Musical Architecture...

Zo!'s Top Five Moments of 2011 - #5 The Co-Signing of "Flight Of The Blackbyrd" by Original Member Of The Blackbyrds, Allan Barnes

2011-12-07T02:40:00.003-05:00

Whenever I do a cover of a song, or in this case an original piece that serves as dedication track paying homage a favorite group (The Blackbyrds) and favorite production team (The Mizell Brothers), the way that I judge the finished product is by asking myself, "Do you think that this piece can be presented to the original artist... WITH confidence?" If the answer to that question is a "yes"... I keep it. If I feel otherwise, I will not hesitate to start over or completely scrap something I don't deem high-quality enough to keep around. With that being said, let's discuss a phone call I received the afternoon of January 18th while I was in the classroom teaching... I couldn't get to my phone obviously, so I let it go to voicemail. When I finally had a free minute to check it, I looked and saw that it was saxophonist and original Blackbyrds band member, Allan Barnes who called. Oh damn, word?! Now, I had not talked to him since the summer of 2007 when I went back home to play keys in Detroit's CityFest with my former band, The Gorilla Funk Mob (ironically, I actually JUST found footage of this performance on YouTube last month). From checking the voice mail, he was giving me a shout letting me know that he was in D.C. for a day or two... Alright, sounds good to me. So, I called him back and we chopped it up about that for a few minutes. Suddenly, it hit me... I need to ask him about hearing "Flight Of the Blackbyrd" from SunStorm!! A friend of mine and GFM drummer, Tate McBroom told me that he played the record for him a few months prior... Being an original Blackbyrd, I was anxious to hear his opinion first-hand...

Me: I've been meaning to ask you about this for a minute.... Have you heard the "Flight Of the Blackbyrd" joint?

Allan Barnes: What? Your joint?

Me: Yeah... The one that just came out last year.

AB: Oh yeeeeeeeah!! That's the SHIT man!!

Me: *Trying my best not to attempt a back flip that I know I can't execute*

It was probably the shortest and most direct approval I had ever received, but it didn't lessen how humbled I was, especially being as though the only other song I have ever received praise for from the original artist was my cover of "Star Of the Story" by Heatwave... Of course as soon as I got off the phone with AB... I passed the positive news along to Phonte.

Allan's words came in addition to what happened soon after SunStorm was released in July of 2010. Larry Mizell Jr. tweeted Phonte and I regarding "Flight Of the Blackbyrd" giving the Mizell Family's approval... (I wish I would have favorited that tweet). Talk about HONORED. You never know who is listening and possibly enjoying your music - particularly when your music is "to" them...

Studio Campfire Stories: "Playing Your Game, Baby" (feat. Anthony David)

2011-10-19T17:54:00.002-04:00

Music is pretty funny..... Scratch that. Music is hilarious - Particularly when it comes to its creation. I'd like to consider myself a free thinker when it comes to making music mostly because it eliminates any boundaries, but also because music can be so unpredictable... ALL the time. Being that this is the last SCS for ...just visiting three, it's only right that this one is probably the most interesting. So with that being said, I will begin the story by saying that "Playing Your Game, Baby" was chosen and re-created for none other than one of my favorite emcees of all-time (in my "Top 5" EASILY)... Tariq Trotter a/k/a Black Thought. Rewind back to 2009 when Phonte was working with The Roots on the How I Got Over album... He gave me a call after the work was finished and told me how big of a fan Black Thought was of our Zo! & Tigallo Love the 80's album AND said that he was wanting to get on something in the future... I damn near dropped the phone. All I could manage to do or say was the brilliant, "WORD?!" But yeah, I was ready to run laps around Maryland... YES, the state. So, about a year or so later at the Roots Picnic in June of 2010, I was there with The Foreign Exchange relaxing, taking part in some good food and helluva jokes before going on stage to perform. Well, the next you know, Black Thought walked up to our table. We met and talked just a little bit after Phonte introduced everybody and after telling him that I was a huge fan he said, "I've gotta get up on one of your joints..." *insert silence here* I was pretty proud of myself at the way I played it off... Because I FELT like saying, "OH SHIT! LET'S WORK TOMORROW THEN!!" .....But, I didn't. We exchanged info and kept it moving............. And I was hyped up about it, hell I can't lie. Been listening to this brotha since '93/'94 I had a right to be...!! Since SunStorm was already completed and manufactured by that time, the question then became, "Ok, HOW should we work? What would be the best situation?"

Fast forward to the top of 2011..... ...just visiting three was in the middle of production and Phonte put Black Thought's name out there as someone we should work with on the album. BET! Let's do that!! Phonte hit him up, he said he was down... It was looking great. The only issue was.... What the hell song are we gonna have him sing?!?!!! A month went by........... Two months.......... We would go back to the conversation every now and then to see if there were ANY new ideas. There were a couple of joints in mind including one by uhh.... J.B. (not James Brown). Finally, a week or so after that conversation.. Phonte and I got back on the phone to decide once and for all what Tariq would be singing. Once again, I went to my trusty laptop and started scrolling through my iTunes selections. To be honest with you, I cannot remember who suggested Barry White... But I do remember picking the song "Playing Your Game, Baby" out directly from my iTunes library. From that, Phonte gave me the, "I'm wit that" and we moved forward in sending it and the lyrics through to Thought... In the meantime, I went in the studio to attempt to recreate this damn masterpiece of a song. Let me tell y'all something... The bond that me and "Playing Your Game, Baby" have formed over the years going all the way back to my days as a child is unbreakable. When Black Moon sampled it for the "I Got Cha Opin (Remix)" in '94, I LOVED the joint. I even felt it when Ill Al Skratch used it for "Where My Homiez?" It's just something about the big orchestration over that simplistic GROOVE. And one thing that I never realized until Anthony David and I talked about it later on was how simple Barry's writing and vocals were. There was ONE vocal track, no adlibs, no harmonies... Not saying that this formula works all the time, but for this song it was a perfect compliment to what was going on musically.

Being that this song is another one of my personal favorites, I took great pride in wanting to do it correctly and do it some justice. I knew that the first things I thought about when someone talks about "Playing Your Game, Baby" are how crispy and pronounced the drums are and that simple but nasty and well-placed bassline. So that's what I recorded first... I made sure the drums that I programmed were close to the original and I played the hi-hat out live. Once that was laid, I grabbed the bass guitar and and recorded it keeping it close to the original but adding a couple of my own licks here and there. The rhodes piece followed and then.... The strings. Man, man, MAN. That was a piece that would make or break the song. If the strings weren't right, I would have scrapped the entire song without hesitation. BUT, they actually met my own skeptic ass approval and that particular draft was sent over to Black Thought to record to. Soon after we sent the music off, the horns were added. When I heard those horns on the track for the first time, I damn near turned my own computer over. They sounded GREAT!!! Now, we ran into trouble at this point because the brotha Tariq Trotter is BUSY AS ALL HELL. I don't know if the dude ever stops going... He's on constantly on the road and appearing on the Jimmy Fallon Show with The Roots, in the studio recording, popping up at spots performing internationally.... With that type of schedule, I was patient and understanding. If he couldn't record it, not a problem at all - There will be time to work on something else in the future, I was definitely sure of that. But as we inched closer to the end of production for the album and its deadline, we had to figure something out. Who out here is gonna sing.... No, no, no... who out here is gonna SAING Barry White?! I mentioned Anthony David one time... Phonte and I talked about it briefly and let it sit for about a week or more. Finally, Phonte hit up A.D. and put him on alert... "Ayo, we may need you to come through and knock this Barry White joint out for the new album, you down to do it just in case?" He said he was down... So the music and the lyrics were sent to him. If I remember correctly, I think he was on the road doing some shows on the East Coast when he received the files. He said that once he got back home, he'd take care of it. Aaaaand just a few days later, I had an email with a file labeled "Playing Your Game AD Vox" ready to be downloaded. I damn near jumped outta my seat because these vocals were the LAST things needed for the album. I downloaded it and quickly played it in iTunes... I wasn't patient enough to listen through the minute and a half long instrumental piece in the beginning, I scrolled right to the vocals and waited............ As SOON as I heard that first bar I said to myself... but outloud, "Maaaaan THIS dude is WHYLIN!" Ok, ok, ok.... He's got the verse part down. NOW, let's see what it's lookin' like when this hook comes in when Barry raises his voice and really let's the girl know what's on his mind.... *the hook comes and I hear Anthony David say* "Ya PLAYIN' A GAAAAAME!!! IT'S SO PLAAAAAIN!!" And then the END of the hook when he hit the, "Nobody but YOOOOOUUUUUUUU AAAAAND MEEEEEEEE!!" ....Maaaaaaaaaaan, you would have thought a Detroit team had won a World Championship the way I was acting after hearing that - because without even hearing the rest of the song, I knew he had nailed it. To have come through in such a huge way, the respect I already HAD for the brotha tripled... And to this day, he and I have never even met face-to-face. Crazy, right?

I think with this song being one of the more familiar selections on the album along with the fact that it vamped out a little longer at the end musically, it was the perfect closing track. As I said at the beginning, music is totally unpredictable, but I'm extremely happy with how things turned out in the long run as I couldn't have asked for better performances. I can't wait to get up with everyone again for the next album....

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Studio Campfire Stories: "Same Ole Love" (feat. Jeanne Jolly)

2011-09-26T15:03:00.002-04:00

Some of you may remember the good ole days when I taught music to Special Ed. High School kids (up until the school shut down completely at the top of August). Well, the most difficult part about maintaining a "9 to 5" and being a working musician is being able to keep some crazy late night hours. There were times that I would be getting off of a red eye flight from the west coast or getting off of an overnight MegaBus/BoltBus ride from a gig in NYC and then driving directly to work... This particular morning was no different. I don't remember exactly how late I was up the previous night, but I do remember one thing... I. Was. TIRED. During the spring semester in 2011, second period was my planning period. So as soon as my first period class left the room, I would look VERY forward to my 50 solid minutes of peace and quiet before my rowdy ass third period class came in. But just as I was settling in to some silence... My cell phone started ringing - It was Phonte with an epiphany...

Phonte: "Ayo man... We need to remake "Same Ole Love".... with JEANNE JOLLY and flip it into a COUNTRY song."

Me: *thinking... humming the song to myself* "...........Hell yeah!"

P: "Cuz if you break it all the way down, "Same Ole Love" ain't nothing but a country song anyway."

M: "I say, let's run it..."

I actually had "Same Ole Love" on the computer in my classroom and decided to learn the chords and changes as soon as we got off the phone. From learning the music, I was able to then hear my own drum pattern overtop of the hooks. I then walked over to the drumset in the classroom and practiced that particular pattern until it was time for my third period class to come in... Matter of fact, I practiced that pattern more than a few times because I wanted to be the one to record them and I wanted them to be laid with the same groove and swing that I had in my head.

One of the great things about this remake is not only Jeanne's performance, but the fact that since she has been on the road with The Foreign Exchange and been pulled into various studio sessions covering several genres of music, she has ignored being a good "Country singer" and has begun to build a solid reputation as a being a dope SINGER... Period. We knew that creating this song for Jeanne and putting it on the album would be a wild card move, without question. Sometimes it is difficult to get listeners to think outside the box, especially with a song that a lot of folks connected and grew up with.... We could already see the tweets and the comments coming.... "Wait a minute, a white country singer redoing a joint by ANITA?!" ...."I KNOW she ain't doin' no Anita Baker song!" No problem... We had a plan. First, we weren't sure if Jeanne was familiar with the original version or not... Either way, we made it a point to keep Anita's version away from her simply because Anita has such a distinct tone and sound and we didn't want it to influence our version at all - plus I was confident that it would help our version stand out a little bit more. So after recording just the piano part to a click track or a metronome... Phonte laid down reference vocals for Jeanne to listen to before she actually went in to record it herself. I even put the piano/click track on my phone so that I could practice the drum pattern on the kit WITH the recorded music playing during my down time in the classroom.... At that point it was just a matter of figuring out when we were going to record the joint in full.

I just so happened to be in North Carolina at Phonte's spot for what ended up being a few days in April, I was on Spring Break from teaching. Ironically enough, the majority of "Same Ole Love" was recorded the day after Phonte and I recorded our now infamous parody of Mark Morrison's "Return Of the Mack." My greedy ass was actually going to work on a Cookout burger while Jeanne came on through the house so she and Phonte could record vocals. In the meantime, I was waiting on a call from +FE frequent collaborator and live band guitarist, Chris Boerner so that I could take a trip to his house and record the drums. I mean, I had taken along one of my favorite snare drums on the plane and everything for this! I ended up getting the call and left the vocal session to head over to Boerner's spot to set up for my first live drum recording session... On a full kit, that is. It was a quick set-up, no issues at all.... Levels were adjusted, a few drum mic tweaks here and there, then it was time. I played the kit and actually got the drums sounding the way I wanted them to sound on only the second take... Damn near surprised mySELF! Chris dumped the drum tracks on my flash drive and I took them AND the vocal tracks home with me the following day to plug into the open session in my studio. After putting them all together, I recorded the bass guitar track and some additional percussion instruments in order to make the song bounce a little bit more. After I sent the joint to Phonte, he had Boerner add some acoustic guitar... RHYTHM acoustic guitar that really added some more movement to the end hook and dammit... Allyn Love came in and "made the song cry" with that pedal steel guitar. When I heard those final two elements, I was rewinding things MORE than a few times. I was even influenced to add the string line at the end to give the song more of a finalé. Pedal steel guitar? Jeanne singing Anita and sounding GREAT? Kats were proud of this one simply because we felt as though we were breaking a couple of rules and pulled it off successfully... It almost makes me anxious to shatter some more.

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September 11th... We Have History.

2011-09-11T22:03:00.000-04:00

My first birthday cake (9/11/79)... I was probably analyzing the best method of attack at that point.

At approximately 10:50am in 1978, September 11th and I began to form a bond that would go on to last a lifetime to say the absolute least. This would become the day that as a kid I would get so hyped up that I would establish countdowns to simply because the date would involve celebration, presents, and most importantly... FOOD. In grade school, 9/11 was the day that marked my becoming another year older, which meant I could puff my little bird chest out a little bit more. THIS of course meant I was more... well... "grown"... or so I thought. I mean saying, "I'm 10" always sounded so much better than saying, "I'm 9" combined with whatever large fraction I could find to attach to my age in attempts to make myself sound even older, right? There were some 9/11's where rather than baking a cake, Moms would make my favorite pie (cherry) and put birthday candles in that! Other times, I may have asked her to bring in cupcakes in for my classmates on 9/11 so that they could partake in one of my favorite pastimes: being greedy as all hell. Then of course, the highlight of my 9/11 was coming home after school and asking Moms if I could open the gifts that she and Dad picked up for me, not realizing at the time how fortunate I truly was.............. Well, then I would tear those presents open as if I had no home training at all.

Yeah, September 11th and I go back a quite a ways...

The World Trade Center Towers, NYC

9/11 began a bit differently in 2001. Already graduated with Bachelor's in Studio Art (Graphic Design), I was still living in Bowling Green, KY working on pre-requisite courses for an MBA Degree a/k/a "I didn't know what then hell I wanted to do with my life at that particular time." Young, silly-acting and all set to turn 23, I began the early morning hours by running my mouth on the phone all night, which consequently caused me not to get much sleep at ALL, with the exception of maybe 30-45 minutes on the couch of my apartment after finally laying down at about 5:30am. One of my cousins from Florida called me to wish me a Happy Birthday...... At 6-something AM. He hit me with, "Happy Birthday cuuuuz..." My response was something like, "#@%&!!!!, You realize it's 6:00 in the damn morning??!.... Well... At least you called, thanks a lot." After getting off of the phone with him, I decided like a crazy person to drive to campus so that I could get an early morning workout. Surprisingly, I had sufficient energy to start and complete the full workout routine. Upon finishing, my number one objective for the day then became: GET SOME REST... IMMEDIATELY. I got back to the apartment, took a shower, and was fully prepared to get in the bed, cover my face with the covers to help shield any additional morning sunlight that wanted to try and peek through the blinds and then drift off into dreamland. But by the time I peeled the covers back, the phone rang... I didn't answer it. I had sleeping to do. ...The phone rang again.... Same thing, I didn't answer it. I definitely wasn't expecting the phone to ring a third time in a row. So finally, I decided to pick it up.... It was one of my boys calling from campus. No "Hello", just straight to...

"AYO... They flying planes into the Twin Towers!"

Wait a minute... Huh?! THE Twin Towers?.... What do you even say to that? Except for, "The hell are you talking about?!"

"Maaan, turn the TV on CNN! It's on there!"

I hung the phone up, went downstairs and turned the TV on and not only was it on CNN, but on EVERY channel there was a shot of the Twin Towers. By this time the North Tower had already been hit, was still on fire and some of its floors were engulfed in smoke... The first thing I thought about was my best friend and then former roommate who had JUST moved out of the apartment to NYC two or three weeks prior. I was trying to call him... Nothing. I couldn't get through - there were way too many calls going to New York at the time and the phone carriers were overextended. As I was attempting to call him, the calls began pouring in to my phone. To this day, I have never witnessed that much call activity on a phone that I owned in my life. Birthday wishes quickly turned into a, "Maaaan, this shit is crazy!" conversation... My mother even called and said,

"Are you watching the news?!! .........OH!! Happy Birthday."

That was a pretty hilarious moment to me looking back on it. But I think the seriousness of 9/11/01 REALLY sunk in when I saw the second plane hit the South Tower on live television... I was actually on the phone with someone at the time and we BOTH blurted out, "Oh SHIT!! ....Did you see that?!?!!" ...and then there was just silence. I later found out that a young lady I grew up with was actually able to evacuate from one of the towers and avoid harm. Ironically enough, her first day on the job happened to be Monday September 10th, 2001.

The main question of the day became, "Where are they gonna hit next?" And even more importantly, WHO exactly is "they?" I even remember the mall in Bowling Green, KY closing down early that day and I thinking.... "Maaaaaaaan, terrorists ain't thinking about attacking the damn Bowling Green mall!!" This was one day that I will say that there was entirely too much going on, but there was absolutely nothing you could do about it but remain glued to the news. Oh, and I failed to mention the fact that I had an Economics exam scheduled for 5:30pm that day as well... Let's just say I didn't get to finish studying for it. And that sleep I was attempting to get all day, that didn't happen either. And while I was hearing that campuses were canceling classes nationwide, we still went to Economics class that evening and took the exam. It was the only thing I got a "B" on the entire semester... But on the way back from class, I stopped through Best Buy and scooped up the following new releases... Jay-Z's The Blueprint CD and the Blow DVD.

No one really understood just how deeply we would be impacted by 9/11. It hit me like a ton of bricks when I was on a plane less than two weeks later. I sat down in my assigned seat and noticed that I had an entire row to myself. Hell... I had damn near the entire plane to myself! It seemed to have come with a cost because for the first time, I stood in a security line for almost an hour and a half. I remember being sent to a checkpoint of security where they would look through you bag in front of you by hand - tossing, lifting, shaking and adjusting the clothing in your suitcase until they were satisfied that you were "clean." There were so many copycat acts of terrorism that followed that it just got to be ridiculous. For example, we can blame kats like Richard Reid for our having to place our footwear in a bin and having to walk through security detectors shoeless. The proces of catching a flight and even picking someone up from the airport hasen't been the same since. Things changed damn near overnight pretty much to the point where we can specifically point to two very distinct eras in modern history, "Pre-9/11" and "Post 9/11."

Showing no mercy on my birthday cheesecake during a restaurant celebration in September 2001 ...Yes, this is normal activity.

