every jay better cuff they beyonce / keep her on your arm outta harm’s way / every day in the ‘hood it’s an arms race / ’cause of if i show up with this by your mom’s place / since i got it they gotta go get it / as if the 2nd amendment ain’t got no limit / so if you wanna come hit me / remake the wedding scene on new jack city / ’cause of what’s sitting in my living room / coming soon, impending doom / cloud over town shaped just like a mushroom / doesn’t take much to touch you, feel the gloom / lethal degrees heat these communities / with ak’s and uzis as wmd’s / aka a nuke bomb in my living room / the irony’s killing me, killing you

[chorus]

i don’t use drugs, but I got the bomb / so bulletproof all vans and soccer moms / neither school kids nor teachers get left out / bloodshed wets everybody, it’s a death count / let’s count bodies, 10 times 50 / in just one city, bust it, get busy / if not an automatic then a semi / when i blow up i’ll take my whole hood wit me / can’t forget the burbs the movies the malls / ’til all y’all appalled and hold y’all applause / violence is all-american, it’s been pop / not a click clack but a tick tock

[bridge]

[chorus]

A Pentecostal preacher sanctioned me to make my first gangsta rap record.

Thanks to BamaLoveSoul, and The Nobody Who Knows, for all the LOVE this week (dap)… SANCT EP Pre-order Season is Near!

Wifey x Back x Story

Raised in what felt like a household full of books and vinyl in Washington, D.C., and then Garland, Texas, my parents gave me a fairly well-rounded musical education from day one. Even before day one, my mother says Hugh Masekela’s “I Am Not Afraid” was my favorite album in the womb. When I heard it in passing on a trip to Texas last month, it didn’t bring back any memories. But, still, I understand.

I Am Not Afraid.

I always remember having thousands of records around the house, but my dad says it was only 1,500 or so. Then again, I remember him naming our massive collection of arts and literature the Bob Marley Memorial Library. He doesn’t.

I also remember when certain albums came out, and we basically had release parties to celebrate them. Stevie Wonder’s Hotter than July release was an event when I was 9 or 10 years old. Steel Pulse’s Babylon the Bandit. Gil Scott-Heron’s Re-Ron single. Even the 7-inch vinyl of Run, Jesse, Run that commemorated Reverend Jackson’s two presidential campaigns. It all shaped me.

The books were everywhere, too. But let’s just say I could understand and enjoy the vinyl and detailed liner notes on the record sleeves way before I felt like reading How Europe Underdeveloped Africa by Walter Rodney.

We never listened to much classical, rock, bluegrass, country or gospel. But pretty much everything else — jazz, soul, blues, reggae, pan-African — was fair game. The Righteous Brothers and Gil Evans are the only white artists I ever found in Marley Memorial, but the culture was still rich and deep at the Blakes Estate. There was one Ornette Coleman joint I’d play over and over again, because that groove was just plain funky!

Fast forward to 2010, when I was planning the SANCT EP with producer Reggie “The Genius” Coby. Like Smiley Faces from S1 and Go Blaze from Picnic back in 2007, the song that became the only instrumental on SANCT — Wifey — had already been appropriately named by the producer/composer when it first hit my gmail account. I loved it from the first listen, and as I listened I never envisioned myself rapping over it. It was already what it needed to be, give or take some enhancement from my band, the Extra Plairs.

Reggie respected my wishes, possibly taken aback by a rapper who doesn’t feel the need to rap on every song. This was around the time of Kanye West’s Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy LP, which I’d listened to two or three times. My general assessment of it was very nice music and way too much rapping. So I practiced what I preached [shrug], eventually sending Carter Arrington (guitar), D-Madness (bass) and Jon Keyzz (keys) to record with Reggie at his home studio.

My lead strategic consultants on the SANCT EP, besides Mr. Coby, were my super-model-student-wifey Tif and my soul brother Easy from Mojoe. One night I was going thru the reference music and chatting online with Easy, who lives in Atlanta. Tif was working at the desk on the other side of the room. They were basically consulting me in stereo, a front channel and a rear channel.

I’d had a month or so to pick the beats from Reggie and chew on the concepts. At this point I knew I was going to call the project SANCT, and was just starting to tell Tif and Easy about it. When I suggested that Wifey should be an instrumental featuring the Extra Plairs, possibly the last song on the EP, they both quickly agreed.

My first and only solo album, Create and HUSTLE, ended with an instrumental called Farewell. Ten years later, the SANCT EP ends with Wifey!

