out here…

The players for the night: Jon Laine (drums), Dennis Turner (bass), Brock Smith (guitar) and Zo! (keys)…

What’s goin’ on y’all? First of all, a huge Happy Mother’s Day to everyone out there… I hope everyone enjoyed it.

For those who know… I have been adjusting to a new life, teaching music, while continuing to pull a 4.0 in these Master’s Degree classes at George Washington University. So these updates haven’t been coming as often as they should…and it looks like we have some catching up to do.

The Zo! and Tigallo Love the 80’s album is coming sooner than you may think. Besides Phonte and myself, we have some additional vocals from Darien Brockington and Carlitta Durand, a couple of remixes from

Ok, here we go…The tracklisting goes as follows: “Africa”, “Take On Me”… and a few others…

…Sorry y’all…I couldn’t give it up that easily. But I know that you all should definitely enjoy what you hear…

In the meantime, I’m still putting together music for my album! How bout that? Tryna get some ‘me’ time in the studio every once in awhile. Folks who have reached out to me for this one so far have been my brotha Phonte,
YahZarah, and Ab. Ab came through the studio yesterday about an hour after Asheru left. Bottom line, he left with some joints last night at about 11p and sent me a finished joint back at about 4:30p this afternoon. Now, if
that ain’t the beginning of some good music to come, I don’t know what is.

Stay tuned on that one….

Through the year, keep your ears open for work with myself and: Foreign Exchange, Sy Smith, Kev Brown, Buff1, 14KT, Daru Jones, Completion, Rhonda Thomas, and Mr. Hu. I won’t be teaching music at the high school this
summer, so it is wide open for me to put work in…and I’m very anxious to see what is going to come of it. Yes, yes, yes…

Thank you all as always for your continued love and support. Congratulations to my brotha from anotha motha, the new Mr. and Mrs. Pore!

Till next time…

One excited brotha,

Zo