Well... Post-9/11, I have chosen since its first anniversary in 2002 not to watch the news or any 9/11 related documentaries that day. As a matter of fact, I've watched one documentary on 9/11, of which I checked out only once back in 2003. It was so extremely detailed, well produced and ridiculously heavy that I don't feel the need to look at any others... Since 9/11 and I have such a rich history, I will continue to utilize it as a day of celebration with my family and close friends... AND a celebratory alcoholic beverage.... AND a helluva plate of food!!

"Happy B-Day! Love, Zo" was the cake I made to mySELF in 2001... Hell, nobody else made one for a brovah!

Prayers and respect to those who were affected by the events of 9/11.

Love to my 9/11 Birthday family... Miz Korona, Curtis, and my brotha Grap Luva...

Studio Campfire Stories: "Everything She Wants" (feat. Phonte @Phontigallo)

2011-09-01T14:44:00.000-04:00

"Everything She Wants" was actually the LAST song recorded for the album. The reason why Phonte is on the joint is because.... well.... we both knew that he and I could complete a song super quickly and efficiently. At the time I was looking to get just ONE more joint on the album to being the total to seven and nothing was showing any promise. I was debating on whether or not to do an instrumental track as was done on ...just visiting too, but selection-wise nothing was coming together. It's kind of a difficult position to be in because as an artist because you never want to force creativity, yet the deadline you set for yourself is staring you in your face and suggesting otherwise. Well, there was about a week left until the deadline the day that I started looking through my iTunes collection and spotted a song that I thought might be perfect... My text to Phonte read:

"Left field idea for JV3... "Everything She Wants" by Wham"

....Then I waited.

Looking back in my text history, there IS no return text... Why? Because Phonte called me back.... Now we all know it serious when you send somebody a text and they hit that 'talk' button on you. And now, to give you more proof in regards to how much kats are on the same page musically, he basically told me that he had always wanted to remake that particular joint mainly because he talked about how well-written the song was. Well shit!! Sounds like we have a winner!! The discussion that followed involved HOW we were gonna remake it. The first issue at hand: Tempo. We agreed that we would either have to do more of a sped up version of it to make it our own, or a version where the tempo was slower... we chose the latter. The funny thing is, I remember thinking of the drum pattern that I was going to use while he and I were still on the phone. As soon as we hung up, I went down to the studio and started working on a slower and more grooved-out version of "Everything She Wants" by programming and recording the drums...

As a musician and a producer, it's ALWAYS a positive when the music that you end up creating is identical to what you hear in your head. That is something that has taken me years of practice and repetition to be able to pull of more consistently. This is exactly what happened with "Everything..." - The drums, the swing, the recreation of the music became exactly what I heard in my head. And when this does happen, I get reeeeal hyped up about how it sounds. But even with everything sounding the way it did, I still felt as though it could go somewhere else. Once again, Phonte and I hopped on the phone... and we began to bounce ideas back and forth. I kept saying that the turnaround in the bridge sounded like SOMETHING and I couldn't put my finger on it to save my life. After about 15-20 minutes of brainstorming... Dropping the subject and coming back to it, the conversation sounded something like this...

Me: "We've gotta be able to flip it into something else"

*a few seconds of silence*

Phonte: "Ok... What about 'Remember The Time?'"

Me: *turned to the keys and played the music from "Everything She Wants" as it transitions into "Remember the Time"* "............HEEEELL YEAH!!! THAT'S THE ONE!!!"

Soon after we got off the phone, I laid down a full demo version, which consisted of the already finished drums and just a Rhodes keyboard track where I played both the bass and the chord parts. I sent it on through to Phonte and waited for him to record his vocals. Once I got his vocal reference back, the one thing that stood out to me was that the slower tempo made me focus in on the lyrical content more. For those who know me well understand that this is HUGE, because I usually get so caught up in analyzing the music that never really pay attention to the lyrics, which is why it takes me forever to learn them. Vocally, I was hearing Phonte get bolder and more comfortable with his range and also with the harmonies he used throughout the song. Being able to witness this kat that I consider my brother grow as an artist firsthand has been a priceless experience in itself. And in my humble opinion, as was done with "Black Cow" joint - he nailed this one...

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Studio Campfire Stories: "Marzipan" (feat. Eric Roberson & Phonte)

2011-08-22T14:10:00.003-04:00

There are two key characteristics that are common when Phonte and I get into very involved music conversations... 1. They are never planned. It's never formally announced, "Ayo man, we've gotta get up and talk about some music." ...Nope. It just happens. 2. The conversation usually lasts for a few hours. Kats are usually sitting at our computers going through iTunes like, "Hol'lup... Have you heard THIS shit though?! .... NAH but WAIT!! Remember that Timbaland remix joint from so and so that was on the such and such soundtrack?!?" Yeah... 2-4 hours of this - Sending music back and forth and putting each other on to new joints. Well, about three years ago during one of these conversations Phonte put me up on this song called "Marzipan" by a kat named Eric Tagg who I looked up immediately and found out that he was most known for his work with guitarist Lee Ritenhour ("Is It You"). I can specifically remember how hyped Phonte was about the joint... and this was looong before we even talked about possibly covering it. I'm actually glad it happened that way, because it gave me a chance to just enjoy the song and let it sink into my memory for a couple of years before I began to really study it. I even ended up picking up Eric Tagg's entire Dreamwalkin' album just because of the one song... I had to hear more of his work.

Fast-forward to January 2011... Phonte threw the song out there as an idea for ...just visiting three - this was no surprise to me at all. Funny enough, the FIRST thing that came to mind was the famous Cosby Show "CHALLLLLOOOONNGE!!" scene because knowing how the song went, I understood that the chords and the off-count of the verses were NOT straightforward at all... I knew from the jump that I would definitely have my work cut out for me. The good thing is, I enjoy challenges. So I figured that if I sat with the song long enough in "study mode" everything would fall into place. Well.... that's KINDA what happened. It took me getting frustrated with the verse chord progression, shutting the song down.... coming back to it, and cussing out Eric Tagg and his engineer because the keys were tucked so well in the mix in that there were spots in the song where I couldn't even hear specific chords. BUT... I FINALLY figured it out. That was by far the toughest part of the song to cover. Once those chords were figured out, I damn near felt in the clear. So finally, late January during a day that school was canceled because of heavy snow and ice, I turned the studio on in the morning and ended up recording the full instrumental by lunch time. I was hyped up because I had just purchased a new snare drum a week or two prior and wanted to utilize it for this particular recording session. To be honest, it was the new snare's sound that helped shape and mold the direction and recreation of this song... I'm not really sure how I can explain that, but I'll try my best. If you understand the abilities and the full working potential of a NEW instrument, not only will your ideas be enhanced, but production doors will fly open for you. Picking up that new piece of equipment and demoing it during the recording process allowed me to take another risk or two with my drum playing that I probably wouldn't have been pleased with otherwise. This is why I usually have NO problem with investing in studio equipment. More sounds = more ideas = more risks being taken in the studio.

Another interesting part about recording a cover is finding the correct vocalist for the song. We were looking for a male vocalist who could match the feel and the tone of the original joint. With Eric Tagg singing in a naturally higher register with a warm tone, there was only ONE kat who was even mentioned or thought about for this piece... Eric Roberson. Phonte who at the time had just finished recording a joint for Erro's upcoming album Mr. Nice Guy, reached back out to him for my album. From what I remember, it didn't take him long at ALL to turn the vocals around. But in the meantime, Phonte took the time to the hooks down, which gave the song new life in itself so when I finally heard Erro's vocals on it, my instrumental sounded like a totally different joint. I hit Phonte up like, "Ayo... This is IT." Just for good measure, instead of duplicating the guitar/synth solos in the original song, we decided to change it up just a bit and run guitar/trumpet solos back-to-back. Frequent +FE collaborator and live band guitarist Chris Boerner was called on once again to perform the guitar solo, which he took full advantage of by showing no mercy in the eight bars of space he was allotted. Mr. Johnny-On-the-Spot himself, trumpeter Stan Graham who can also be found on "Take Off the Blues," "If I Could Tell You No," and "Flight of the Blackbyrd" competed the solo package by adding his own melodic stamp, which opened up the feeling of the song even further. It's amazing just how much appreciation you gain for certain pieces of music once you try to recreate it... "Marzipan" was a perfect example. I can't listen to this song without completely reliving its creative process...

Videos & Pics from 1st Hit Listening Lounge Featuring Zo! (in Atlanta)

2011-08-14T14:02:00.002-04:00

Zo! and Jodine During the Meet & Greet

Source: Grown Folks Music

By: Kimberly Kennedy Charles

Zo! was in the building at Moods Music on August 7 for the Music Addikts and Harmony In Life’s 1st Hit Listening Lounge. Host Jodine Dorce of Jodine’s Corner and Zo! chop it up in an intimate, “Inside the Actors Studio” fashion about his background and passion before music, how some of his hottest collaboration tracks came to fruition, who his musical inspirations are and even why he gives away some of his music for free! It was a great time as in-store fans and fans via Twitter alike got the chance to interact and vibe with Zo!

Watch the videos and see the pics here:

Studio Campfire Stories: "Driving" (feat. Sy Smith)

2011-08-07T12:39:00.001-04:00

It seems as though all of the stories for ...just visiting three begin with a phone conversation between Phonte and I. Welp, I guess with that being said...........

I was having a conversation with Phonte one day...... and he was telling me about a recent connection he made with a certain well-known female vocalist who essentially made it known that she was down to be on the album. Now knowing how things can change on a dime in music without much warning, I decided very early that I wasn't gonna get too excited until I was listening to a final version of a song with her vocals on it. A few days later, Phonte sent me a folder of four joints, which included the song "Driving" by Everything But the Girl. I'll admit, I remembered the song VERY vaguely... BUT out of the four that he sent, this is the one that both of us gravitated toward. Technically speaking, when I listened to the song and heard it bounce back and forth basically between two or three chords, I thought to myself, this is gonna be a pretty easy song to redo... This shouldn't be a problem at all - That is, until I listened closer and heard about 593 layers of synth in the joint. It seemed like every time I listened, a brand new synth patch would mysteriously appear - the track was VERY deceiving. Even when I sent what I thought was the final music to Phonte... he hit me back right back, "Ayo... There's a synth line that you missed. Go to (insert minute mark value here) and check it out..." DAMN!! I thought I GOT all of um!!! *Angrily opens Pro Tools file back up*

I actually finished a "to be recorded to" draft of the song pretty early... and THAT'S when the real fun began. Once Phonte got back in touch with the originally chosen vocalist, we discovered that her schedule, our album deadline, combined with our touring schedule probably wouldn't work out - So we ended up having to look elsewhere. But I'm sure we will get to work with her in the near future on some original material... So we turned our attention to Paris, Amber, and Anita... otherwise known collectively as KING to handle the vocals. They were completely down AND were already familiar with the song, ok... dope! Well...... That is, until they were called on to do a small gig opening up at the LA Forum for uhhh..... none other than..... well, this kat outta Minneapolis, MN named...... Prince Rogers Nelson. We were REALLY happy for them landing that show and with the rehearsal schedule they were gonna have to keep, there was no way that they would have been able to record this song and we understood that completely. Meanwhile, during the creation of the JV3, I already knew that it was a must that I had to have a joint with my sister Sy Smith a/k/a "See Smeet"... I always tell people, Sy is one of the sweetest, most down-to-earth people you'll ever come across.... AND she's probably also "more real" than a lot of dudes you know - love her to death. And while I was racking my brain trying to think of a song to redo that would be tailor-made to fit her vocally, the answer was sitting right in front of my face the entire time. "Driving" was for Sy Smith... Period. Phonte and I were already plotting on her to record the joint before she even knew about it or heard it! I finally ended up playing the instrumental for her in the van while we were on the road with The Foreign Exchange traveling from Chicago to Indianapolis back in May and she loved it. After we went home from that Midwest run, she got together with Phonte and recorded her vocals. Once I heard the vocal draft, I thought to myself, "She sounds a little different than normal... But it sounds dope as HELL." I couldn't quite put my finger on what the difference was or why she sounded the way she did... I just knew that I loved it. When I got Phonte on the phone, he told me that Sy didn't feel too well while recording it... Ahhhhhhhhh, NOW it makes sense. To me, her not feeling 100% ADDED to the emotion and the sincerity of what she was singing about and it also helped to make it her song. To drive that point home even further, I wanted to change the song at the end into one of my all-time favorite slow joints, "Inside My Love" by Minnie Riperton. When arranging in my head what I wanted to do to re-create "Driving", the first song I thought about was "Inside My Love"... the drums had a similar feel to me. So I allowed that particular drum pattern from the intro and the verses of Minnie's song be the influence for the entire cover... I love Sy's interpolation with the lyrics during that piece. She took Minnie's opening "Two people...." line and played with it just enough to let the listener know what song we were changing into, but still subtle enough to where it may not hit you until the change is almost over....... Pretty sneaky there, See Smeet.

Download ...just visiting three for free HERE

Village Voice Shows Love to '...just visiting three'

2011-08-03T17:03:00.000-04:00

This Wham! Cover By Zo! And Phonte is Pretty Fantastic!
Source: The Village Voice

By: Maura Johnston

Right off the bat I should tell you that "Everything She Wants" by Wham! has been one of my favorite songs since I first heard it as an impressionable nine-year-old, even though its themes of love being washed away by consumerism and economic pressures were far beyond my years; its gentle shimmy and dollop of funk on already-existing synthpop tropes—and, of course, the bravura vocal by the pre-Faith George Michael (particularly on the breakdown)—made me drop the needle on it again and again. This morning I was alerted to a cover of the track by the musician-producer Zo! and Phonte (late of Little Brother, now of The Foreign Exchange), and oh is it good; it slows the track down just enough to wring the longing out of it in a completely different way, with sputtering synths and a nice, juicy bassline. And there's even a shout-out to Michael Jackson near the end, although I won't spoil its exact nature... Read the Full Article

Studio Campfire Stories: "Let It Go" (feat. Nicholas Ryan Gant)

2011-07-17T12:32:00.001-04:00

I can remember being reintroduced to the original song by Pages back in the summer of 2009 when Questlove tweeted it one day saying that he currently had the joint on repeat. From there, hell... I had it on repeat. The joint is yet ANOTHER reason why I could give a damn about a "genre." Because if you look at a picture of Pages, there's no way you would think that they created the many soul-infused gems that they did. But I remember tweeting Questlove back and my man DJ Brainchild catching what I wrote and letting me know to check their albums out as well... So I ended up grabbing three of their albums including their self-titled joint that was released in 1978. Fast forward to 2011 to yet another phone conversation between Phonte and I where we were discussing song ideas... "Let It Go" came up. My first response came in the form of words spoken by the legendary Negro Physician, Dr. Dre, "HEY-ELL yeeeah."

As a listener, I felt it was gonna be VERY important to try and recapture the warmth of that 70's recorded instrumentation from the original record. I could tell that the updating was going to begin with the drums... So once again, I started recording and programming the drums first, along with a live hi-hat and a cabasa pattern that mimicked the "Zimba-Ku" drum break. Once I heard the drums fully recorded, I couldn't WAIT to lay the rest of the song. (I actually video recorded myself laying down the live bass on the record, which I'll be sure to post later on...) The keys were the hardest to pick up on because I couldn't hear them too well in certain places, Pages' mix had those chords tucked real well in some spots. The FUN parts were the synth solos, particularly in the middle of the song where it breaks down... there are a few layering techniques I used to manipulate it sonically to where it is now. It was one of those solos where if I messed up while recording it, I wasn't mad because it was fun as hell to play anyway!

Of course once the music was finished, we had to figure out who was going to sing in this high ass register provided to us by the Pages brothers... especially those hooks! At first we thought of two vocalists, one to sing the verses and the other to sing the hooks... but one of the vocalists we were going to ask to do it was on extended vocal rest. To make sure he remained healthy and continued to improve, Phonte brought up Nicholas Ryan Gant. Now, I met Nicholas right around the time I moved out to Maryland in 2006 as he was singing background for Muhsinah. The thing is, I didn't realize how extremely vocally talented he was until maybe last year when he came on stage with us as The Foreign Exchange was performing "Maybe She'll Dream Of Me" in NYC at BB King's in October. Man look.... I don't even think Nicholas understands how talented Nicholas is. He was killin' on stage... We exchanged numbers very soon after that impromptu performance. lol Needless to say, when Phonte brought him up... I was all for it. He sent Nicholas the music and we waited.... In the meantime, Phonte hit me up with the "check your email" text... UH oh. I checked the joint.... and Tay has laid some background vocals on it, now the song is slowly starting to come to life. The part that was getting me was "Let cha!! ...Love GO!!" ......"Whoa-whooooa ...whoaaaaawhooaaoooooo!!" I was like, "YO!! This shit is CRAZY!" With all that going on, I still wasn't quite prepared for what was sent to me about one week later. When I finally got the demoed full vocal version from Nicholas, I was sitting in my classroom at the end of the school day and was forced to grab some student headphones to plug into my phone just so I was able listen right then and there. When I heard all of what was going on vocally, my only response was, "The hell is this kat DOING?! .....DAMN!! (followed by an additional array of colorful curse words and phrases)" The harmonies were on point, the dude's runs were precise and not overdone and the original was still in tact. I called Phonte after about three listens and didn't say much at all. Phonte responds to me by saying, "Man, he bodied that shit..." Uhh... Yeah, I agree. I actually sat in the studio and soloed a couple parts of his vocals so I could appreciate all of what he did to the song. There's actually one vocal part that I didn't even catch until later... The top of the third verse, listen closely to what happens... "There's no need to explaaaaa-aaaaaa-aaaaa-aaaaaaain..." Nicholas takes the word "explain" and proceeds to drop the note three times... I didn't catch it for a month. It may not be a big deal to him or to other kats who can "saing"... But I tried it (while alone, of course), and I sounded like an idiot.... The brotha is talented and I'm glad he got down and did his thing on the album as there aren't many who can do what he does.

Sidenote: This was the first song completed for the album...

Download ...just visiting three for FREE here...

Studio Campfire Stories: "Black Cow" (feat. Phonte & Sy Smith)

2011-07-13T16:14:00.002-04:00

Production work on ...just visiting three began on December 22nd, 2010 following a phone conversation I had with Phonte discussing songs that I wanted to recreate for the new album. One of the songs that had my full attention at that particular time was Steely Dan's "Black Cow." I was already familiar with the song and the legendary Aja album that it comes from, but for some reason around this time, the song was hitting me a bit differently - I was beginning to break it down into individual parts and mapping out the different possibilities for the song in my head, which usually means that I am ready to sit down and start working on it. I took some time out to listen through it a few times to pick up on not only the instrumentation, but the overall "feel" of the record. In the past, I actually stayed away from this song because it's one of those joints that I enjoy so much that I would want to be able to do it justice if and when I ever decided to tackle it (as was the case with Minnie Riperton's "Perfect Angel" on ...just visiting too). I'm a strong believer in completely trashing a song if I don't feel like I've done it correctly. Luckily, with "Black Cow" I knew it was a keeper after I programmed the drums, then learned and recorded the bassline... Now, the TOUGHEST part about covering this song?!?! Learning. Those. Damn. Chord. Changes. Steely Dan.... WHAT were y'all ON creating this joint?! Whewww!!! Honestly, I took a couple of days to practice the chords on the keys before even sending it to Phonte as a demo run...

I finally sent the demo to Phonte as just the drums, live bass, and one keys track... We got back on the phone to discuss additions. My partner in crime, Sy Smith was scheduled to be on the East Coast to knock out a couple of solo shows, so the goal was to have her head on down to NC to record her vocals. The Foreign Exchange touring guitarist, Chris Boerner got the call to play those same chord changes overtop of my demo version... We actually laughed having to learn those changes later on at a soundcheck in Chicago... But he nailed it as usual. Next, we had to cover some of the horn parts. Phonte put in the call to the "go to" trio of woodwind instrumentalists consisting of Stan Graham on trumpet ("Flight of the Blackbyrd" & "If I Could Tell You No"), Andrew Kleindienst on trombone ("All Is Well With Love") and Matt Douglas on saxophone came through once again... We later gave the trio a group name: Wind Parade.

