…and it looks damn good up there too if you ask me.
Extremely proud.
Tag Archives: Overdue Process
Use “YEAREND35” to Take 35% off of Your Online Order in the Store! (Through 12/31)
The year 2013 will be ending on a positive note ’round heah… For a limited time, when you place an order for merchandise through the Store section of my site, use the discount code YEAREND35 to knock 35% off of your total. This means T-Shirts, vinyl, posters, and all of my releases dating back to 2001 will be discounted. It has been an exciting year so far and the anticipation of 2014 with more tour dates (solo and with The Foreign Exchange), music for Black Dynamite – The Animated Series, and more music in general so let’s celebrate a bit… Here’s to great music and my people, new and old who listen to and support it. Cheers!
MusicalArchitect.com News 04.13.09
What’s the word y’all?
The past month has been exciting and busy to say the least. The top of March saw me out with The Foreign Exchange as we hit Baltimore’s Eden Lounge, D.C.’s Black Cat, NYC’s Highline Ballroom, and Philly’s Johnny Brenda’s. And in between those dates, FE made a stop into the XM/Sirius Radio studio for an exclusive recorded performance that aired on March 22nd. For those who didn’t get to check it out… You’re in luck.
Download the XM Radio Performance HERE
At the end of March thanks to a kat I go back a little ways with, Waajeed, I had the privilege of traveling West with PPP (Platinum Pied Pipers) to San Francisco’s Mighty and LA’s Dakota Music Lounge that featured both my homegirl Monica Blair and my man Coultrain on vocals. We all had a BALL out there…Even got to kick it with 14KT and Buff1 while we were out in SF. Thank you to the West Coast for showing nothing but love. Look for more dates sooner than later. In the meantime, here are a couple of clips from the shows (yes, that’s me on the bass in the first two lol).
PPP – On A Cloud in San Francisco
PPP – 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover in L.A.
Meanwhile, here in D.C., The ELs have played shows opening up with Asheru for U.K.’s own, Omar. We also hit with the brotha Erik Rico last week at Busboys and Poets for his “In the Artist’s Studio” event thrown by Lil SoSo Productions. So as I said, it has been wonderful to say the least.
Album news…
…just visiting too will be out in July. SunStorm will be out at the tail end of the year. Finishing the former and working on the latter…
The feedback that Asylum 7 and I have received about Overdue Process has been a blessing. Thank you!! That album is available here.
Also, those of you on Twitter… Feel free to look me up! http://twitter.com/zo3hree5ive
Here are some confirmed show dates:
4.15.09 – The ELs with Asheru @ Hip-Hop Pilgrimage Concert
4.17.09 – The ELs with Foreign Exchange @ The Cat’s Cradle, Carrboro, NC
4.19.09 – The ELs with Foreign Exchange @ Double Door Inn, Charlotte, NC
4.25.09 – The ELs with Asheru
06.07.09 – The ELs with Foreign Exchange @ The Double Door, Chicago, IL
Thank you so very much for your continued support, I hope you enjoyed the Easter weekend. See you in North Carolina and Chicago! Stay safe y’all… Peace!!
Chapter 3hree, Verse 5ive Music, LLC
MusicalArchitect.com News 02.28.09
What’s the word y’all? First of all, I want to personally thank everyone for supporting and picking up the new Overdue Process album with Asylum 7. We have received a lotta love from the project and just want to say, “thank you!” The release party back home in Michigan was a complete success. It looked like a real life version of “This is Your Life” in that joint. I hadn’t rocked with the Gorilla Funk Mob in about a year and a half, so that was crazy in and of itself. I have posted some pics from the release party as well as other shows here.
In live show news, most of you all know that I have been traveling with The Foreign Exchange in promotion of their new album Leave It All Behind. There have been new show dates added!!!