As the song was produced and arranged to completion, I could see the video in my head. Plus I’d just bought a Macbook Pro and an HD camera, so why not shoot it myself? This SANCT EP is all about how things changed after I left Texas in February 2009. The Wifey video was the perfect opportunity to quietly explain it all from behind a camera on a couple of gorgeous Southern California beaches.

Written by L. Smith & B. Blakes, haaanh

A seed originally planted in 2009 [ the 25th second of the 10th minute of THIS ] grew into this hook delivered by B.L.A.X.Smith. I’m pretty sure my wife was out of town when Sade dropped her first single in a decade or so, Soldier of Love.

When Soldier of Love dropped, I immediately started dreaming of lyrics and rushing to where I knew someone could record them. I wanted to remix that song Wes Sanders style by morning. [ And Tif had to have been out of town, because in my verse I blatantly mentioned the life-changing late night West Texas blizzard we'd recently driven through in a Celica. ]

When I got to the Treehouse, aka Burro Magic’s crib, he and Smith didn’t look at me crazy. They were up, and they asked if they could record on it too. I said yes. But I finished mine that night, and had a good enough version to show for it by morning. Burro went to town on the arrangement. On short notice, no less (dap).

I didn’t do much with it besides put it on a podcast I did at Matt’s house shortly after that, and randomly email it to FWMJ and V-Zilla. Because.

Smith never let go of that one line from the Soldier of Love Fleaux — that one bar, those four counts, 11 words “and if you know you’re blessed / then what’s better to be”.

So eventually I sent him a beat and challenged him to make a hook out of it. This challenge came about a year after that late night session, by the time I was settling into Long Beach life, running 10K’s for breakfast and putting together what would become the 2012 SANCT EP produced entirely by Reggie Coby. Which, by the way, is coming out in ohhh… 10 weeks!

[ the hook in this video did not exactly make it ]

BETTER 2 BE

[chorus] sometimes we open our eyes and can’t see / the feeling of our heart, inside, with no beat / open up a window outside, with no breeze / and if you know you’re blessed, then what’s better to be
open up a window outside, with no breeze / the feeling of a heart, inside, with no beat / sometimes we open our eyes and can’t see / and if you know you’re blessed, then what’s better to be, haaannh…

if you know you’ve got it then what’s better to give / get ahead on your biz, how’s better than if / gotta pass down what we put together to kids / we investing in them, they need better to live / and we got all we need, so all excuses aside it takes a man to provide / who’s ready to ride instead of playing pinnochio being nosy and wishing / sometimes we open our eyes with no vision / condeming ourselves, feeling depressed / even if you don’t feel it yourself, really you’re blessed / it’s like we say we’re alive but can’t breathe / believing lies between the lines but can’t read / sometimes we’re hearing the message but can’t do / complaining as if the solution ain’t you / think of eternity, spending it beautifully / and if you’re blessed then what’s better for you to be

[chorus]

[B.L.A.X.Smith] now, i’ve been traveling here for a few years / i can cut the tension with a few shears / had a couple rainy days forecast clear / potholes in the road, it’s over now, last year / they say I’m getting too old, they’re counting class years / not to mention what i’ve done these few past years / pay attention, listen, learn to what you have here / negative energy’s an enemy like a bad peer / so, why you knock it, judging me by what’s in my pocket / you tried to hock it, instead of sticking to the knowledge / this ain’t the kind of information that you get from college / this is the art of salvation from when you’re paying homage / i’m on the right road, i got a light load / getting heavy in the chevy, climbing heights though / i’m still in fight mode, until it’s time to go / control your own and be careful for what you’re fighting for.

“I reminisce for a spell, or shall I say think back…”

When time permits, observe the on-stage energy of Esbe the 6th Street Bully at the 1:06 mark in the above video. Witness why Octavis Berry was loved by his local community beginning at the 1:31 mark, and again at the 4:03 mark. Also, keep in mind the above video was shot the week before Tay’s death. I did my best to properly eulogize him at the 4:20 mark as well.

Thanks to DVZN Media for a great memorial video. And there’s more below…

Cameos (dap) from Grammy winning producer and guitarist Adrian Quesada (0:28) of Echocentrics, Ocote Soul Sounds, Brownout and Grupo Fantasma. Also from Reggie Coby (0:13), emcee/vocalist of Dred Skott/LOEGz and producer of my 2011 joint coming soon. Intro by Andy Langer ‘nem…