One of the best parts about working on a song with a vocalist or a collective of vocalists is... well, actually HEARING the vocals over your music! In this case I was extra hyped up because after working on the demo version for "Black Cow", I immediately jumped over to start working on the music for "Marzipan." So to have received the vocals to that FIRST joint was an accomplishment - It always kinda serves as the album's "ice breaker" to where, this is the project's first major progression....NOW we're off and running. And what a helluva progression it was. To hear Phonte "Donald" Fagen holding down the lead vocals almost brought back the same feeling I had hearing his vocals for our cover of Toto's "Africa" four years prior. Right as I was thinking and saying to myself while listening to the first couple of bars, "You've GOT to be kidding me.... THIS is CRA..... *out of nowhere the harmony part with Sy comes in "Yooooooooou were high!!"* ........................*BLANK STARE* "...OH ok, these kats are TRULY whylin' out right now!!" From there, I re-laid my key parts which included the rhodes solo, added a live hi-hat to complete the drum pattern, and some additional strings at the end to add some dynamics. I know that I've heard that Steely Dan isn't too keen on people sampling them, but I would LOVE for Donald Fagen and Walter Becker to hear our version just to get their thoughts... That would be an honor.

Download ...just visiting three for free here...

Zo! - ...just visiting three (2011) | FREE DOWNLOAD + Full Credits

2011-07-12T00:08:00.005-04:00

ZO! - ...JUST VISITING THREE (2011) (FREE DOWNLOAD)

01 BLACK COW FEAT. PHONTE AND SY SMITH

LEAD VOCAL: PHONTE

BACKGROUND VOCALS: SY SMITH AND PHONTE

GUITAR: CHRIS BOERNER

TRUMPET: STAN GRAHAM

TROMBONE: ANDREW KLEINDIENST

SAXOPHONE: MATT DOUGLAS

02 LET IT GO FEAT. NICHOLAS RYAN GANT

LEAD VOCAL: NICHOLAS RYAN GANT

BACKGROUND VOCALS: NICHOLAS RYAN GANT AND PHONTE

03 DRIVING FEAT. SY SMITH

LEAD VOCAL: SY SMITH

BACKGROUND VOCALS: SY SMITH AND PHONTE

FLUTE: CLAUDIA HAYDEN

04 MARZIPAN FEAT. ERIC ROBERSON AND PHONTE

LEAD VOCAL: ERIC ROBERSON

BACKGROUND VOCALS: PHONTE

GUITAR: CHRIS BOERNER

TRUMPET: STAN GRAHAM

05 EVERYTHING SHE WANTS FEAT. PHONTE

ALL VOCALS: PHONTE

06 SAME OLE LOVE FEAT. JEANNE JOLLY

LEAD VOCAL: JEANNE JOLLY

BACKGROUND VOCALS: JEANNE JOLLY AND PHONTE

ACOUSTIC GUITAR: CHRIS BOERNER

PEDAL STEEL: ALLYN LOVE

07 PLAYING YOUR GAME, BABY FEAT. ANTHONY DAVID

LEAD VOCAL: ANTHONY DAVID

TRUMPET: STAN GRAHAM

TROMBONE: ANDREW KLEINDIENST

SAXOPHONE: MATT DOUGLAS

ALL INSTRUMENTS BY ZO!, EXCEPT WHERE NOTED

PRODUCED BY ZO! AND PHONTE FOR CHAPTER 3HREE, VERSE 5IVE MUSIC, LLC/THE FOREIGN EXCHANGE MUSIC, LLC

RECORDED AND MIXED BY ZO! AT EAST WING STUDIOS, SILVER SPRING, MD AND BY PHONTE AT THE PEANUT GALLERY

ADDITIONAL RECORDING AND MIXING BY CHRIS BOERNER AT THE BURLAP PALACE, RALEIGH, NC

MASTERING: SOIREE RECORDS

COVER PHOTOGRAPH BY KEITH ESTEP OF KEITH ESTEP PHOTOGRAPHY

...JUST VISITING THREE: THE ORIGINALS

01 BLACK COW

WRITTEN BY WALTER BECKER AND DONALD FAGEN

ORIGINALLY PERFORMED BY STEELY DAN

FROM THE ALBUM "AJA" (ABC, 1977)

02 LET IT GO

WRITTEN BY JOHN LANG, RICHARD PAGE AND STEVE GEORGE

ORIGINALLY PERFORMED BY PAGES

FROM THE ALBUM "PAGES" (EPIC, 1978)

03 DRIVING

WRITTEN BY BEN WATT

ORIGINALLY PERFORMED BY EVERYTHING BUT THE GIRL

FROM THE ALBUM "THE LANGUAGE OF LIFE" (ATLANTIC, 1990)

04 MARZIPAN

WRITTEN AND ORIGINALLY PERFORMED BY ERIC TAGG

FROM THE ALBUM "DREAMWALKIN'" (EMI, 1982)

05 EVERYTHING SHE WANTS

WRITTEN BY GEORGE MICHAEL

ORIGINALLY PERFORMED BY WHAM!

FROM THE ALBUM "MAKE IT BIG" (CBS, 1985)

06 SAME OLE LOVE

WRITTEN BY MARILYN MCLEOD AND DARRYL K. ROBERTS

ORIGINALLY PERFORMED BY ANITA BAKER

FROM THE ALBUM "RAPTURE" (ELEKTRA, 1986)

07 PLAYING YOUR GAME, BABY

WRITTEN AND ORIGINALLY PERFORMED BY BARRY WHITE

FROM THE ALBUM "BARRY WHITE SINGS FOR SOMEONE YOU LOVE" (20TH CENTURY, 1977)

Zo! Discography...

2011-07-01T01:08:00.000-04:00

Building up a consistent and strong discography has always been a long-term goal of mine. In the wide world of... "Well, what have you done?" and "Who have you worked with?"...sometimes it's good to kinda put it out there in one place and allow people to read and listen for themselves. What I want to do is to keep an updated discography list on here to keep track of what music has been recorded and with whom... lol

Solo Albums (Release Date)

Zo! Presents...Ablyss (December 2001)

Zo! Presents his...Actual Fiction (April 2002)

Zo! Presents...Today's Ascension (August 2002)

Zo! Presents...A Canvas for the Adoration of Music (November 2002)

Zo! Presents...Elevation Music (April 2003)

Zo! Presents...Passion & Definition (July 6, 2004)

Re:Definition (Mar. 29, 2005)

...just visiting EP (Vinyl Only) (March 7, 2006)

Freelance (December 5, 2006)

...just visiting too EP (November 3, 2009)

SunStorm (July 22, 2010)

…just visiting three EP (July 12, 2011)

Collaborative Albums

Zo! and Tigallo Love the 80's! (Zo! and Phonte) (July 22, 2008)

Overdue Process (Zo! and Asylum 7) (January 1, 2009)

Live Albums

Dear Friends: An Evening With The Foreign Exchange (Grand Piano, July 28, 2011)

Other Credits

"Quitters" Prophetix (Prod., 2002)

"Going Out" (12") Rubix ft. Jonz (Prod., 2002)

"Angel" Illite (Keys, 2003)

"2002" R-Swift (Prod., 2003)

"Balm of Gilead" Buff 1 feat. 14KT (Prod., 2003)

"Closer" Slum Village feat. Dwele (Uncredited) (Keys, 2003)

"I.A.M. (It's A Movement)" Finalé (Prod. 2003)

"Strong Black Rebel Rap" Jon Doe feat. J. Sands (Keys, 2003)

"Promised Land" Athletic Mic League (Keys 2004)

"93 Million Miles" S.U.N. (Prod., 2004)

"Life is in Motion" S.U.N. (Prod., 2004)

"Listen Up" Asylum 7 (Prod., 2004)

"Stay With Me" Platinum Pied Pipers feat. Tiombe Lockhart (Keys and Key Bass, 2004)

"No Worries" Platinum Pied Pipers feat. Spacek (Keys, 2004)

“Critical” Tasherre D’Enajetic (Bass, 2005)

“This Is” Tasherre D’Enajetic (Prod., 2005)

"Prelude To..." Havana (Prod., 2005)

“Feel My Love” Havana (Prod., 2005)

"Feel My Love" (Musical Architect Remix) Havana (Prod., 2005)

"Soul Train" Finalé (Prod., 2005)

"Observe Remix" Asylum 7 (Prod., 2005)

"If U Only Knew" Tiffany Paige (Prod., 2005)

"Easy To Love U" (Musical Architect Remix) Chamade Beat (France) (Prod., 2005)

"Limitless" Jax (of Binkis Recs.) (Prod., 2005)

"I'm Sayin'" Now On ft. Ty (of Ty & Kory) (Prod., 2005)

"Creep Show" Finalé (Prod., 2006)

"For U" Buff 1 (Keys, 2007)

"Ambiance" Completion (Prod., 2007)

"Sun Shines Again" Tony Ozier (Prod., 2007)

"Simile" Median (Prod., 2007)

"Please Stand By" (UK Bonus Track) Little Brother (Prod., 2007)

"When Everything Is New" Little Brother (Prod., 2007)

"Searching" Illite (Keys, 2008)

"Man Up" Buff 1 feat. Vaughan of AML (Co-Prod., Keys, Bass & Guitar, 2008)

"If She Breaks Your Heart (Pt. 1)" The Foreign Exchange feat. Yahzarah (Prod., 2008)

"The Inside" 14KT feat. Tiffany Paige (Bass & Keys, 2008)

"ICU Smile" 14KT feat. Karla Crawford (Guitar & Add'l Bass, 2008)

"Less Than Enough" 14KT feat. AB (Add'l Keys, 2008)

"Chocolate" Big Tone feat. L'Renee (Keys, 2009)

"The Look" Big Tone feat. Ta'Raach (Keys, 2009)

"Lord Help Me" Kev Brown feat. Eye-Q & Cy Young (Piano, 2009)

"Purple Flip" ?uestlove, Foreign Exchange, Zo! & Carlitta Durand (Keys, 2009)

"Shibuya Station" Nicolay (Keys Solo, 2009)

"Wake Up In Another Life" Nicolay feat. Carlitta Durand (Piano Solo, 2009)

"Transitions" Julie Dexter (Prod., 2010)

“Love/Hate” The Quiett feat. Jinbo (Prod., 2010)

“Two Step Blues (Zo’s Purple Suit With the Matching Gators Remix)” Little Brother feat. Darien Brockington (Prod., 2010)

“Why Don’t You Call Me No More” YahZarah (Bass, 2010)

“Cry Over You” YahZarah feat. Phonte (Add’l Prod., 2010)

"Shadow" YahZarah (Prod., 2010)

“Love Come Save the Day” YahZarah (Keys, 2010)

“Fight For Love” The Foreign Exchange (Co-Prod., Piano, 2010)

“Maybe She’ll Dream Of Me” The Foreign Exchange (Keys, 2010)

“Don’t Wait” The Foreign Exchange (Talkbox, 2010)

“Everything Must Go” The Foreign Exchange (Piano, 2010)

“Something In the Way She Moves” The Foreign Exchange (Piano, 2010)

“This Time Around (Nu Clap Edit Mix)” RoddyRod feat. Phonte & Carlitta Durand (Bass, 2010)

“Steal Away” The Foreign Exchange feat. Jeanne Jolly (Piano Solo, 2011)

Student Quotables... Volume IV | School's Out Edition

2011-06-23T14:39:00.000-04:00

The school year that has lasted seemingly forever has finally come to a close... But not without a few more quotables to last us through these summer months. Some of y'all who follow me know by now that in addition to being a musician, I also teach music to high schoolers and duh-raaaaah.... They have been known to say some pretty unbelievable things... (see: Student Quotables... Vol. 1, Student Quotables... Vol. II, and Student Quotables... Vol. III). To celebrate the ending of this school year, I will supply you with a few more quotables from the final semester... Enjoy!

• "What Time Is It?!?!" © Mo'iss Day

Student: "We've got time, there's 20 minutes left in class"

Me: *Looks at the analog clock, which says 12:30* "Nah man, we have 10 minutes left... You know by now that class gets out at 12:40."

S: "Ohhhh, yeah.. .I thought there were 10 minutes between each number on the clock."

• Student answers her cell phone in the middle of class and gets off quickly after being asked repeatedly to hang up...

Me: "Why would you even consider answering the phone in class as an option?!"

Student: "My friend said it's an emergency!"

M: "How would you know it's an emergency BEFORE you picked up the phone?"

S: "She texted me first.... I HAD to pick it up because she doesn't spell too well."

• The day was Friday, and my student was attempting to argue me down by saying that Wednesday was THREE days ago rather than two...

"Mr. Ferguson... It's THREE days ago!

*counts on fingers*

Friday is ONE, Thursday is TWO, and Wednesday is THREE. Wednesday was THREE DAYS AGO!"

I literally had to walk him to the calendar and count the days back to Wednesday to illustrate why he was incorrect.

• One morning, a 'Temptations' movie vs. 'The Five Heartbeats' discussion started with my class in regards to which one they enjoyed more...

Student: "I don't like the 'Temptations' movie... It's dumb. 'The Five Heartbeats' is better..."

Me: "You don't like it at ALL? Well, tell me why you think 'The Five Heartbeats' is a better movie?"

S: "Because it has a better story... AND it has better graphics"

M: "Better...........graphics? It's.... not...... a...... video...... game..... though..."

S: "But the 'Temptations' movie is in black and white and that's stupid..."

M: ".......The first TWO minutes of the movie is in black and white! The rest is in color..."

• I had on an "Activision" t-shirt one day with their logo from the 80's on the front of it...

Student: "Mr. Ferguson, you're not gay..."

Me: "What are you even TALKING about?!"

S: *Points at the small rainbow part of the logo*

M: "That's Activision, do you know what it is?"

S: "Yeah.... It's a television"

M: "No, it's a company that used to put out video games for Atari... an old game system."

S: "Oh, well.... I was close then"

• One of my students had a grand epiphany in the classroom when he looked up and saw Stevie Wonder's Talking Book album hanging up on my wall...

Student: "Stevie Wonder is BLIND?!?!"

*crickets*

Me: "Class?.... Uhhhhhhruuhhhh.... Is Stevie Wonder blind?"

Class, in unison: "YEAH!!!"

• I got into a conversation with a student about how I got interested in music and why I teach the music that I do to my classes...

Me: "I teach y'all music that you're familiar with, as opposed to say uhh..... Mozart."

Student: "Ohhhh....... That's a website?"

• For my Tech Heads...

Student: "My teacher told me that there wasn't any technology before 1996... She said that there weren't any color TVs before 1996 either..."

Me: "PLEASE sit down to read and research BEFORE talking crazy..."

(9th grade student):
"Get offa there and stop tryna fix that computer, you ain't no technique!!"

• In showing my class the movie "The Last Dragon,' I received these questions...

Student: "Is that Nick Cannon?!"

Me: "Is WHO Nick Cannon?!"

S: *Points to Taimak who plays 'Bruce Leroy'* "Him!"

M: "You do realize that this movie was released in 1985 and Nick Cannon was BORN in the 80's, don't you?"

S: "Oh."

Another Student: *Points at Leo O'Brien who plays 'Richie Green', Bruce Leroy's little brother* "Ain't that the midget?!.... The midget who died?!"

Me: *Running through my mental Wikipedia files... and mouthing the words, "Midget? Who died?"* ...."Wait a minute, are you talking about Gary Coleman?!??!!"

AS: "Yeah..."

M: *puzzled* "NO. That. Is. Not. Gary. Coleman."

The movie got to the part where DeBarge's "Rhythm Of the Night" video came on... El DeBarge is on the screen singing the first verse...

Student: "Oooh, there go Michael Jackson!!"

• Rules?.... What rules??

Me: "So.... Why did you get suspended for so long?"

Student: "Because I brought a knife to school"

M: "Maaaaan, COME on!! What did you do THAT for?!"

S: "I didn't know it was against the rules..."

M: *blank stare*

• Geography For $500, Alex...

Student: "Have you ever been out of the country on vacation?"

Me: "Yeah, I've been to Aruba, which is an island just north of Venezuela..."

S: *Puzzled look*

M: "Venezuela......... It's a country in South America"

S: "Wait, South America and Africa are the same, right?"

M: *Exaggerated screwface* "NO!! They're two different CONTINENTS located in two totally separate parts of the world!!"

S: "So you're telling me that South America and Africa are TWO different places?!!?"

• In reaction to PBS's website being hacked back in May...

Student: "Don't you watch the NEWS Mr. Ferguson?! It was breaking news that 2Pac is still alive!!"

• Astrology

Student: "Mr. Ferguson, you hear about the changes they made to the horo... hor..... horophoric?" (she was attempting to say "horoscope")

• Random

Teacher: "What is a thesaurus?"

Student (10th grade): "A telescope."

• An Old Favorite

During a school assembly, one of the students stood in front of the the high school students and staff to give a presentation. After asking a question to the audience and not really receiving a response, it turned into him 'taunting' his peers, which then in the same breath turned hilarious...

Student: "Man, I thought y'all were smart. Wait, y'all supposed to be smart right?!.... I mean.... Where the smarts come out at?!!?"

Educators, enjoy your summer breaks... Lord knows we deserve it. 'Til next time, school a child... THEY. NEED. IT....

Zo! & Tigallo Love the 80's Is Now A Free Download!

2011-06-03T19:12:00.001-04:00

Zo! & Tigallo Love the 80's (2008)

For those of you who may have missed me and Phonte's (@Phontigallo) 80's album (Zo! & Tigallo Love the 80's)... It is now available on The Foreign Exchange site for free download...

Enjoy!!

"Laughing At Your Plans" (from Dear Friends: An Evening With The Foreign Exchange)

2011-06-01T18:20:00.001-04:00

Clip taken from the upcoming live acoustic CD/DVD "Dear Friends: An Evening With The Foreign Exchange", available June 28 2011 on +FE Music. Directed and edited by John Elliot Gray.

Source: Parallellogram · Directed by John Elliott Gray

Recorded and filmed live at SoundPure Studios in Durham NC on February 20 2011

Phonte: Vocals - Nicolay: Acoustic guitar - Jeanne Jolly: Vocals - Sy Smith: vocals - Zo!: grand piano - Chris Boerner: Acoustic guitar - Kush El-Amin: Acoustic bass guitar - Tim Scott Jr.: Drums

Zo! & Phonte feat. Tigallo the Tay God - "Return Of the Mack"

2011-04-18T16:51:00.000-04:00

Zo! & Phonte feat. Tigallo the Tay God

"Return Of the Mack"

"On a breezy Sunday afternoon in North Carolina, me and my brother Zo! took to the studio to clown around and pay homage to one of the greatest late 90’s white people club songs ever.” -Phonte

There is a reason why you don’t let me and Phonte sit around with nothing to do on a Sunday afternoon with access to recording equipment, because we like to do shit on the fly… Why? Because once you’re inspired to record something whether you’re serious or just joking around, there’s only a certain space of time you have to do it before life gets in the way - inspiration, gone.