Thursday March 5, 2009:
The Foreign Exchange with Yahzarah, Darien Brockington, Zo! & The ELs | LIVE in Baltimore
Tickets on sale now
Friday March 6, 2009:
The Foreign Exchange with Yahzarah, Darien Brockington, Zo! & The ELs | LIVE in Washington DC
Tickets on sale now
Sunday March 8, 2009:
The Foreign Exchange with Yahzarah, Darien Brockington, Zo! & The ELs | LIVE in New York City
w/ special guest J*Davey
Tickets on sale now
Monday March 9, 2009:
The Foreign Exchange with Yahzarah, Darien Brockington, Zo! & The ELs | LIVE in Philadelphia
Tickets on sale now
Friday April 17, 2009:
The Foreign Exchange with Yahzarah, Darien Brockington, Zo! & The ELs | LIVE in Carrboro, NC
w/ special guest Carlitta Durand
Tickets on sale now
Who’s gonna step up and bring this show to Detroit?! And the West Coast?!
NEW ALBUM NEWS!!!
Zo! – SunStorm
Production for the new album titled, SunStorm is in full swing. The brotha Phonte sent me something for the album a couple weeks back, and let’s just say that my excitement for the project tripled. New joints coming, new joints coming, NEW JOINTS COMING!! SunStorm is coming together and I’m hyped y’all…
Oh and by the way, …just visiting too is almost complete. It will be released BEFORE SunStorm… How ‘bout that?!
“Overdue Process” Track Breakdown – #5 “Crossover” (feat. Miz Korona)
Track #5
“Crossover” (feat. Miz Korona)
One day in June during my wonderful summer break away from teaching, I was on IM with Korona catching up with her, just in general. I’ve known Korona for about 5 years now and we carry a special bond being as though we were born on the same day (September 11th) in the same year – so I always call her “Twin”, or just simply “Sis”…the girl is definitely like a sister to me. On top of that, she is just a flat-out gifted, experienced, and hungry emcee that makes you feel her passion for the music she’s on.
So during this particular IM conversation, we ended up going back and forth talking about the projects we were working on at the time. She even sent me a couple joints to preview that were ridiculous…
The conversation started moving toward the progression of the Overdue Process album and how well things were moving…
Me: I’m finishing Asylum 7’s album. We’ve got about 3 more joints left to do.
Korona: I love his shit, he’s dope. …I’ve got to do a joint with him.
All while this IM conversation was going on, I started sending texts to A7. The gears were turning at this point…
Me: Ayo man, I’m on AIM w/Korona…Said she’s feeling your material.
A7: Oh word? I didn’t even know. Tell her I appreciate that
Me: What’s up w/gettin her on a joint for the album?
A7: Hell yeah!
It was all too easy. I guess it’s supposed to be when you have two excellent emcees that respect each other’s abilities.
Musically, I wanted to create something a little bit darker and harder, but simplistic so that the music would be able to complement the emcees involved. I wanted that joint to provoke a sparring match between 7 and Korona – not a “Battle” between them, but healthy competition equivalent to bringing your teammate up for a big game. They did that…I figured that out on my 9th listen in a row after receiving the final vocals from them…
How and Where to Buy the “Overdue Process” album…
Here is a list of different places to find the new album Overdue Process. I will add to the list once more spots carry it… Thank you for supporting!!
CCNow
(order the album through this link and receive an autographed poster)
Dr. Wax (Chicago)
Dusty Groove America (Chicago)
Moods Music (Atlanta)
Street Corner Music (Southfield, MI)
“Overdue Process” Track Breakdown… #4 “Mentality Maker”
Track #4
“Mentality Maker”
If I remember correctly, this was the second or third song that we recorded for the album and uhh…there were no rewrites for this one…not that I’m aware of anyway…….
The original music for “Mentality Maker” was shopped to a couple people before A7. As a matter of fact, it was a track that was supposed to be utilized on the now defunct Dreamwalk album. I passed it to A7 because the joint reminded me of when we first started working together on the “Listen Up” joint and I wanted to see what he would come with on it.
A7 actually used the original title I named the instrumental that I sent him (“Sunsurface”) in the first line of the song.
“Let’s take a trip up to the sun’s surface…”
So that caught my attention from the jump.
I decided to keep the original synth bassline that I laid on the song, while replaying the remaining key parts and especially the guitar parts. Once the guitar was redone, everything else just fell into place.
“Overdue Process” Track Breakdown… #3 “Overdue Process”
Track #3 – “Overdue Process”
Alright, so the title track was the second-to-last song that we completed for the album. The funny thing about this one was that the music for it was just sitting for about 4 months before I went back through things and discovered it again.