WELP! Sitting in the studio yesterday with Phonte… kats had their laptops out, surfing that good nigganet…… And the thing that kicked off the clownery was the fact that Lil B had just announced the fact that he was calling his next album “I’m Gay.” Maaaaaaaaaaaaaan?!?!!!?!!????!!!! I thought for a second EMS was gonna have to come to the spot to assist kats with breathing. After laughing about that announcement for a good hour, Mark Morrison’s 1996 joint “Return Of the Mack” then became the topic of discussion. Now, I didn’t like the joint when it was popular… and I mean it was a HUGE record when it dropped and continues to get pretty consistent run to this day. But as we started talking about it… the vocal imitations followed, then the discussion spilled over into de Twittuhs. The next thing you know, Phonte started setting up the vocal mic and I was pulling a chair up to the keyboard. Now, being that I already teach my classes how to play “Mind’s Playing Tricks On Me” by the Geto Boys, I was already familiar with how to play it. Simply because…

“Return Of the Mack” = “Games” Chuckii Booker = “Mind’s Playing Tricks On Me” = “Hung Up On My Baby” Isaac Hayes + “Genius Of Love” Drums by Tom Tom Club

When I first played it on the piano, we went through the first verse or so in regular speed, but once it hit that hook… We slowed it up on some silly shit just to see how it sounded. We played with the ‘mellowed out’ tempo because with the vocals, it sounded funny as hell… So after going through the joint a couple of times with just vocals and piano, we hit the record button and got to work and got to LAUGHING…. I also captured some of the recording session on video with my laptop’s camera. Now THAT footage?! Lawdheppmehpleeese. We even shot the “cover art” in the MIDDLE of recording takes.

In the original, we talked about how hilarious it was that the adlibs for his hook extended through half of the verse. So we had to make sure we included that aspect in the remake but completely exaggerated… Listening to Phonte record the vocals was straight up classic material. There were more than a few occasions where the ‘stop’ button had to be hit IMMEDIATELY following recording so that we could bust out laughing…

THEN playing off of the Lil B album title announcement to be silly, one of us would just break out into a random, simple ass freestyle based on a single topic of choice while the other would hit the “swag..swag..swag..swag..whoo!..swag…swag…” adlibs. THIS shit went on all day long as its comedic value and appeal steadily increased with each passing hour.
And just to let ch’all know, kats DIED LAUGHING throughout the entire recording process, my damn head hurt by the time we actually went on Twitter and posted a link to the actual joint. Glad that y’all could be a part of us cutting up in the studio because this is exactly how it goes once recording has stopped. Thanks as always for the love and for listening…!!

Student Quotables... Volume III

2011-04-05T22:49:00.000-04:00

And now for the THIRD installment of the infamous...!! A great sense of humor and teaching go hand in hand...

Click to read

Volume II and Volume I

• On Religion:

After telling us that his father is of Jamaican heritage and has successfully run from Jamaica to Africa... to Europe, one of the 10th graders informed us that, "...all Jamaicans worship JAHeim."

• First Plane Ride:
"I've been on a plane before... I flew to Denver and THEN to Colorado!"

• Future Nutritionist?

Student leans in to tell a teacher during lunch time,

"You know you should eat a lot of bananas, because they're high in potabolism."

Random:

Student: "You're from Detroit?... So you know how to steal cars real well?"

Me: "And WHY would you say THAT?"

S: "They made that movie about y'all, you know the movie about stealing cars?"

M: *thinking for a minute* "Hold up... You mean 'New Jersey DRIVE'?!?!!!"

S: "YEEEEEAAH!!!!"

M: "But uhhh..... THAT movie took place in NEW JERSEY, NOT DETROIT, MICHIGAN"

S: *mouth slowly opens to form the word* "Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"

• One of my 1st period students saw somebody with a mullet and said,
"Daaaaamn, he got a musket!!"

On Race and Pasta:
Student: "Well, Black people eat pork chops, Mexicans eat black beans, Italians eat pasta, and white people eat spaghetti."
Teacher: *puzzled look* "But spaghetti and pasta are the same thing."
S: "No their not... spaghetti is noodles."
T: "So what's pasta then?"
S: "Alfredo."

Movie Time:
• I was showing the classic movie Wild Style to my students and one of the kids made the comment:
"Maaan, I didn't even think they HAD white people in New York in the 80's..."

• Showed the documentary Planet B-Boy to my classes one week, which showcased an international breakdancing competition...
Student: "They don't have an American team in the competition?"
Me: "They do, the American team is out of Las Vegas."
S: "So they don't speak English?"

New Tumblr Page... Here.

2011-04-03T17:08:00.000-04:00

Yep, I've given in and gotten a Tumblr page.....

Zo! Tumblr Page

Follow a brovah and all that stuff like that there...

The Foreign Exchange 2011 'Authenticity' April/May Tour Schedule

2011-04-03T12:47:00.000-04:00

Looks like kats will be back on that road in the next couple of months. Check the schedule and see if we're coming to your area...

FE Tour Dates

Friday, April 22 - Falls Church, VA - State Theatre

Thursday, May 5 - Chicago - Double Door

Friday, May 6 - Indianapolis - Athenaeum Theatre

Saturday, May 7 - Cleveland - The Grog Shop

Sunday, May 8 - Detroit - Magic Stick

Tuesday, May 10 - Lexington - Cosmic Charlie's

Thursday, May 12 - Columbus, OH - Scarlet & Grey

Thursday, May 19 - Philadelphia - World Cafe Live

Friday, May 20 - Pittsburgh - August Wilson Center

Saturday, May 21 - Baltimore - 8X10

Sunday, May 22 - Richmond, VA - Alley Katz

Nu Jazz Spirit - Zo! + Sy Smith Paris Show Review

2011-03-29T18:33:00.000-04:00

Source: Nu Jazz Spirit

My friends,
After a pause for a week, I am back on the blogosphere with some newness! But before, let me share with you my impressions after attending maybe one of the best Soul shows so far this year. It was held on March 5th in Paris. Funnily enough, I was not supposed to be there that night. But apparently fate decided for me. SY SMITH & ZO! ,members of The Foreign Exchange, hit Paris for their 1st solo show together. They performed live at the Bizz'Art. The show was set up by Soulissime. A shame that this event did not create a buzz However, the venue was packed ! Absolutely!

Click Here to continue reading: Nu Jazz Spirit - Zo! + Sy Smith Paris Show Review

Zo! + Sy Smith Interview with SoulCuts.org

2011-03-29T17:50:00.002-04:00

We were cuttin up a bit in this interview... lol Enjoy!

Source: SoulCuts.org

By: Paul Cutting

At the start of March, 2011 I was backstage at the Jazz Cafe prior to ZO! and Sy Smith‘s first solo London show, lucky enough to have scored an interview. The pair had hopped the channel that morning following a successful performance in Paris to come and entertain the crowd at the KEEP THE FAITH ‘NEO SOULWW’ event. How on earth they retained any enthusiasm for an interview with little old SoulCuts is beyond me, but Sy beckoned me into the room with a warm and sweet demeanour before getting on with the ironing. The previous interviewer hung around chatting with them while I stood in the corner, quiet, feeling a bit of a lemon, but that’s cool, it’s not an unusual look for me.

In an uninspiring room at the top of the Jazz Cafe, Zo! was spread out across what I can only describe as a huge slanted wooden donut, possibly the most uncomfortable piece of furniture since the electric chair. ZO! is a pretty big guy – not fat, mind you (that’s my forte!), regardless of how much macaroni cheese he wishes to gobble (quite a lot, apparently!), but he nonetheless carries a strong physical presence. Aligned to that physicality seemed to be a shy nature. This is somebody who clearly speaks honestly through the music (a thought further evidenced by his blistering performance on the Camden stage later that night) without any unnecessary embellishments.

Click to continue reading: Zo! + Sy Smith Interview with SoulCuts.org

NEW VIDEO: "Greater Than the Sun" feat. Phonte

2011-03-16T18:35:00.000-04:00

Enjoy this one y'all...

"Greater Than the Sun" feat. Phonte

Directed by: PhilTheGod

Co-Starring: Jacinte Blankenship

Album: SunStorm

Zo! + Sy Smith in Paris... 03.05.11

2011-03-13T15:26:00.001-04:00

I'll start by saying this: I have only been to Paris three times, but in those few visits my adoration for the city increases each time. This past visit and show proved to be one helluva testament to this city's proper treatment of the artists that come through and play.

Sy and I were up and out of our London hotel by about 7am to hop on what they called the "tube" (subway train station) at Euston to head one stop northbound on the Victoria Line to King's Cross, which is where we caught the Eurostar train to Paris. Being as though I purposely stayed up the entire night before, once we found our seats, I remember cracking a couple of jokes here and there........and then I was OUT. The next thing I remember clearly was stopping in Paris for what turned out to be the quickest two-hour train ride in my entire life. I kind of staggered along and went through the motions while grabbing my bags and walking through the train station. It finally hit me: "Ummm... you MIGHT wanna start looking out for the promoter so you know where the hell y'all are going!" Just as I looked up to see if I noticed a "Sy Smith / Zo" handwritten sign, I noticed someone standing there holding our promo poster! Wow... It was our promoter Manuelle waiting to greet and walk us over to our hotel. When we got there, she checked us in and made sure everything went through without any problems and asked us if we would meet her back down in the lobby to go over the next two days... Impressive. Upon meeting back up, she took us over to the Bizz'art venue so that we were able to check it out. Our posters and advertisements were plastered all over the place. Then she asked the magic question... "Are you hungry?" And to be honest, I wasn't even that hungry... But dammit, this was Paris... and I wanted something to eat. So I requested just a sandwich of some sort, nothing major... just something small. Manuelle said that she knew of a place right around the corner that would be perfect. We walked over to a small spot around the corner from the venue where the guys working there seemed to know Manuelle fairly well - I saw this as a great thing, meaning they would take care of Sy and I too. With that being said, one of the guys asked me what I wanted and I requested a sandwich. I didn't know what I was in for... He pointed out a type of beef that he stated was very good... I told him to slice it up!! He then began to list the cheeses they had available... I was so excited that I chose TWO! "Yes! Put mozzarella AND parmesan cheese on there!" The next thing I knew, he started talking about one of my weakness foods... Sun-dried tomatoes. My excitement ALMOST got the best of me as I felt like cussing dude out while ordering...

"YES! Shit!! Put some damn sun-dried tomatoes on that bitch!!"

...But I held back and just decided to order them in a civilized fashion. What I took back to the hotel with me was too worthy of being called just a sandwich... That joint was a SAMMICH. I grabbed some cheddar and chives chips, me and Sy split a bottle of red wine at the hotel and lunch was served. ...Pardon the bite, taking the picture was SECOND on the priority list next to my wanting to take care of the food.

After completing an interview, we had good cry laugh listening to a Bizzy Bone interview that my boy Asylum 7 and I used to listen to and quote rather regularly. After that, the rest of the day was ours to do whatever with. So later on that night, we grabbed dinner at a spot right across the street from the hotel called Le Chateau Landon. Our waiter looked like a French Mario Brother... Dude had the handlebar mustache and everything. For me, he recommended the ribeye steak, which I ordered with a pepper sauce, cheese sauce, and a small salad. ALL of it was good. I even ate some of the fish off of Sy's plate and knocked out some those fries...

The day of the show began with me going downstairs into the hotel lobby and taking advantage of its free breakfast, which included... Croissants!!! I went down there and took care of about 4-5 of them and being that my sleep schedule in Europe is always ridiculously off, I went to bed after my meal and ended up waking up late to meet Manuelle and Sy for lunch at 1pm. I got myself together in record time after receiving the "where you at" call from Sy at about 1:15 or so. After rushing down to the lobby, Manuelle walked us to a spot on the way to the venue where she treated us to wine and some great food. I had a dish that combined whitefish with mashed potatoes, which I had NEVER seen before... The fish was mashed in WITH the potatoes with peppercorns on top of it, it was kinda crazy... but tasted wonderful. From there we walked over to Bizz'art where we were to meet up with the musicians and get a rehearsal in with them before the show. Now, I had already heard great things about these kats from N'Dambi and her manager, but to hear how good they sounded at that rehearsal as well as witnessing their preparation... I was thoroughly impressed. Kats had iPads with their charts in them, the keyboard player had all of the sounds he was gonna use for each song pre-programmed in his laptop. The drummer took the time to make sequences of EACH SONG just in case we wanted to have a backing track to play over. It is rare to find players who get this far into playing your work. It was just as impressive as it was appreciated by Sy and myself. After running through our set with the fellas, we ventured back to the hotel to change and get ready to give Paris more than their money's worth of a show. ...And then I got a knock on my door.... It was Sy. She looked a bit distraught as she explained to me that she just received word that she lost a good friend of hers who just happened to be Jeff "Fuzzy" Young lead singer of the group Something For the People ("My Love is the Shhh")... So from that moment on, our two shows were to be a dedication to his life and music. The way that Sy was able to take her grieving and transform it into positive energy used to perform without a hitch was a testament to her talent and extreme professionalism... And THIS is yet another reason why I will forever mess with some damn Sy Smith.

Performance-wise, the show was excellent, particularly for it being our first time performing as a 'duo.' We opened with "Nights Over Egypt" and the night continued to improve and progress from there. After absolutely going IN on Sy's music, we started in on some joints from SunStorm and ...just visiting too - Including a piano intro of "Greater Than the Sun,' which rolled directly into "Greatest Weapon Of All Time." We were joined on stage by The Roots' keyboardist Ray Angry during "MakeLuv2Me" which turned out to be One of my favorite moments of the show came when we played "Flight of the Blackbyrd." Excellent times... The Paris crowd NEVER disappoints as they were once again enthusiastic during the show and excited to meet with us after its completion. Matter of fact, they damn near bought up all of our merchandise leaving us with a limited supply for the next day in London! My only question is... So WHEN CAN WE COME BACK?!

Dear Macaroni & Cheese.. I Love You... Love, Zo.

2011-01-30T14:37:00.186-05:00

A Macaroniconic Creation by Zo!, Thanksgiving 2010

By now, it's no secret that me and food are extremely close and have a very special relationship. So much so, that each morning I wake up, it is not out of the norm for me to map out an entire day of meals in my head simply because I'm that excited about having a "clean slate" of menu choices... Oh yes y'all, it's serious. But there is one food in particular that I could probably eat at least once or twice a week for the rest of my life and I never get tired of it... Macaroni and damn cheese. Or to put it as the late, great Bernie Mac would probably put, Macaroni and... muthafuckincheese. To me, mac and cheese is "main dish material" while the chicken, steak, or whateverthehell that is served with it automatically becomes the side dish. Percentage-wise, my plate will run anywhere from 40-50% macaroni, and the rest will be left for the remaining 2-4 items that have been included for dinner. As a matter of fact, I'll tell y'all how I became ruined... In college, I learned how to make my own from scratch..... and perfect it. I then became an official "Macaroni Snob." Now, I can't even eat everybody's macaroni... Or better yet, I won't eat everybody's macaroni. I mean come on, you've had bad macaroni and cheese before...It's pretty much tragedy on a plate. It's even worse when someone hypes up a family member's mac dish to you...

"Maaaan, you've gotta try my aunt's macaroni... It's CRAZY!! Best you'll ever have!"

.........then you have a sample of it......... *delivers a STRONG screwface* and it tastes like some damn noodles with Kraft cheese slices sitting in milk. That is the WORST. You're left standing there damn near feeling sorry for the family as you wonder if that's the best they can do as a unit! *reminisces on Wonder Mike's last "Rapper's Delight" verse*

Now while I don't remember when or how my connection with this dish became so deep, I do know that it was early on in my life. With that being said, let me tell you a story.... Mac and cheese and I have a rich history.

Before I share this story, I need you to understand that I played baseball from the age of 9 until I was 22 years old and didn't break ANY bones. I played football a couple years in high school... NO broken bones. Matter of fact, I have had a broken bone only ONE time in my life... I was in kindergarten, which probably meant that I was all of about 5 years old and I was doing what most little kids do during the day - "Plaaaaaying" © The classic 5-year old answer to "What have you been doing today?" Well, in the middle of my playing around... Moms made an announcement that absolutely made my entire day.

"I'm making macaroni for dinner..."

I know what you're thinking... "Your mother made macaroni for dinner, ONLY?!" NO. See, that's the only thing I remember HEARING. To ME, whatever she said probably sounded like this...

"I'm making MACARONI and dfnkjandsljnf and nfjdlkadjsnfanadn for dinner..."

From that information, a shot of adrenaline went through my body that resulted in my jumping up and down repeatedly literally cheering for my mother and yelling her praises so loudly that the whole house could hear it, that is until...................... *hangs head in shame* I lost my balance. Instead of jumping up and down and landing on my feet, I somehow lost my footing as some young kids do and I landed on my left arm. My excitement instantly turned to pain and my "hip, hip hoorayin'" turned into some pretty intense crying as the bone in my forearm made my arm look like I had two elbows. My father who was home and heard me crying in pain sat down and "re-set" my arm a/k/a put the bone back in its place BEFORE going into ER. I can remember going to the emergency room and getting the official word that I had in fact broken my left arm. They put that itchy ass plaster cast on my arm to wear for 8 weeks or so. I remember going to school and having my little unsteady handed friends sign with their "well wishes." Pure hilarity. I even remember getting the cast OFF and thinking about how light my arm felt now that it was free. Anyway, I'm telling this story to get to the bottom line.... and the bottom line is: I broke my arm due to excitement caused by... MACARONI AND CHEESE. Now if that ain't some history.....

...and after all that, I don't think I even GOT any mac and cheese that night.

Behold... My Acting Debut - Co-Starring in Conya Doss' "All In You" Video

2011-01-28T00:10:00.000-05:00

Y'all enjoy this one... I'll give the background story a little later on.

The Foreign Exchange in Europe: Day 5 - Köln

2011-01-11T03:46:00.017-05:00

I'll be completely honest, I was mad as hell when my cell phone alarm went off to wake me up in the morning because in true "Zo! on the FE European Tour" fashion, I only got 2 or 3 hours of sleep and fell asleep laughing at random nignorance on YouTube. Why?... Because the wi-fi was free of course! Anyway, I started the day off with a breakfast of repeat champions - A croissant and apple juice (taken from the venue's backstage area the night before) which looked like what I called a "grown man's juice box." For the record, every croissant I had in France was absolutely ridiculous. I was looking to see if there was some jelly or something...Didn't need it, those joints melted when eaten.
We finally got on the road around noon for the four-hour drive to Köln. Now anyone who knows me understands that I have somewhat of an obsession with all things food, so you may be able to imagine how excited I was to discover the fact that Schweppes made other flavors of pop (<-- Midwest shiff) outside of ginger ale. At our first stop, I picked up a salad and a LEMON flavored Schweppes and damn if it didn't taste delicious!! Little things make my day, so please just bare with me. Our SECOND stop on the road landed us somewhere in Belgium. When we pulled up, the rest stop didn't even look like it was open for business. There were a few cars scattered here and there throughout the parking area and more trash than actual trash cans. Once we walked up to the place, the doors slid open automatically and there were a few people already sitting down enjoying a meal. Out of curiosity, I decided to take a look at what was on the menu in the spot... while there wasn't too much of a menu, they did have a very interesting variety of food choices spread out in the display case... Including grizzly. I wasn't feeling daring enough to take a risk on such a wide variety of mystery meat, so I went over to the vending machine and bought a Kit Kat, which seemed pretty safe to me.... Until I bit into it. I think it had been in the vending machine since the "...Break me offa piece of that Kit Kat bar" commercials... The joint tasted like chocolate covered wood chips. But I ate it anyway... Hell, what can I say I was hungry. We got back on the road and it was amazing to me to cross the border into Germany and see the language on the signs change instantly from French to German in the matter of a few... meters. We don't get to see things like that crossing from Maryland into Virginia... I mean, the driving may get a little worse, but no primary language change. lol And when I lived in Michigan, we used to have to go through a series of personal questions and show off 28 qualifying credentials before getting to cross the border and seeing something different in Canada. So to simply drive into a different country uninterrupted was a different experience for me.
Pulling up to the venue (Bahnhof Ehrenfeld), we were all looking pretty confused... "Is this it? Is this the place?" It must be... This is where the navigation system directed us to and GPS is always correct and accurate, right?................. (no) The GPS was actually correct this time and we were able to walk right into the spot and begin to soundcheck, which took all of about an hour and a half... we were there for a minute. At this point, all I wanted was some food and some wi-fi. I was in luck... Soon after soundchecking, the promoter took us to our green room area, which was across the street from the venue itself... hmmm, now this is different. A green room across the street from the venue? I was told that not only did they have free wi-fi, but they were planning to feed us pretty well for dinner. I'm ON IT!! Kats got into the green room and started plugging in laptops, connecting the net to their phones like some damn fiends... That lasted until they brought that food out - Turkey schnitzel (I was on the net by this time and Googled it so I was completely aware of what I was about to show no mercy on LOL), rice, curry sauce, and potatoes with roasted tomatoes, onions, etc... Maaaaaaan, look. This was the best meal we've had on the trip, PERIOD. I would have taken a picture of the food, but I wasn't even THINKING about it at the time, I wanted to eat immediately. And dammit, Germany came through on the food. I partook in a second....... and a third helping of this wonderful food, I just couldn't let it go to waste as it looked so lonely in the serving trays. At that point, it was time to turn around and check-in to the hotel where we had about an hour to get ready before having to roll right back to the venue.
We walked into the venue and the entire crowd of people was waiting in the bar area of the place rather than by the stage. I remember thinking, "Damn.. that's different." Once we arrived backstage, the people began to file into the main stage area. The one thing that stands out to me about the stage was that it was much higher than normal, but once again when the music started... the height of the stage and the language barrier didn't really matter too much at all. This was also The Foreign Exchange's first show in Germany so it didn't take the crowd long to get into what we were playing. Plus, it was the fourth show on the tour so by this time we were so locked in musically that our comfort levels allowed us to become much more loose on stage. At one time, I thought I was about to pass out laughing as Phonte introduced the crowd to one of the crew's inside jokes...comedy in its purest form. Germany rocked with us though and there was a group of kats who stood right up front in the middle that knew damn near ALL of the words. They were with us all the way to "Maybe She'll Dream of Me" when the damn house sound went out COMPLETELY. Not good after a 90-minute soundcheck huh?... It finally kicked back in after about the first verse... :-/ The show concluded with the crowd calling us to come back out for an encore and of course us going into the crowd to greet everyone who came out. Germany showed a ton of love and made it known to me that they were very grateful to have us there performing. And to prove how small this world is - I even ran into a dude who played college baseball at Vanderbilt almost the same time I was in school and we played against each other from 1997 - 2000. We started reminiscing on the WKU vs. Vandy matchup, the stadiums, and I made SURE to bring up the fact that I hit a grand slam off of them to contribute to our victory over them when we played them at home my sophomore year. lol Great times in Germany...

Photo by Jumana Mensah

Now, onto some rest and relaxation in Amsterdam!!

The Foreign Exchange in Europe: Day 4 - Paris

2011-01-09T06:23:00.003-05:00

I was completely unable to get any type of sleep on the Jr. twin beds at the Backstage Hotel, so I ended up waking up at about 6am and just staying up to take advantage of the lovely free wi-fi provided by the hotel. I went down to the lobby area to put some breakfast together, which was cool because if you were "with the band" you were allowed to just go into the kitchen and help ya damn self straight outta the refrigerator. Talk about making yourself feel at home... Lobby call was not too long after that, so I gathered my bags and carried them down the hotel's steep, narrow ass steps and grabbed a seat in the lobby to wait. Now allow me to explain something real quick... when traveling with nine people at a time with luggage, it is ALWAYS an adventure. "Say it with me one time" © Dilla... Ad-ven-ture. And today was no exception...

The rental car place in Amsterdam would not allow us to rent a second car due to some credit card issue. Ok, cool... Let's get someone else out whose card matched their driver's license information or whatever the problem is so we can all roll out. NO, not that easy. We went through this process with a couple different people before finally being able to find someone whose information agreed with their system. Let's keep in mind that the rental spot was 25 minutes away from the hotel. So every time we had to try a new person's card, there was another 25-minute commute involved each way AND the place closed at 1pm... See? Adventurous. Anyway, we were finally able to get our hands on the two cars and were Paris-bound at about 2pm, which means we should make it to the city at around 6/6:30pm, hit sound check, check in to the hotel, play the show, right? ...Now what word did I ask you to remember earlier?
Once again, due to my lack of sleeping in the kid sized bed at the hotel, I was pretty much DONE in the car ride to Paris. I woke up when we stopped for food, but other than that it was pretty much a wrap for me in the front seat of that car. This means that the majority of the drive was nonexistent... But I do know this, the last time I woke up, the clock read 7:45pm and we were in some THICK traffic. I'm talking about the opening scene of Office Space-type of traffic. It was then that I finally realized, "Oh shit... I'm in Paris!" I immediately pulled my camera out and started snapping pictures from the car. I wasn't sure what time the show was, but I thought we were still in pretty good shape despite the fact that we lost a couple of hours as a direct result of the city's bumper-to-bumper issues. This wasn't the case either. We were gonna have to get into serious rush mode as soon as the car came to a complete stop... Unfortunately, I wasn't aware of this until the car came to a complete stop. lol
Upon our arrival, I could see the line of people waiting to get into the venue. The good thing was they looked pretty excited to see us pull up. But we had to take everything we had into the spot because the traffic set us so far back time-wise that we were only allotted enough time to do a quick line check, change clothes, and play the show. So we rushed through a soundcheck, changed clothes (I snacked on a croissant or two backstage in the meantime, which were the BEST I've ever had in my life... LAWD!!), and were prepared to hit the stage...
Now when I tell y'all that the Paris crowd was hype as hell.... MAN. From start to finish, they were READY for a show and honestly, I don't think I've ever played in front of a crowd that enthusiastic before. They were into it from the minute we set foot on the stage... Dancing, screaming, chanting, yelling our names out all during the show... It was beyond crazy. At one point in the show, they had a "Sy Smeet!! Sy Smeet!! Sy Smeet!!" chant going (That's my horrible attempt at a French accent saying "Sy Smith" for those of you who may be a bit lost there). Despite being pressed for time, the crowd hung with us through every single song.. and they partied. We were called back out after the show for an encore and we gave them "Crazy You" off of the ...just visiting too album just so they could have their fair share of some "Sy Smeet." But then, they were even more excited when we walked back out into the crowd after the show to greet everyone. It was an excellent feeling once again to be a witness to those whose lives you have touched with music, there aren't any words to describe what I was feeling while talking with the Paris crowd.
While the show was an absolute success, what is the word that we cannot escape while on the road? Ahhh, yes... of course - Adventure. Someone told us that the hotel was "only 150 meters" from the venue. Of course after hearing that and the fact that there was no parking available around the hotel, we all decided to walk it on over to the hotel. Maaaaan, about a mile and a half later with luggage and a steady rain in our faces, we finally made it to our destination! At least the hotel had free wi-fi once we got there, along with room keys that were attached to damn door handles. What a night... Well, no sleep tonight and it's off to Germany!

The Foreign Exchange In Europe: Day 3 - Amsterdam

2011-01-08T01:45:00.000-05:00

Still on a high from the the first London show, I was damn near about to stay up all night until we were to meet up in the lobby and get ready to hit the train from London to our next stop... Amsterdam. I did actually end up falling asleep, but only for a couple of hours. Woke back up, threw my things in the suitcase and prepared myself for a train ride. I wasn't aware that we were to catch a second train in Brussels, which was no problem, but the connection was made interesting because there was about a ten minute window between trains. We were given fair warning while we traveled on the first train, so as soon as the ride was complete, we knew we needed to hop up, unload luggage for nine and hurry up to that second train. And this is exactly what happened... We were all by the luggage racks before the train even came to a complete stop. Once it halted, we opened that door, two people stepped outside to receive bags as a few of us stayed inside to pass them down. After making sure everyone's bag was accounted for, the pace went from leisurely walk to swiftwalk/powerjog. As we walked up, the train was about 2 minutes away from it's equivalent to "All Aboard!" call. Thank GOD our first train arrived approximately 7 minutes early, or else we would have been a bit short. But we made it and all was good... well, kinda. We got our seats and because of my lack of sleep the night before, I was knocked OUT. When I woke up, everyone who was sitting near me was gone. I saw no Phonte, I saw no Ab... and my heart skipped about three beats and lack of sleep turned into the absence of logic, "These kats LEFT me in Europe!" But then I looked up and happened to see Nicolay and figured that I was still good to go... but I was still kind of curious as to why kats just got up and left their seats like that. Fatigue overtook my curiosity at the time, and I fell right back to sleep. I woke up again and found that we weren't in Amsterdam yet, but I do remember smelling something a little funny. I looked around a little bit, didn't notice anything out of the ordinary and laid my head back for more sleep. Finally, upon making it to our destination, the only thing I wanted to do was put something in my stomach. So I grabbed a quick sandwich, chips, and Vitamin Water at the station before we caught a couple of cabs to the venue, Paradiso. While waiting for the two cabs, Phonte and Ab started telling me why they changed their seats so abruptly.

"Maaaan, you were OUT on that train so you didn't even see what happened!"

I'm standing there in suspense, like... "Can y'all please tell me what the hell happened on that train ride?"

"Man, this girl hurled on the train! She threw up on herself AND her friend!"

Oh damn... I KNEW something smelled like vomit, but I was so tired that as long as none was touching me I was good in my seat with my sleep. Needless to say, I didn't feel too far out of the loop by missing someone throwing up on the train... So thank goodness for catching up on sleep.
I heard before the show that Paradiso was a large venue, and kats weren't lying. We had a TON of space on that stage to maneuver and I'm not exactly sure how many people the place holds, but I could tell that it was significantly bigger than Cargo. It actually kind of reminded me somewhat of NYC's Highline Ballroom.

Photo by Sarah Jane Van Beek

Once the show began, I wasn't sure what to expect from the Amsterdam crowd. They were definitely there in numbers, but it took them a second to warm up. But once they did, I saw a ton of people dancing around and having a great time. It's always interesting to me when I see kats who speak a different language able to recite lyrics to a song WORD FOR WORD. I LOVE that. I was checking for it all night long because up until then I had never seen it happen first hand - further proof that music is the universal language. Holland partied with us, sang with us, and even laughed with us when we improvised on stage (i.e. the Gospel-influenced "Pay My Bills" joint). And the people were friendly as hell when I came back out to greet - including a kat who approached me and said that he traveled from Italy to see the show. Dude was all smiles and so excited. The fact that he didn't speak or understand too much English made it even more of an experience for me. Our music and performance had just made his night and what a helluva thing to be able to do. To bring that much joy to someone that you can barely communicate with?! Music is POWERFUL. I also had the pleasure of meeting Nicolay's family who came out there about 20 deep, including his mother, father, siblings and cousins... very good people. I was also able to get up with a good friend of mine who I used to teach with in D.C. who now lives in Amsterdam. Now that was a good feeling to be able to meet up six time zones away from home. Bottom line: The Amsterdam show was a WIN.
Of course the "Post-Game Meal" was in order after the show. So our homegirl Pay pointed us in the right direction through the square where there was a spot called Wok To Walk. Maaaaan, you talk about a damn food victory?! Phonte, Ab, and myself picked that menu up and ordered with enthusiasm in our voices (Ab had already visited the spot already, so kats were thoroughly excited about the place already). When dude called our first names individually to come up and get our plates, kats hit the George Jefferson speedwalk while waving one hand behind us to get this food. Wok To Walk officially provided me with my first satisfying meal of the European Tour.
From there we retreated back to our hotel... The Backstage Hotel. With a name like that, it was pretty obvious that they catered to bands, artists, etc. The place was dope design-wise. It had a ton of different old show promotion posters up, guitars on the walls... Even the rooms were furnished with road-ready travel case material. It was kinda crazy. And free wi-fi too?! This has is too good to be true!! Well, it was... Once again, I was in a bed that didn't fit my body. Matter of fact, it was smaller than the London hotel bed. I was so afraid that I would fall off of the damn bed and get stuck in BETWEEN the two beds. Luckily that didn't happen though... Up late again until we're off to the next city.

The Foreign Exchange In Europe: Day 1/2 - London

2011-01-06T21:44:00.032-05:00

Call me what you want... but when I went in to the school to teach today, I was definitely more focused on how my first shows and performances in Europe were gonna go moreso than the activities occurring in my own classroom - I can't lie. I would catch myself zoning out rather regularly throughout the workday, only because I was so anxious to not only see what it was like in the U.K., but I wanted to check out London's response to our music and actually be able to shake hands with everyone and thank them for supporting for all these years. So you can imagine how quickly I rushed outta that school when 3:30pm came around so that I could get some last minute running around done before finally getting on the road to Dulles Airport. I made sure to pack half of a library, iPod, and all other essentials to keep me busy for the upcoming 7-hour plane ride to Heathrow. I even made sure to grab a nice skrong draink to down fairly quickly to help with the napping process. Met up with our bass player, Kush in the terminal not too long before boarding the plane and got it moving to our gate. Apparently the Strong Island Iced Tea that I had assisted me in my quest for sleep because the entire plane ride over, I attempted to watch the movie "Wall Street 2" and could NOT make it through the entire thing... shameful considering the fact that I had over seven hours to do so. I would wake up to rolling credits, rewind it.... doze off again and wake up to another part in the movie that was completely unfamiliar looking to me. COme to think of it, I didn't even stay awake long enough to catch the take-off. When I woke up the first time, I thought we were still taxiing on the damn runway... until I leaned forward to look out of a window and found out that this was NOT the case. By that time we were 30,000 feet in the air pretty much set at our cruising altitude. While the plane ride wasn't too bad at all (I think my much needed sleep played a significant part in that as well), the length of my legs require my upgrading the seat on the return flight, so uh-ruh... I'll be doing that for next week. Once we arrived, of course we had to fill out our "landing card" before making our way through UK customs. Passports and work permits were presented, and we were good to go. We walked down to baggage REclaim as they call it and picked up our bags, connected with our people and were out. I didn't know what to expect once I arrived in London. The first thing I noticed was the consistent rain... It wasn't pouring, but it was certainly dreary as all hell. This didn't stop me from having my camera out at all times snapping pictures of any and ALL things on the drive to the hotel. Once we arrived at the hotel and got up to the room, I walked in and saw the size of the beds... Lawd.

When I laid stomach-down on the bed to connect my laptop to the net, even with me positioning myself diagonally my feet were STILL on the wall. lol The free wi-fi was non-existent at the Thistle Hotel as I had to kick out £9.99 ($15.55) for just 24 hours of low-speed net access. I love it.

I went on a food mission that didn't take me far at all as I was on foot and the rain had picked up pretty significantly by this time. I ventured across the street to a hole-in-the-wall spot and got a simple chicken sandwich and chips. The sandwich consisted of... well... a grilled chicken patty on a bun. Therefore, you will find NO pics of this plate on the net as I had to doctor it up to the point that I damn near remade the thing. Had to throw that meal down pretty quickly in order to make it to soundcheck/rehearsal on time as we had to run the entire set with a new drummer for the tour, Laurie Lowe... Our regular drummer, Biscuit was unable to make the trip with us this time. We made it up to Cargo, which looked like a nice spot to me... and more importantly, once soundcheck started the soundman got our levels right and had us sounding GOOD together. So at this point, I was even MORE hyped up than before for the show to begin. We hurried back to the room for a QUICK turnaround of about 30 minutes, just enough time for a quick shower and a change of clothes. It was at this very moment that I realized I would have to supply myself with my own washcloths upon returning to Europe because there aren't any in the hotel rooms. I used a hand towel to wash up with... Just a side note. lol

We rode back to the Cargo and found out that we had to walk through the crowd to get to the dressing room... Welp! Ok... The funny thing is, I looked up and a flashlight ended up in MY hand to lead the crew through this packed up ass, shoulder-to-shoulder crowd. So I'm stumbling through people in order to clear the way for the crew, with a flashlight in hand looking like damn security of the first world. I could hear a couple people calling out our individual names as they gradually started to realize who was pushing their way through them. I even heard a few people say, "Zo!" ...and others say, "Zo?" as I walked by them.
At the start of the show, I could already tell it was gonna be a night for the books. London was READY... We came out, and they were into the show from start to finish... From crowd response and participation to knowing all the words to the songs... they were ready to go. The personal highlight of the night for me on stage was the response I heard from Phonte simply saying, "I've got my man Zo on the keys." The people got LOUD... The reaction caught me COMPLETELY off guard... so much to the point that I had to STOP playing the keyboard and just kinda stand there looking extra surprised. I couldn't do anything but look at my kats on stage and say simply, "Wooooow." Actually, someone asked me later on, "Why did you look so surprised when the crowd cheered for you?" Maaaaan, look. I haven't heard a reception like that outside of Detroit and D.C. Very rewarding and humbling experience. Then to be able to walk right back out into the crowd after the show to take pictures, shake hands, sign albums, and greet everyone who has been following FE's music and some who have been following my music for years was a huge bonus for me. Overall, the show was the perfect opening show for the European Tour run. Playing to a sold-out, hyped up crowd in a spot that I have never been before. Sounds pretty damn great to me.

AFTER the show, I was in for a not so great surprise as I decided to order the "Jerk Chicken Sandwich" at the venue and upon its arrival, I discovered that it was actually grilled chicken cutlets with lettuce and some damn chipotle mayo. :-/ Someone took it even further than that and ordered some calamari... I won't even comment on it. I'll just show you the picture.
Regardless, one a helluva show in London...... If this is any indication of how the remainder of this tour will be, then I. Can't. WAIT for more.

Zo! + Sy Smith @ The Jazz Café in London!! - March 6, 2011

2010-12-28T14:22:00.005-05:00

I'm very excited to announce that I'll be co-headlining the Jazz Café in London on March 6th, 2011 with one of my favorite people... the immensely talented Sy Smith. I'm really looking forward to making my Jazz Café debut as I have been told for years that it's one of the historically rich spots to play in... aaaand my pulse rate spiked as I just typed that.

You can get your tickets here...

UK, it looks like I will now see you in January AND in March. Have some good food waiting for me please....!!

Student Quotables... Volume II

2010-12-24T14:06:00.002-05:00

This is a continuation from the FIRST installment of student quotables... Just keep in mind, I can NOT make any of this up. Enjoy!

• One of the so-called tough persona students decided to get himself caught up in a situation where he was looking at catching an assault charge. While being questioned by the police in regards to naming who did it, he responds with the classic line...

"Now I ain't no SNITCH... But uhhh...... All I'm sayin is....... Tony did it." I love it...

• After getting a "Soldier" tattoo on his forearm that was spelled "S-O-I-L-D-E-R," one of the students defended himself with...

"That's how we spell it in the STREETS!"

• Cultural Awareness...
"Maaan, you can't be out here stealing, you've gotta get a job! Don't you know it's a reception out here?!"

• Music Appreciation... (directed to me)
"Man, you always playing the classics! Why don't you play something new like 50 Cent's "In Da Club?" ...Word? This same kid told me that John Legend was old school... *shrug*

• On Tupac
"2Pac is still alive! I just saw him in a picture with Rihanna!"

• Geography Lesson
A student of mine walked into class with a pendant of Africa around his neck. He was not expecting me to quiz him about the continent. FIrst, he told me that Africa was a "state", to which I responded, "So who's the governor of Arfica then?"

After explaining to the boy that Africa was a continent and not a state, I asked him to name just ONE country in Africa... He responded with, "Peru"

• Teacher: "If one side of the Earth is light, what is the other side?"
Student: "Heavy"

• Teacher: "How many minutes are in a half hour?"
Student: "15"
Teacher: "So how many minutes are in an hour then?"
Student: "5?"