I was searching through my sequences one day …actually looking for something completely unrelated to the album.
Skipping through, I heard some joints…but still couldn’t find what I was looking for at the time.
Then I came to the sequence… *Cue music for “Overdue Process”*
The music really jumped out at me and in nodding to it…the music felt GOOD.
“OOOHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! I FORGOT about THIS one!!!!!!!!”
I remembered it being something that I laid out one day in order to get one of my ideas out and recorded real quickly.
I hopped on the text and hit up A7 like, “I’ve got another one! Gonna track it and send it.”
7 ended up turning yet another joint around in about 24 hours. I had the dry vocals in my possession the next DAY. At this point, 7 was so excited about finishing the album that he had turned into a writing madman…it was damn near hard to keep up with HIM. Passing him a joint pretty much went like this…
Zo: “Here you go…”
(25 minutes later)
A7: “Here YOU go…”
Zo: “Alright, Got another one!”
(all of 17 minutes passes)
A7: “Check your inbox”
Zo: “DAMN man!!”
Zo! + Asylum 7 – “Overdue Process” (2009) + FULL Album Credits
Zo! + Asylum 7
Overdue Process
PURCHASE ALBUM
01. Intro
Produced by Zo!
Lyrics by Asylum 7
All Instruments by Zo!
02. Timeline
Produced by Zo!
Lyrics by Asylum 7
All Instruments by Zo!
Cuts by Roddy Rod
03. Overdue Process
Produced by Zo!
Lyrics by Asylum 7
All Instruments by Zo!
04. Mentality Maker
Produced by Zo!
Lyrics by Asylum 7
All Instruments by Zo!
05. Crossover featuring Miz Korona
Produced by Zo!
Lyrics by Asylum 7 and Miz Korona
All Instruments by Zo!
06. Resistance Is Futile
Produced by Zo!
Lyrics by Asylum 7
All Instruments by Zo!
07. Crushing featuring AB
Produced by Zo!
Lyrics by Asylum 7 and AB
All Instruments by Zo!
08. In Yourself
Produced by Zo!
Lyrics by Asylum 7
All Instruments by Zo!
09. Simplicity
Produced by Zo!
Lyrics by Asylum 7
All Instruments by Zo!
10. One Bad Thing
Produced by Zo!
Lyrics by Asylum 7
All Instruments by Zo!
Cuts by O. Hunter a/k/a DJ Dirty Ice
11. The Lineup featuring Metasyons, Finalé & Buff1
Produced by Zo!
Lyrics by Asylum 7, Metasyons, Finalé, and Buff1
All Instruments by Zo!
Cuts by Crate Digga
12. Rigorous
Produced by Zo!
Lyrics by Asylum 7
All Instruments by Zo!
13. Gotta Live featuring Asheru
Produced by Zo!
Lyrics by Asylum 7 and Asheru
All Instruments by Zo!
Overdue Process – NOW AVAILABLE!
Happy New Year!!
I hope that everyone had a good time last night bringing in 2009. And since it IS the 1st of the year, that means the time has finally come to fully unveil the Zo! & Asylum 7 album Overdue Process!!!!!
My Chicago people can pick up the album at Dr. Wax Records or Dusty Groove America.
A huge “thank you” goes out to everyone who placed pre-orders earlier this week. I owe all of you an autographed poster, so look out for those. Anyone who orders through this link will also receive an autographed Overdue Process cover art poster as a thank you from A7 and I to you.
ALSO, during the upcoming week…I will be posting blog entries that will break down each song from the album giving you all inside look at how the album was created. I will update it every other day. The first entry is up for viewing now… Enjoy!
In other good news to begin the year, the Zo! & Tigallo Love the 80’s album made Vapors Magazine’s ‘Top 50 Albums of 2008’ list placing at #15. I was also informed a couple weeks ago that our distributor Fat Beats Records has sold out of the album! This means that if you happen to see one in a local store, pick it up because they are no longer being supplied. The Fat Beats store still has some copies actually. Phonte and I really appreciate all the love and song suggestions (lol) we have received over the last 5 months. We are now concentrating on creating on plenty of original material…so please keep your ears open for that.
I wish everyone much success in the new year. Please be safe and thank you, as always for the continued support shown in this direction. Peace!!
Zo!