SoulBounce Names Zo! Their 2010 Producer Of the Year!

2010-12-23T17:50:00.003-05:00

Source: SoulBounce · By Ivory

While here at the SB headquarters we don't always see eye-to-eye in terms of music, one thing we do agree on is that 2010 was, indeed, the year of Lorenzo Ferguson better known to all as Zo!. Many of the Detroit-bred, D.C.-based multi-instrumentalist and producer's melodies provided the soundtrack to our 2010. Let's face it, he seemed to be everywhere this year. Zo! managed to hit us off with stellar production work nearly every season this year, making him easily the SoulBounce Honors 2010 Producer of the Year.

Zo! kicked things off in the spring, when his fellow Foreign Exchange Music labelmate YahZarah released her highly-anticipated album, The Ballad of Purple Saint James. He lent his production talents to her single "Cry Over You" featuring Phonte. The funky, upbeat track provided the perfect backdrop for YahZarah's sassy rebound tale.

By the time the summer release of his own full-length FE Music debut, SunStorm, we were practically foaming at the mouth with anticipation of the musical delicacies our ears were about to feast on. And boy, did he not disappoint. Drawing comparisions to Stevie Wonder's Songs in the Key of Life, SunStorm served up a delicious composition of musicianship and artistry. As previously stated in our review of the album, "While some producers may stumble when their musical ambitions find them dabbling in different genres, Zo! expertly navigates vast musical terrain." Nearly six months later, this album continues to amaze with his wide-range of talents, sprinkling in a dash of jazz here, a spoonful of broken beat there and a whole lotta fun, spirited soul and hip-hop ingredients in between.

In with the cool weather of the fall, came the equally-cool third group project, Authenticity, from The Foreign Exchange. While most production was still held-down by FE co-founder Nicolay, Zo!'s fingerprints still remained all over this album. Picking up where the group's previous project, Leave It All Behind, left all, this album was melancholy and slightly-experimental, where LIAB was hopeful and soulful. Zo! even took a turn on the mic--albeit a talkbox mic--on "Don't Wait." Whether he was leading us through the highs of love or guiding us through the dreary days of heartbreak, Zo! consistently used his musical prowess to help bring the vivid emotions to life. Through his fingertips, we were able to feel sentiment just as clearly as we could hear it.

And to think, Zo! managed to deliver a crop of good music all while holding down a full-time gig as a music teacher in Washington, D.C. By showcasing us such a versatile range of musical portraits in 2010, we can only imagine what Zo! has in store for us in 2011. If next year is anything like this past one has been, then you better make room on your iPods for more phenemonal music.

SoulTracks Critics Choose 'SunStorm' As One Of "The Best Albums of 2010"

2010-12-21T13:52:00.004-05:00

Source: SoulTracks.com

It is always fun at the end of each year to celebrate the best of that year. And 2010 had a lot of great music.

And so we've lassoed our music critics to each pick their favorites, which we've assembled below in alphabetical order (by artist name). These are uniformly releases with which you can't go wrong -- or so our critics say. Looking for a Christmas gift for a music lover? Then spend some time with these winners.

The toughest part of this is limiting the choices, but, imperfect as they are, here are the selections from Peggy Oliver (PO), Detrel Howell (DH), Reg Jones (RJ), Chris Rizik (CR), L. Michael Gipson (LMG), Melody Charles (MC), J Matthew Cobb (JMC) and Howard Dukes (HD). Also, each album cover is a link to either CD Baby or Amazon, where you can generally listen to clips from the disc or where you can purchase it.

We know these picks will have SoulTrackers talking. So be sure to comment below to let us know what we did right and what we missed!

TGRIOnline.com reviews N'Dambi and Zo! Dec. 10th Show at Black Cat, Washington DC

2010-12-20T14:46:00.000-05:00

Source: True Genius Requires Insanity · By Marcus Dowling

On paper, a night featuring heralded underground soul songstress N'Dambi and local DC cause celebre with national trending aspirations Zo! (government name Lorenzo Ferguson) sounds like a recipe for success. The two artists represent the twin hopes for traditional rhythm and blues style in the 21st century. N'Dambi, a former backup singer for Erykah Badu, carries forth the Nona Hendryx meets Nina Simone style artistry of her mentor, music as art, art as music, a funky melange of rock and soul. Zo!, alongside his Foreign Exchange Records supported "Sunstorm All Stars" supporting cast is a producer, composer and songwriter par excellence, a little bit of Isaac Hayes, a little bit of Smokey Robinson, with a spoonful of Ramsey Lewis tossed in for good measure, a feel good sultry blend of adult contemporary music. He's not concerned with popping bottles, he's concerned with getting deeper into the heart of the matter. However, on this night in Washington, DC, what was drawn up on paper, failed to materialize, as a night with the best of intentions fell short of their destination.

This is not to say that it was a night that was without spellbinding performances. Zo and his Sunstorm All Stars are the best live act in soul music today. Having witnessed their live show twice this year, it's easily the best ticket in the genre. It has everything you'd expect from the more mainstream side of R & B, just not wrapped in a broadcloth of tawdry behavior. This is classic music by extremely talented musicians who know what that means. Lead single from Zo's latest album Sunstorm, "This Could Be The Night" is a sensual jam with a George Benson swing, meaning that for more modern ears, it recalls Montell Jordan's "Get It On Tonight," in that it's grown and sexy without being debased. The set features the ever dapper Ferguson behind a dual decker keyboard and organ, a consummate band leader, leading his charges through a tightly produced set that highlights exquisite artistry. Though Monica Blaire was not present, Deborah Bond's take on the 11 minute suite "Make Love To Me" was absolutely magical. The song is a moody jazz winner, allowing for a virtuoso female vocalist to improvise and reach an orgasmic peak under the blanket of restrained elegance. If not aware, it is the year's finest soul performance, and absolutely worthy of consideration for achievement.

This is not to say that the performance by the Grammy nominated N'Dambi was by any means without merit. She's a toned statuesque rock star with great presence and a glorious red dyed afro/mohawk. Her album Pink Elephant is a heartfelt, earnest and well meaning melancholy burner of a soul record. Owing a great deal more to a bohemian aesthetic than the uptown swing of Ferguson, the performance was not entirely well received by a crowd who had been inspired to move, groove, get turned on and turned out by the Sunstorm All-Stars. If she followed a more muted performer, the likelihood of an entire room being captivated by her would have occurred, however this was not the case. Opener "L.I.E.," a tale of a cheating male who travels to his lady loves along both ends of the thoroughfare is excellent, as was the single most responsible for Pink Elephant's success, "Can't Hardly Wait." In abiding by a performance standard that involves a loose band performance, and an insistence upon intimate discussion, for the N'Dambi loyalist, it was an ideal environment. However, if looking to be blown away by a performance, that would appear to not be her strongest suit as a live artist. Adopting some of the more captivating aspects of the live performance of her mentor Ms. Badu is an absolute necessity.

Overall, this was a phenomenal evening of diverse styles of soul music. However, in slotting the honed and crafted Sunstorm All-Stars in front of the thinking woman's sensual bohemain jam session of N'Dambi, the night was a study in styles instead of a fully realized total night of complete entertainment.

Zo! + N'Dambi @ The Black Cat in Washington D.C. - Friday, December 10th

2010-12-07T02:52:00.003-05:00

On Friday December 10th, I'll be presenting my latest release, SunStorm LIVE along with my band, vocalists Kenny Wesley, Deborah Bond, and my brovah from anothah, Phonte. This will take place at the Black Cat in Washington D.C. opening for Dallas-bred vocalist, N'Dambi. I hope to see a lot of you all there as this will be a helluva show...!!

The Foreign Exchange Overseas Tour Schedule

2010-12-07T02:39:00.004-05:00

Well, I'm happy to announce that not only will I be visiting Europe for the first time in my life, but I'll be over there playing keys with The Foreign Exchange. The run begins in London, then continues to Amsterdam, Paris, Cologne, while ending in London as well. Check the dates and maybe I'll see you at a show. In the meantime, I'll be purchasing a brand new memory card for my camera as I'll be doing nothing but snapping pictures and getting ready to try all types of FOOD. YES Lawd!!

Thu Jan 6, 2011 at 7:00 PM
soulBEAUTIFUL inc presents · Cargo, London UK
The Foreign Exchange (Phonte + Nicolay) with live band
View Details · BUY TICKETS

Fri Jan 7, 2011 at 7:30 PM
Holland's Got Soul · Paradiso, Amsterdam NL
The Foreign Exchange (Phonte + Nicolay) with live band
View Details · BUY TICKETS

Sat Jan 8, 2011 at 7:00 PM
Free Your Funk presents · La Bellevilloise, Paris FR
The Foreign Exchange (Phonte + Nicolay) with live band
View Details · BUY TICKETS

Sun Jan 9, 2011 at 7:00 PM
Club Bahnhof Ehrenfeld, Koln DE
The Foreign Exchange (Phonte + Nicolay) with live band
View Details · BUY TICKETS

Wed Jan 12, 2011 at 7:00 PM
soulBEAUTIFUL inc presents · Cargo, London UK
The Foreign Exchange (Phonte + Nicolay) with live band
View Details · BUY TICKETS

SunStorm To Be Released on VINYL!

2010-12-02T22:40:00.000-05:00

Cheesing and holding the brand new test pressings

Finally!! My first full-length album released in vinyl format. I have just approved all of the proofs for the cover and labels, so it's just a matter of time now... Stay tuned. SunStorm will soon be available on VINYL!

Zo! - Studio Time... Vol. 4

2010-11-07T16:58:00.002-05:00

Bobby Caldwell's "Open Your Eyes" is a joint that I've always enjoyed. Common and Dilla put their spin on it when they introduced us to "The Light" and it has since become a very well recognizable song, especially when the second verse comes in with "There are tiiiiiiimes....."

The chord changes are beautiful and I have been working with the music for a few days now... even worked in a "hand separation" drill at the end of it where my left hand does something consistent and my right hand solos. I finally got the nerve up to record myself... I think it came out ok.

Enjoy...!

'SunStorm' Earns Two 2010 SoulTracks Nominations

2010-10-19T22:57:00.009-04:00

Earlier today, the finalists were announced for the 2010 SoulTracks Readers' Choice Awards and after narrowing down each category from 20 entries/per, left standing among the finalists for Song of the Year with "Greatest Weapon Of All Time" (feat. Sy Smtih) and Independent Album of the Year with SunStorm!

If you would like to vote for these categories, here are the official rules via SoulTracks.com:

Voting ballots will be sent out by email on Thursday, October 21st. You must be a SoulTracks email subscriber to receive a voting ballot. If you aren't a subscriber, just sign up at the top left side of this page. It's FREE! Folks who sign up after October 21st will receive their ballots within 24 hours.

The awards will be broadcast on Tuesday, December 7th at 8:00pm!

I'm pretty excited as I have never been nominated for anything in my musical career. So to even be recognized for the hard work that we all put forth toward this album and its songs is an honor. Hopefully, these nominations are the first of many to come... Thank you for supporting!

The Couch Sessions Interview

2010-10-19T00:27:00.000-04:00

INTERVIEW: Zo! creates a SunStorm at CMJ

Written by: sondai

If you see me walking down the street with these bright green and blue earbuds on I am more than likely listening to one of two play lists (not that the others on the iPod are garbage but I am just in this mood…). The first being a recently acquired dedication to moi from a certain BK producer and the second being my tried and true “nothing can touch me when this album is playing” album. That would be the latest from Detroit area native Zo!, SunStorm is on constant rotation. 12 full bodied tracks of nothing but good music with some major voices from Lady Alma, YahZarah, Darien Brockington to Monica Blaire and Phonte. I was fortunate enough to get on this brother’s dance card and ask him a few questions about his musical decisions that have lead him to this space in time.

So how did a Michigan native migrate to the DMV? What was the deciding factor for your move?

Before I moved, I was contemplating either coming to the East Coast or moving out west. I decided to move east because there are so many different markets and cities up and down I-95 that I felt it would be beneficial to advancing my musical career. The fact that I have a ton of family in Maryland made the move a bit more natural… It was fairly easy to get adjusted out this way.

Coming from such a historic place in the music game do you feel like there are different standards that you must adhere to?

Well, I know that I am my own worst critic… I don’t like too much of anything. I think that the area I’m from has an influence on my standards, yes….But it also has to do with the company I keep in The Foreign Exchange family and the way that I want to have my music presented as well. The standards are sky high, and that’s how I like it. It keeps me not only grounded as an artist but heavily motivated to continue to raise those standards with each piece of work.

What or who have been your musical influences/inspirations?

My first and major influences are my parents, they are the ones who brought me up around great music as well as the ones who pushed me to play piano growing up although I absolutely HATED it. It was their push and support that has gotten me to this point and that’s huge because on too many occasions you hear stories of artists’ loved ones not supporting them in their careers, so I consider myself extremely blessed to have had them in my corner from day one.

On your latest endeavor, SunStorm, you have a host of talent that you have worked with… How hard was it to coordinate schedules to work on this project? What were your biggest challenges?

I think the fact that there were TWO people (Phonte and I) making sure things ran smoothly rather than just me helped a WHOLE lot in regards to coordinating schedules and making sure that deadlines were honored, etc. Schedule conflicts were definitely the biggest challenges, I mean… we were working with some of the best out there, artists who are in high demand. So kats were on the road, in the studio working on other things, or just caught up in general. But the fact that they ALL came through and recorded for my album as if it was a lead single for their own was absolutely flattering to me. Even now, three months later I sit back and kinda shake my head at that because as a producer, I feel like I’ve done my job, which is bringing the best out of the artists you work with… and vice versa of course.

How did your connection to Phonte and Nicolay, Foreign Exchange, develop?

It came directly through Phonte who I met back in 2005. Right after I finished working on the “If She Breaks Your Heart” record for Leave It All Behind, Phonte kept telling me that when FE goes out on the road to tour the album, he wanted to include me. I ended up pulling together my kats from here in DC to complete the full band and about a year and a half later, we were all on stage in NYC playing the first of many FE shows to come.
I must say as a listener I am in love with SunStorm. Which tracks did you enjoy creating the most? Which tracks have the most stories behind them? I really can’t say which ones I enjoyed the most… I have too much of a personal connection with every last track on the album. But the most involved story would DEFINITELY be “All Is Well With Love” with Chantae Cann. We went through so many changes behind that song that it almost didn’t even make the album… As a matter of fact, I wrote about this in my blog.

It is obvious the talent is within you down to the pinkies… with that have talent will travel… is there anyone that you would love to collaborate with musically to see what comes to fruition?

I’ve always wanted to work with The Roots in some form or fashion. Whether in the studio, or performing with them on stage… That would be a dream come true. i would love to work with Faith Evans, Adriana Evans just to name a couple. And another dream of mine would be to sit in the studio and create with Rod Temperton… THAT would be crazy.

Chapter 3 verse 5 of which Book?

Ahhhh, you’re getting too deep… ’35′ was my uniform number in high school and college when I played baseball. So it isn’t a particular chapter and verse in the Bible, although it may have looked better if it worked out like that huh?

Who is coming out of the “D” that we need to check for?

Keep your eyes open for Monica Blaire, who appears on SunStorm (“MakeLuv2Me”), Nick Speed, Big Tone, T. Calmese (Illite of Subterraneous), Asylum 7, who I did the Overdue Process album with in 2009, and Finalé.

I was chatting it up with a friend in NY who mentioned you name and GRAMMY in the same sentence. How do you feel about that?

I’ll tell you this, I’ll be playing it cool now and give some answer like, “Well, It’s an honor… a blessing, blah, blah, blah…etc.” Which it IS…. BUT, if this album happens to get nominated for a GRAMMY, I may lose it…. I can’t lie.

If you are in New York on Sat Oct 23, 2010 at 7:00 PM it would BEHOOVE you to make that move to the CMJ Music Marathon ” Authenticity” Release Concert at B.B. King’s Blues Club. Zo! will be with The Foreign Exchange, Darien Brockington, Chantae Cann and special guests!

Four appearances on the New Foreign Exchange album... 'Authenticity'

2010-10-17T02:41:00.004-04:00

Well, as most of you all know, The Foreign Exchange just released their third album this past Tuesday on October 12th, Authenticity. I am proud to announce the fact that I appear on 4 of the 11 tracks on the album...

"Fight For Love" was a song that Phonte and I wrote and demoed from scratch down in my spot back in June. I won't post the original demo as it is extremely rough... it was basically Phonte with a melody and some lyrics and me on the keys creating and locking in a chord progression while charting at the same time so I wouldn't forget what the hell I just played. The final result left me what the only outside production credit on the album (second FE album in a row), keys credit and also credit for the Moog synth solo. I also played piano on the lead single, "Maybe She'll Dream Of Me" as well as "Everything Must Go". I was requested to channel the late, great Roger Troutman by breaking out the talkbox at the end of "Don't Wait", which marked the first time that I had even recorded with the talkbox - It was a lot of fun, I will certainly admit that.

The Foreign Exchange's Authenticity album is available right here. You can also listen to the entire album via that link as well. Enjoy it!

Phonte and I in East Wing Studios after working on the first draft of "Fight For Love" 6.9.10

Playing the Talkbox on The Foreign Exchange's "Don't Wait" - 08.09.10

2010-10-14T02:20:00.000-04:00

I thought it would be fun to record myself laying down the first layer of talkbox vocals for The Foreign Exchange's "Don't Wait" track from their album 'Authenticity.' This didn't end up being the final take, but it's very close... Those of you who have played around on the talkbox before can truly understand the musicianship and craft of the late Roger Troutman. He did this for a LIVING. Wow... Huge respect, and enjoy!

Zo! - Studio Time... Vol. 3

2010-10-05T02:08:00.000-04:00

Just to let ch'all know... Marvin Gaye's "'Til Tomorrow" is one of my favorite songs to play on the keys. Finally decided to play it while sitting in front of the camera... Enjoy!

So... I Done Messed Around and Got A Hat Endorsement

2010-09-17T12:42:00.002-04:00

Picture taken from the "Who's Wearing Belfry Brand?" section of HatsOnTheBelfry.com

This is a pretty big deal to me since I have never been asked to endorse anything before until James Sackor (who I am pictured with) with Hats On the Belfry approached me with his card after a Foreign Exchange show in Baltimore back in June and told me that if I needed anything with regards to hats, hit him up. I stuck the card in my wallet (which can be classified at times as 'No Man's Land') and did not see the card again for another month or so. Needless to say, I got back in touch with James in July, worked out the endorsement and I have been getting all of my hats from their stores ever since. Props to y'all... Now let's see if Yamaha is willing to join in on the endorsement fun!

Textura Reviews 'SunStorm'

2010-09-01T12:38:00.002-04:00

Source: Textura · By Ron Schepper

Listening to Zo!'s SunStorm is much like taking a bite out of a Proustian madelaine. After just a few minutes of exposure, a veritable floodgate of memories and associations appears: Songs in the Key of Life, Atlantic Starr, Soul Train, Breezin', Deodato, '70s Philly Soul, Donny Hathaway--you get the idea. All such associations might suggest that SunStorm is thus a retrograde or 'old-school' recording, but I'd prefer to call it timeless. Music of such quietly celebratory sincerity and soulfulness never goes out of style and if anything we could do with a whole lot more of it. Hip-hop is part of SunStorm's stylistic mix but the album's primary focus is soul music of the delectably funky and sexy kind (sometimes directly so, as in the love jam "Make Love 2 Me," which--consistent with its make-out vibe--unspools for ten oh-so-amorous minutes).

Zo! isn't, by the way, a vocalist but Detroit-area born, DC-based producer and multi-instrumentalist Lorenzo Ferguson, who contributed to The Foreign Exchange's recent Leave It All Behind. Consequently, he's the man behind the songs themselves along with their rich, finely crafted arrangements, while members of the Foreign Exchange Music family (Darien Brockington, Carlitta Durand, YahZarah, and Phonte, among others) are responsible for the lush vocals and harmonies that grace all but one of the album's dozen songs (the lush, flute-driven instrumental "For Leslie").

The opener "Greater Than The Sun" establishes the uplifting vibe when elegant pianisms lead into Phonte's early morning ruminations and a swaying hip-hop groove. Carlitta Durand and Phonte pair up for the romantic duet "Say How You Feel," Sy Smith elevates the strings-laden '70s soul of "Greatest Weapon Of All Time" with a silken vocal that nicely complements the breeziness of the tune's swing, Rapper Big Pooh drops rhymes alongside the vocalisms of Eric Roberson and Darien Brockington during the breezy two-stepper "This Could Be The Night," and YahZarah takes the lead on the labryinthine title track, where the crisp soul-funk of the verses is offset by male shout-outs and Moog synthesizer patterns. With the spotlight on Phonte's airy vocal harmonies, piano, trumpet, and Latin percussion, "Flight Of The Blackbyrd" pays homage to the kind of '70s smooth jazz-fusion one associates with George Duke and Bob James. Much praise to Zo! and The Foreign Exchange crew for giving us another positive and community-spirited recording refreshingly free of misogyny and hate.

SoulTracks Featured Artist of the Month!

2010-08-24T12:08:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Chris and all of our friends at SoulTracks for making me their featured artist this week! Click here to visit my page on SoulTracks.

"SunStorm" Press/Reviews

2010-08-14T12:16:00.007-04:00

I have put together a collection of SunStorm reviews via news publications and all things net... I am really excited with the way the album has gotten out here this time around. This is an entry that I will continue to update as I come upon more links. If you happen to see something that I have missed... feel free to let me know about it...

365 Albums A Year

A Pug Named Fender

AllMusic.com

Examiner

FaveCast

Groovmnt Roundtable Discussion

Moovmnt

Nu Soul Magazine

Rawemag.org

SLE Soundscape

Smash Hype

SoulBounce

Soul Cuts

SoulTracks

Soul UK

This Is Real Music

Vik's Pad

Washington City Paper

'SunStorm' debuts at #81 on the Billboard Charts...

2010-08-07T22:07:00.007-04:00

Well, after a pretty decent first week, SunStorm has officially debuted at...

#81 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Chart

#62 on the Billboard New Artist Chart

#154 on the Billboard Independent Chart

May not look like big numbers, but this is my first time charting musically so I'm pretty much on a high right now. I want to thank YOU all for pushing the album the way that y'all have been. Since the album's release, I've received text after tweet after email of praise and positive words - I am definitely one blessed individual. Thank you all again, let's keep spreading the word and moving SunStorm!!

Purchase 'SunStorm' HERE

Studio Campfire Stories: The "SunStorm" Edition - "All Is Well With Love" and "MakeLuv2Me"

2010-08-03T02:24:00.002-04:00

11. All Is Well With Love (feat. Chantae Cann)
Before I even begin this story, just understand that there is always one... No matter what album you work on, there is always one joint that is just a pain in the ass to complete. Welp, ladies and gentlemen... Allow me to introduce you all to one of my most beloved tracks, "All Is Well With Love!"

I recorded the original chord progression for this song at the tail end of 2009, it was a couple of days after Christmas to be exact... December 28th, 2009 (I'm great with numbers and dates, what can I say). Upon hearing it and talking about it, the first idea that Phonte and I had was having someone sing the joint in a different language - in this case, Portuguese. Phonte threw a couple of names my way that I wasn't quite familiar with, but in trusting his judgment I was like, "I'm widdit." It turns out that a couple months later he discovered that he had a direct contact with one of the artists that we wanted to sing on the song. We reached out to the artist's assistant who responded by saying that she was swamped and would not be able to record the song... BUT, they wanted a copy of the song to listen to. Ummm.... that would be a "hell" and a "no." Not too long after that, another female vocalist was suggested to us and... uhhhh, quite simply just did not work out.... A month and a half later, a musical friend of Phonte's suggested we check into a friend of hers who she thought would be perfect for the song. Phonte hit me up, told me about her and sent me an mp3 of her work and her vocal ability was absolutely ridiculous... she was saingin' that damn song... in Spanish. We were both impressed and ended up reaching out to her via email. A few days went by, and there was no response at all and finally after a week, we pretty much considered that attempt to be a wash. A good friend of mine and talented vocalist suggested that I try his vocal coach - a jazz vocalist who he said occasionally sings in different languages. He put us in contact via the good ole message inbox on Facebook... Once again, a few days went by.... a week.... two weeks and I heard nothing back. So if my math is correct, that would make FOUR failed female vocalist attempts!! Y'all exhausted yet? Now at this point, we were damn near close to putting the APB out on Twitter like, "Who sings or know someone who can saing in Portuguese?!" Not sure what would have happened as a result, but we were at our wits end. The song was truly in jeopardy of either getting scrapped or just absolutely reworked into something totally different. Just when we thought it was the end of road in regards to finding vocalists, up steps Atlanta-based Chantae Cann. Phonte hit me up one day and told me about her and sent me an accompanying .mp3 so that I could hear what she sounded like. I opened the inbox to find the Jaspecs joint "Find My Way To Love" from their The Polkadotted Stripe album. Now I was familiar with Jaspects as my brova Asheru had worked with them in the past... But I did not know who Chantae was, until I double clicked that mp3......

That VOICE.... It was so different... commanding, full ...and sexy. It was exactly what we needed for this joint (tentatively titled "6/4" because that is the time signature it's written in... Matter of fact, there are some stores online who actually have this song listed as just that, "6/4"). But this time, I made sure not to fall too much in love with her voice just yet... she still had to agree to sing first! Phonte spoke to her and locked in a date for studio time...THAT'S when I started to get hyped up about it.

Since the vocalist was put in place, I had to rework the music piece. The problem I encountered was that for WHATEVER reason I did not record the original composition to a metronome or a click-track - meaning: I recorded it "free form," which means my speed or tempo could have easily swayed fairly noticeably in some spots. So when I sent the track to my brovah Biscuit to record his live drums on, he had no luck in synching it up for his recording. Therefore, he had to record them "free form" as well. The first draft he did, he didn't even let me hear... but the second time around, the drums were craziness. I was so excited about how good the drums sounded that I damn near forgot the direction we were trying to take the song into. So I had to re-record my key and bass parts all over again AND write a brand new hook... something that was more definitive and a tad bit stronger than the original draft. So one night after a long day of teaching and a four-hour rehearsal with Ab, I went home tired as all hell and re-recorded my parts... to a METRONOME this time (*applause*). I sent it on through to Phonte and he recorded a reference with the scratch vocals and we finally had a song!!!

Now for the fun part...

Someone put Phonte up on this Brazilian-jazz player who would be able to take the song that was written in English and translate it to Portuguese so that Chantae could sing it. Perfect!.... Well... Perfection on paper, I guess. Phonte was in correspondence with the gentleman via email and phone. He agreed to be a part of the process and received the lyrics typed out in an email along with the rough joint in English as an attachment... A couple of days went by with no response. He was reminded of the tight deadline that we were working with. Well, his response was that 'love poems' take time and should not be rushed.... But the song had already been written and referenced in English to be translated. We could understand if there were parts of the song that could not directly translate and would therefore throw off the cadence of the original lyrics, but at this rate, we felt that our only option was to abandon the original idea of recording the song in Portuguese altogether. So Chantae got into the studio with Phonte and held it DOWN - I don't give a damn if the song was sung in English, Portuguese, German, or French.... She would have put out quality work in any circumstance. Once the vocals were laid, it was just a matter of getting the remaining players on the same page to complete the song, which at this point was the easy part. My man, "Biscuit" Bynum laid the drums (on TWO separate occasions), the horn and flutes were laid soon after (which Phonte did those arrangements), then the congas...and lastly the acoustic guitars were recorded by Omar Hunter-El. And dammit, we were FINALLY FINISHED.

This joint was actually the last song completed for the entire album, which made it even more of an accomplishment... Because "All Is Well With Love" ALMOST never happened.

12. MakeLuv2Me (feat. Monica Blaire)
Ahhhhh, the closer. The history behind the MUSIC of this track is involved enough for a blog series of its own... Please allow me to break that part down first (the condensed version) and then I'll get into how it developed into what it ultimately became.

There was a time between 2005 through about 2008 where I spent a significant amount of valuable time working on an album with a female vocalist (no names) whose project never saw the light of day. There were no features on the album, just me on the music and she on vocals. As a matter of fact, this album was completed... I'm talking mixed AND mastered. The only thing that needed to be done was the artwork. But due to... well, I don't know exactly WHAT it was due to. All I know is that in the summer of 2008, I started getting calls from her brand new manager (after we had been in direct contact for three years) saying that she didn't want to put the album out anymore. Hmmm... Interesting. This particular music originally served as a remix for the unreleased album... Reason being, with one more song to finish for the album to be completed, the artist expressed to me that she wasn't able to write anymore material... and we needed a strong closer for the project. So I ended up taking her vocals from another song on the album, started and completed the remix process and the next thing you know, we had a finished project. The vocal portion only covered about 3 minutes and I took the remaining 7.5 minutes as an opportunity to put my own personal musical 'stamp' on the song... yes, I wanted to 'show off' again (see the "Flight of the Blackbyrd" story). It seemed to have worked out nicely... BUT, things have their proper places in life and happen for reasons much bigger than our own reasoning... THIS song is a perfect example.

So after completely scrapping the aforementioned project and hitting the "mute" button on all vocal tracks in the Pro Tools sessions, there was one session in particular that I kept in mind for my next solo project... I had to keep that 10 minute joint for myself!!

But who the hell would I get to write to and MURDER a 10 minute track?!........

....I've known Monica Blaire since maybe 2004 or 2005 - always been good people to me... and supportive (I can actually remember her buying Re:Definition from me at a show back in '05 when it came out). I can even remember playing keys behind her once in late 2005 at Alvin's (I think I still have a few pics from that show too). After I moved to the East Coast, we reconnected via Waajeed and PPP when we started performing with them in March of 2009. And I'll say this about Blaire... If you ever meet her, she's such a sweetheart. She's a genuinely free-spirited, ole happy ass love-to-laugh type of person who is even pretty shy at times. NOW, if you have ever had the pleasure of witnessing her take over a stage?... That shy shit goes out the window, QUICKLY. The stage transforms her into something serious... she is a dynamic performer, someone who you can't never seem to keep your eyes off of. Once we reconnected, we talked about working together on something... at that point I couldn't put my finger on what we would do yet. BUT, I knew it wouldn't be too hard putting something together with her because she is a multi-dimensional artist whose creativity can carry her in so many different directions. Knowledgeable about her passion for performing and understanding her natural ability to pull the listener into any song she does was what provoked me ask her to record this particular joint last summer. I remember telling her about the style of the song and warning her that it is in fact, over TEN minutes long.... I received the 'O.K.' and soon after, I emailed her the full instrumental....

Then in August of 2009, I was on the elevator going down, about to leave the apartment to head out to a midnight rehearsal. I received Blaire's text while on the elevator....

"Yo, just sent the joint FINALLY!! Lemme know what ya think..."

As soon as my elevator TOUCHED the ground floor, I hit the button next to "15" and went RIGHT back upstairs to my apartment so that I could listen to this song as I was HIGHLY anticipating what she recorded... I damn near powerwalked to the apartment, opened my email and loaded the song up. What I heard come through those speakers was EXACTLY what I envisioned for the music. The joint was SEXY... From the lyrics, to her vocal presence, to the delivery.... all the way down to the reverb placed on her vocals. I KNEW we had something because first of all, when was the last time you heard a 10 minute slow grinding sexy song? This song was definitely ten-minutes for a REASON. Secondly, in the era of 'slow' songs that either a.) all sound like hip-hop joints or b.) contain straight-to-the-point-leaving-nothing-to-be-desired-type lyrics where the artists will simply tell you through the duration of the track, "I wanna fuck ya girrrrr-huuuurrrrrrl!" - even the title became significant with the use of the word "love." I mean, who falls in love anymore? And the fact that she recorded to ALL 10 minutes of this song showed me how much of a pure artist Blaire is. She took my challenge, found her place, and completely conquered it... with intention AND purpose.

Purchase 'SunStorm' HERE

Studio Campfire Stories: The "SunStorm" Edition - "This Could Be the Night" and "Flight of the Blackbyrd"

2010-08-01T18:02:00.003-04:00

9. This Could Be the Night (feat. Eric Roberson, Darien Brockington & Rapper Big Pooh)
The funny thing about making music, or art for that matter is that you never know what you're sitting on. I had been sitting on this drum pattern for about 2 or 3 years not knowing what to do with it... just the bare drums exactly how you hear them in the final song. It was something that I would listen to every quarter or so, mess around with it, get mad with what I recorded and scrap it altogether. I had even done a song where that drum pattern's tempo was cut in HALF... It just still wasn't there yet. FINALLY, one day during the recording of SunStorm, I finally came up with a chord progression that I was happy with and actually kept it! But the joint had been sitting for so long that even when I found the progression that worked, I was still skeptical. Even when I would include it on a CD with the rest of the album formulated around it as just an instrumental, I would think, "It will get life once vocals are recorded on it." I ended up tracking it out and sending it through to Phonte so we could have the usual "who do you think would fit on this joint" talk. We talked about Erro (Eric Roberson) being a part of the album pretty much from the beginning... in fact, when I first met him back in December 2007 in Chicago, we spoke about working together, but it just never came together......

The first time I heard vocals on the joint, it was Phonte demoing the hook that he wrote for it. That is what changed my whole perspective... "WOW, this may become a JOINT!" The next version I heard was Darien's verse and his re-singing of the hook.... Ok, now we're getting somewhere. The NEXT version I heard was of Erro's verse and hook. We then combined that with D. Brock's and dammit we had a song!... It wasn't done yet though... My two brothas FROM Little Brother decided to pull a 'fast one' on me... So after receiving the next draft of vocals, I heard the 'announcer' list the performers. Eric Roberson... check, Darien Brockington, check... The Rapper Big Pooh.... HOL'LUP, WORD?! I actually brought it back some so make sure I was hearing it correctly... NICE! At that point, I had know idea. So of course, once Big Pooh's verse came on, I damn near started partying in the studio because the joint was RIGHT on time and was an excellent addition to the song. Eight bars of energy, where the music drops and it's just he and the drums mainly... The change follows behind with D. Brock for four bars and right back into the closing hook and vamp... All of a sudden, this 2 to 3 year drum pattern had a promising pulse. Once again, you NEVER know what your music or art may become. I can never really explain it straight up... I can only continue to share these stories with you all and allow you to find out for yourselves.

Oh and make sure you read the story behind the making of the video for "This Could Be the Night" as well...

10. Flight Of the Blackbyrd (ft. Phonte)
The actual motivation behind this song is pretty interesting. Those who know me personally understand that I am pretty laid back for the most part, but that I am very competitive. It is part of my personality, it's a motivator for me, and I guess it's simply just the way I am wired. Hell, I played baseball through college so it was a NECESSARY trait if anything and I definitely have not "grown out of it". The reason why I remember the exact date of my creating this song is because another one of my brothers and great friends in music, Nicolay released his excellent City Lights 2: Shibuya album. Where's the connection? Well, I haven't even told Nic this... But I remember sitting at the computer and logging on to Twitter and seeing everyone talking about the new City Lights 2 album. So I'm reading, retweeting the album link, checking out all the positive comments.... and it hit me. My competitive side began to talk shit to me...

"Uhhh... what the hell are YOU doing right now?! Your people are releasing dope albums and you're sitting up on TWITTER. GET yo punk ass in the studio!!" © My Competitive Conscience

This is yet another advantage to working closely with kats who are so great at what they do, because it causes you to HAVE to be on point at all times. I put my computer to sleep and walked into the studio and a drum pattern just kinda came to me (higher power) that happened to be written in 3/4... Hmmmm, that's kinda different already. The chord progression soon followed and not too long after that, a "B" part (a section where there is a change in the music - kind of a "part 2"). I laid the song out FULLY, the intro piece, main part, the piano solo, the percussion breakdown (where I used percussion instruments that I bought specifically for the "Perfect Angel" remake), and the B part. ...I got Phonte on the phone and told him I would be sending a new one through. I sent him the instrumental and heard nothing back...............

...The next morning, I woke up to a text at about 6:55am......

Phonte: You at the crib?

Me: Yeah

P: SENT.

M: Got it... putting it on the iPod and listening on the way to the craziness (a/k/a WORK)

P: Nigga, call/text/IM/two-way/smoke signal me as SOON as you finish that shit

Maaaan, look. There are some songs that you listen to the first minute or two of them and know you're sitting on something special... THIS was that song. As soon as I heard Phonte's vocals come in, I was like... "This is it, this shit is CRAZY." I called him right back on the way to work and we were hyped up about this new joint... and the ideas started pouring. The next thing I know, here's a final version of the song with trumpeter Stan Graham goin' off on the joint with Phonte doing horn arrangements. DOPE. Overall, this joint took us the least amount of time to complete... Less than a day.

Musically, this was my "show off" joint all because my competitive side took over for a minute. Thanks to my FE family for pushing me to make music like this joint in particular and not even realizing it! lol

Purchase 'SunStorm' HERE

Studio Campfire Stories: The "SunStorm" Edition "SunStorm" and "If I Could Tell You No"

2010-07-30T06:48:00.011-04:00

7. SunStorm (feat. YahZarah)
I started teaching back in the summer of 2006 and the first summer that I took off wasn't until 2008. I was so damn excited about having an entire summer to myself that as soon as I got home from the school on the last day, I went to work in the studio. The FIRST joint that I put together wound up being the music for the title track of this album... "SunStorm." Once again, the drums were done first and they resulted from me being in such a happy ass mood, I can't really describe it any other way. The drum pattern made this music what it wound up becoming. The feeling that I got from it was one of 'freedom' and 'fun'. With that being said, I distinctively remember figuring out a synth bassline that was very busy while keeping the fun and free elements in that music. And just like 95% of the music that I make, I played that synth bassline part all the way through the entire song. I think that when you actually play all the way through your piece, you are able to capture MUCH more of a feeling than that of a looped track. I don't think that the bassline should hit the same way in the first 8 bars of the song as it does coming out of the first hook, for example. The second half is what put it over the top... I made sure to send it to Phonte as soon as I was finished. He hit me with a text back, "I'ma MURK this joint!!" He was originally going to keep this one for himself... but ended up sitting on it after writing about 50 different things to it and not feeling satisfied with anything - I understand that pain FULLY (wait 'til you read the "This Could Be the Night" story).

Enter YahZarah... Now, I'm gonna tell y'all this right now. This is as straight up as it gets. When it comes to vocalists... Not female vocalists... When it comes to VOCALISTS. YahZarah is the best vocalist that I know, personally. She's just absolutely unfair. Plus, the fact that she's sitting a lotta people DOWN live makes her a threat to a lotta folks .....and I love her to death! Phonte and I talked about having her cut the song because...hell, it seemed like a perfect fit. She ended up gettin up with Phonte and recording her vocals and I'll just say this... When Phonte sent it to me, we knew we had something - not just with the song, but with the entire album. This was the song that made us kinda look at each other like, "This is gonna be something crazy." It was STRONG and perfect as the title track. And let me just say that my favorite part of this song comes during the second hook at about 3:55 when Yahz hits the, "WHOOOOO!!!!!" I get goosebumps EVERY TIME I hear that.. Why?! Because that is raw emotion displayed in a recording and to have captured that is priceless to me. Also, when someone busts out with 'WHOOO!!' that means something was so good that NO other adjectives worked in that space... It's just a great moment that was captured and I'm glad it happened on my album. ...Oh and for the record, YahZarah recorded her vocals sitting down. That's a bad woman....

The second half of the song where Phonte comes in was actually supposed to have a few kats on it. It was gonna be Phonte, Jesse Boykins III, Darien Brockington, and another favorite vocalist of mine Ab. But sometimes, you listen to a song that if it is changed, no matter what the change is it probably will not work like that original take. That was the case here. The original take felt so good and came off so correctly that it was not changed. Darien did however complete the final two lines AND you can hear Jesse's adlibs over top of "You can lay me down..."

8. If I Could Tell You No (feat. Jesse Boykins III)
This was actually the only joint on the album that Phonte and I worked on together from scratch. Back in November 2008 when The Foreign Exchange first started touring Leave It All Behind, we did a date in D.C. Anytime kats are in town, we normally take advantage of that time and get in the studio to do SOMETHING... It doesn't matte if it's a full song, a demo, a couple of ideas... Something is getting done. This time around, he told me he had an idea to do a jazzy joint, which I was all for because I hadn't done anything like that yet. So, I loaded up a new Pro Tools session, set the mic up for Phonte, sat down at the keys, programmed some 'dummy drums' just for tempo and arrangement's sake and we got to work. The demo version is actually rather entertaining. There's a part where I went to a change before he was expecting me to do so and right in the middle of singing the melody he says, "Awwww man, you fucked me up!" LMAO!!! Classic material right there. The chords from the demo are basically the same as the finished product, the arrangement is different, but you could tell what direction the song was headed into. We actually held off moving on the joint for awhile... No reason in particular, we just didn't get to it.

Finally, Phonte was hittin me up saying that he had gotten in contact with Jesse Boykins III and needed me to record a music reference so that he could reference the vocals for Jesse to sing... So I sent him the song with the same dummy drum track from the original demo, but I relaid the piano and bass parts for a more 'official' reference (the piano part I recorded for that particular reference actually lived long enough to see the final cut). When he sent me the vocals back, I was like, "WOW." It was kinda of the same feeling I got when he first sent me vocals back for our "Africa" remake for the 80's album because again before my very eyes, I saw Phonte expand as an artist. I mean, dude was doing jazz riffs! The hell? It sounded great... And we ALMOST kept Phonte on the joint. But the feel that we wanted for the song was a smoother sounding voice and delivery. So we passed the song on to Jesse and he hurt that joint! It was EXACTLY what was needed... His tone and voice fit the music perfectly - and for his version I finally re-recorded some live drums, which remained on the final cut. With Jesse's singing and the addition of trumpet player Stan Graham, the feel of the music placed me in a classy jazz club circa the 1940s, where folks thought it looked cool to smoke cigarettes and once this song came on, people began to "make eyes at one another 'cross the room." It was a well designed curveball for the album and something that I haven't seen done on a project of mine. Overall, it was great to have everything come together as beautifully as it did...

Purchase 'SunStorm' HERE

Studio Campfire Stories: The "SunStorm" Edition - "Be Your Man" and "Free Your Mind"

2010-07-29T20:40:00.004-04:00

5. Be Your Man (feat Darien Brockington)
Musically, the instrumental for "Be Your Man" was one of those joints that just kinda came to me. I vividly remember arranging the drum track first because at the time my intention was to lay something slower and also very simple... So I laid a simple 'one-two' or 'march' pattern for the drums at first. But in playing around with the pattern a little more, I ended up bringing the rimshot in simply for the additional nod factor and purposely left the hi-hat out (I actually experimented with an eighth note hi-hat pattern but hated how it sounded, it didn't work at all). The chord progression was something that I worked out through playing around on the keys, it wasn't planned... It was definitely a feeling, and I liked how it moved - pretty, but contrastingly dark. Once the progression was found and practiced, I played the chord stabs and allowed them to act as the eighth-note hi-hat rhythm instead of using an actual hi-hat. The live bass served as the glue for the music and the spacey sounding pad was the additional 'candy' and it was to my liking... still simple and now more mysterious. Once I sent this piece to Phonte and we got on the phone about it, he already had in his head that D. Brock was the man for the job, which completely worked since at that point Brock didn't have a feature on the album yet.

Now, I wasn't there for the writing process and recording session that took place for "Be Your Man" but according to Phonte, he and Darien were able to return to their circa 2003-2004 writing form by locking themselves in the studio for a night and knocking out a masterpiece. I mean if you listen, the vocal arrangement and harmonies are vintage Darien and Phonte. When he told me that, my mind immediately went to their writing efforts for FE's "Come Around." Understanding how much I dig that song, it made me proud beyond words as a producer to have had a hand in bringing Phonte and Darien Brockington back to their co-writing comfort zone they had abandoned for a few years. Phonte sent the the joint attached to a message that simply read, "Hit me back when you check this." Of course, once I got the song back with D's vocals on it... I hit Phonte back with the ever-so-popular, "The-hell-were-y'all-DOING-in-the-studio?!-DAMN!!" phone call.

6. Free Your Mind (feat. Lady Alma)
Lady Alma and I have a history that dates back to the good ole MySpace days. We would correspond off and on as early as 2005, always saying that we should be getting together to work on something soon... Fast forward to September 2009, she happened to have a gig in D.C. and The ELs were the band that was set to back her up for it. We had a rehearsal scheduled up at Rock Creek Academy (the school where I teach music) and while we were getting set up and running through a couple of her joints, Alma happened to be running pretty late. Now, the primary reason why I knew we would get along so well was pretty simple. For the entire duration of our rehearsal, I was lacing her with direct and indirect jokes about being so late... Because in my slightly twisted opinion, if I can joke with you and on you at a rehearsal even when we first meet, then you're alright with me - that is definitely a gauge that I utilize. And low and behold ever since that day of rehearsal, we've been good friends.

On top of being a great person... Lady Alma can SAING ...YES... SAING, with an "I". This was extremely evident once we hit that stage with her the following night at Station 9 in D.C. The band consisted of Biscuit on the drums, Omar Hunter on bass, myself on keys, and Lady A on vocals, jokes, ackkin a fool and entertainment. She was all over that space during her performance all while singing her ASS off. I remember calling Phonte sometime that week and telling him that I needed to get her to do something for the album. As a matter of fact, Alma and I talked that weekend and I told her that I would construct something especially for her that would be intended for SunStorm. Since I had a drum pattern in my head already at that time, it didn't take too much longer to put the music together for her. After recording it, I sent it through to Phonte just to get another opinion on it, and sent it to Lady Alma - We actually started tweeting each other about my sending the song to her. I remember her calling me and saying that I was ADD because of all of the different changes contained in the piece. LOL Once she recorded the joint and sent is back to me, I was thoroughly satisfied and she was just as humble as anyone I've ever worked with. After sending the draft version of the song, she was texting me asking my opinion... almost nervously! I got her on the phone and assured her that she had absolutely NOTHING to worry about, I mean damn... vocally, she showed no mercy on that song. Another thing that I LOVE about her performance on the song is that the first time I heard it, I said to myself... "Welp, that's Lady Alma." Meaning, her personality is all spilling over in this joint... "Let me lay it back a lil bit..." <--- THAT'S Alma. "Plus I know you wanna hear a little bit of this, Zo"...then she just starts scatting. Word? THAT'S Alma! I was able to vividly picture her performing this song live as I was listening to it - now that's a great performance.

Once again, as a producer I felt accomplished because she stated that the track really made her work (hence the "Zo.... I'ma get you for this one" line in the song). It is an awesome feeling to be able to stretch artists' abilities who are already experienced and extremely talented with my music...

Purchase 'SunStorm' HERE

Studio Campfire Stories: The "SunStorm" Edition - "Say How You Feel" and "For Leslie"

2010-07-28T00:20:00.014-04:00

3. Say How You Feel (feat. Phonte & Carlitta Durand)
In April of 2009, Phonte and Carlitta were both in town for a video shoot with my brovah and good friend, DJ Roddy Rod. If I remember correctly, the shoot was on a Saturday and I was mad that I couldn't make it to the group video shoot at night because I had a two shows with The ELs scheduled on the same day. But when Sunday came around, the two of them made sure to stop by the house to hang out for a little while. The day was interesting because being that I lived in a 17-story building, the apartments didn't have thermostats that controlled 'heat' and 'air conditioning'. So therefore, the entire building would have to be 'switched over' to heat when the weather typically got cold (around Oct/Nov) and would switch to a/c when the weather typically warmed up, which was normally around April. Well... the air conditioning had not yet switched over to a/c and the day that Phonte and Carlitta decided to come over, the temperature was in the upper-90's... and I lived on the 15th floor. So the heat in the apartment that day was damn near unbearable, the humidity was up, and it was just plain uncomfortable. Realizing this, I stopped up at Target in order to get a fan big enough to accommodate kats... The problem was, OTHER folks in the area had the same idea that I did, which equated to a "late arrival" (about 1pm). When I got to Target, the big floor fans were GONE and the only fans they had left were a couple of small joints that were gonna do NO good in the heat we were gonna be smothered in. But, I bought one of them anyway and took it back home. By the time I got there, Phonte and Carlitta were already in the spot and sitting in the living room. We plugged in the fan, sat very still and checked out a couple of movies... aaaaand as expected, that little ass fan was moving NO air around in the apartment.

I decided to take them back into the studio to listen to a newer joint that I was in the middle of working on that was still sitting in the sequencer. I pulled the joint up and played the four-bar loop that I demoed and Phonte sat down, said, "Let's do it then" and proceeded to start humming basic harmony lines to himself.... Well, that was easy. After that, I tracked everything out in Pro Tools and recorded the bass and re-recorded the basic keyboard parts right then and there while they waited just to have some type of reference. Once the music was recorded, the three of us gathered around the instrument mic that I have in the studio and recorded about three and a half minutes worth of handclaps. This is not a big deal in room temperature conditions, but in 90-degrees?! We finished recording handclaps lookin like we were training for a damn 50K race. So after a water break, the two of them dug in and began to write. The writing process wasn't too long and tiresome, it was the actual recording process that proved to be the energy drainer. I can still see Carlitta sitting down on the floor of the studio with the fan sitting directly in front of her hot as hell... But she ended up baring down and knocking all of her parts out after Phonte laid his vocals down. A little later on in the night, we ordered pizza from Papa John's in a sad attempt to rejuvenate, but in the long run, I think it just managed to increase levels of 'itis. My mixing efforts at that point were definitely sidetracked by thoughts of melted cheeses, tomato sauce, toppings......... and crust...............*salivates* ...and damn cheese sticks..... Apparently I'm getting sidetracked right NOW.

Anyway, I completed the music for the song a couple days after the original recordings took place... Keep in mind, I STILL didn't have A/C that day either thus making "Say How You Feel" the hottest (temperature-wise) damn song I think I have ever recorded. AND, it was the only song on the album where ALL of the artists were recording together in the same place at the same time...

4. For Leslie
I came up with this chord progression and pattern at the worst possible time... while sitting in a slow-moving boring ass two-hour meeting at the school I work at. Therefore, in order to keep the music in my head, I was forced to hum the melody and tap my foot or nod my head (to remember the drum pattern) for the duration of this drawn out meeting. At the close of the meeting, I literally ran down to my music room so that I could record the idea onto the 'voice memo' application on my iPhone (I actually still have the original recorded piano on my phone). I was then able to take it home and put together an arrangement that worked for it.

One day while on the phone with Phonte, we were discussing the type of instrument that would sound dope over this particular track. I think we covered damn near the entire spectrum of instruments from the piano, to the guitar... to various woodwind pieces. From there, he started telling me about a flutist he knew of who was based out of New York named Claudia Hayden. Now, she told him to hit her up if he ever needed her to get down on some music... Welp Claudia! Guess what?! This was the perfect time. I looked up a couple of her performances on YouTube and was thoroughly impressed with the clips I saw of she and her band. Her playing was concise and I liked how she made the flute "talk" to me during her performances, which is exactly the type of style I needed on this piece. He contacted her and she turned it around with no problem... Not wanting to lose the instrumental element of my previous solo albums, I wanted to make sure that this sentimental piece of music was included...

Purchase SunStorm HERE

Studio Campfire Stories: The "SunStorm" Edition - "Greater Than The Sun" and "Greatest Weapon Of All Time" (SunStorm Week Day #2)

2010-07-27T00:01:00.005-04:00

1. Greater Than the Sun (feat. Phonte)
For those of you who have listened to Little Brother's Getback album, the closing track "When Everything Is New" was initially supposed to be the intro joint for THIS album. After hearing the recorded hook sung by Phonte, Big Pooh requested that he call me and ask that I let the song go to them for their album... I remember answering that "no-brainer-question-of-the-year" before Phonte had even finished what he was gonna say.

Phonte: Ayo man, I'm sittin here with Pooh... he heard the joint and loved it. Wanted to know if we could use it for o......

Me: YEAH!

*end of story* lol

I remember writing the piano piece to this song primarily after messing around on the keys one sunny afternoon - I emphasize the weather because those of us who create know and understand that weather can be reflected within your art. In this piece I can 'hear' and feel the sun that was shining through my blinds that day. Just by the way that the chords moved I felt as though I had definitely found something. After recording the music, it was only right that I call my brovah in crime Phonte to hop on what I thought could be the NEW intro joint. As a matter of fact, the working title for the joint was something like 'Zo_Phonte_Intro 2008.' As usual, he turned it around within a day or two and ironically wrote a song specifically dealing with the sun, which wasn't anything that I suggested.

Once it was recorded and finished, I got an email from him with the song attached that read, "I ain't playin' with these niggas man."

Hell, neither am I....

2. Greatest Weapon Of All-Time (feat. Sy Smith)
I got familiar with the name Sy Smith and her talent via her appearances on Ali Shaheed Muhammad's Shaheedullah and Stereotypes album back in 2004. A couple years later, I was introduced to her via my good friend up in Chicago, Duane Powell. Duane, who used to work at one of my favorite record stores, Dr. Wax Records in Hyde Park, Chicago (now closed.... dammit) was good for picking up the phone and giving me a call at any given time to say, "What's up sir? Uhhh... *Insert name here* is in the store right now and I wanna introduce you." And understanding his good taste in music, it was always someone who I was a fan of. This is the same kat who sold two copies of Freelance to one of the Kaaaings. The late, great Mr. Bernie Mac ......and gave me a call about it right afterward. I mean damn, who does that? So anyway, he had been telling me for months about Sy and how she really enjoyed the Freelance album... And in typical Duane fashion, he called me up one day outta the blue..."What's up sir?... Uhhh... Sy Smith is here in the store, I wanted you to get a chance to talk to her." Bet!! Put her on! She got on the phone and we chopped it up for a short while eventually discussing the fact that we really needed to do some work together - the conversation left me pretty excited and even more motivated to work with her.

I finally met Sy face-to-face at a show she was doing here in D.C. at Bohemian Caverns in March '08 and that's when I truly discovered her... She was murdering her set. Talk about a phenomenal vocal talent and such a genuinely sweet person, which is a rarity in the nignorant and wonderful world of music. We spoke once again about working and exchanged contacts. With her live show in mind, the first thing I sent her was the music for "The Greatest Weapon Of All-Time." I felt as though the music was uplifting and fun - the same feelings I took in from her show. Once she recorded her vocals and sent the song back to me, upon listening I couldn't WAIT to work with her again (and we did a year later in the form of a remade "Crazy You" for the ...just visiting too album). Come to think of it, when I called her after first hearing how she showed no mercy on my song, she was on the phone like, "How do you like the song, is it alright?" Uhhhh..."Alright?!??!" Ole humble ass...

Purchase 'SunStorm' HERE

SunStorm Week!

2010-07-26T11:31:00.008-04:00

This is NOT the way I had the release of the biggest album of my career planned out in my head. The reason? Well, the D.C. area was hit with about 15-20 minutes of a ridiculous storm Sunday afternoon around 3pm... It is currently 11:25am Monday morning and electric current decided to show itself only about 30 minutes ago after deserting the place for 19-20 hours. I went out driving on a couple of different occasions to look for food (sounds like I shoulda been on Oregon Trail or som'n) yesterday while the power was out, and here are the statistics in regards to what I witnessed: 5 car accidents, 4 working traffic lights, and 0 Pepco trucks out working on anything. So here I lay on the floor of my house typing out a blog entry that I would have loved to have posted 11 1/2 hours ago to kick "SunStorm Week" off properly... but I'm sure you all understand. The power is back on and I can smile again...

Anyway, where do I begin?... Ok... Well, the production work for the album began roughly two years ago, but the groundwork and foundation a/k/a the blood, sweat, tears, and additional bullshit began well over ten years ago. The title SunStorm and concept behind the album both relate to the ups and downs of my musical journey up to this point. To say the least, it has been an interesting ride all leading up to tomorrow's release date... Tuesday, July 27th.

So in the spirit of always wanting to involve you all, my peoples in all of my releases... I wanted everyone who pre-ordered a copy of the album to send a picture to me of you and SunStorm. I actually received a pretty good amount of pics... *wipes tear* I didn't know y'all cared so much. LOL Now, just because this entry it up today doesn't mean it's too late to send me pics... I'll just continue to add them as I get them! Send them through to... C3V5Music@gmail.com

So here's how "SunStorm Week" will work... Beginning tomorrow, I will be posting the stories behind each of the 12 songs contained on the album (two songs per day). For each song, I would love for you all to comment and provide your own personal reflection with regards to each particular joint... Let's make this fun, involved and most of all let's celebrate this release together! Enjoy the music... and enjoy the week!

Now let's get into these pics that you all shared with me...

I even had to get in on the picture taking in Portland...!

And Look What Showed Up At My Door Today....

2010-07-09T21:58:00.002-04:00

There are a few major milestones involved in the completion of an album... The first, is finishing the production work on it - meaning all of the music, vocals, and mixing. The second, is receiving that audio back from mastering. The third, is approving the final artwork for the album. While the final step is obviously the album's release date, the next big occurrence is receiving the physical copies in the mail. After a couple months of posting the cover art in various places and looking through the artwork via .pdf files, it's still something about holding the actual CD in my hand. There's something absolutely exhilarating about reading through your own credits once it is live and in print, no matter how many times you have gone through and proofread it already. It also marks the official beginning of the second process... Getting the music that you have been listening to and wearing out for the entire duration of the album's starting point... to the public's ears. So, you can just imagine the feeling I had when I came from the gym this afternoon, pulled in front of my house and saw this....
That's right ch'all... Four boxes full of SunStorm CD's. I actually didn't know what it was until I walked right up on it. I was standing at the front door with a hand full of today's mail. But best believe all that got pushed to the side for a minute while I stopped to reach down for my boxes full of music.

I'll also say this, have you ever been so happy that you begin to lose your natural mind? Well, I'll just say that when I got inside, stripped that packaging tape, and cracked that first CD open, the first thing I thought was,

"Maaaaaaan, I'm about to sell all of these right NOW!"

There was no concept of release date, and my mind completely deserted the fact that I was to sign all of the CD's in three of the boxes to fulfill outstanding pre-orders so far. Sadly, logic had taken a leave of absense from my thinking process at the time. It wasn't until I got an email from Aimee Flint (Dir. of Operations for +FE Music) reminding me to sign the CD's and send them through ASAP that I finally brought myself off of my cloud of delightful ignorance. But today marks the beginning of SunStorm making whatever impact it's supposed to make. I hope y'all choose to celebrate with me....

Pre-Order SunStorm HERE