What up world.

I wanted to share with ya'all some other work I've been involved in.
I have had the privilege of working with world class musicians in the Detroit Metro Schools.
The Company is called The Learning Express and is in conjunction with Progression Inc.
The Objective is to bring High Caliber musicianship and education in to the schools.
So far we've focused on grades k-6th.
The School provides us with their curriculum and we then develop a presentation using a 5 piece Hip Hop/ Jazz band to conduct an assembly where we display a different angle on how to educate using rhythm and repetition. The trick is keeping the integrity of the art at a level that avoids being cliche' or corny yet still effective.

Below is a video shot and put together by Jeremy Thomas aka (Surreal of Sound Providers), who has also been involved in the vision of the company.
This is just a glimpse as to what we've been accomplishing at Woodson Baylor in Inkster

Enjoy and Catch vision..
if the video is not showing go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He4oLKxa-E8

Brought to you by the Good people at www.Sphereofhiphop.com.
Heres a pod cast featuring Rare joints and features that i dont even have in my personal collection... at least some of em.
over the years you do collabs and junk and they just get lost in the shuffle. This was a real good listen for me to hear what I've been involved in over the years. I guess this would be a good time to say "to everyone i've ever collabed with....show me what we did!!" hahahah. send me the album or single or hook or verse etc etc.. hahah.

For real tho. Peep the pod cast. Support www.sphereofhiphop.com for being dedicated to meeting the needs of the people for over a decade strong.
Thank you to all the folks I've had the privilege of rocking with and let's keep it moving.

HEEEEEEERE you go!


http://www.sphereofhiphop.com/podcast/2009/05/sphere-of-hip-hop-034/

thank you!

Othello

We're  (Dj Vajra and Myself) are nearing completion of our album together entitled
"The Required Taste". With that being said I wanted to take ya'all  behind the scenes on what has gone in the this project. We dong have a video clip, or and audio (besides the record, that will release this summer on Plug Label) but we do have a bit of honesty to write about right here in this blog.

HONESTLY....... This has been the roughest 9 months of my life. As i sit here and write this, I realize it truly has been about 9 moths since  the first song was written. Call this time Labor pains then.
During the course of putting this record together I've had to swallow my pride, bleed a bit, trust a lot, Grind (almost to dust), and eat my words. See it's so easy to say what other folks need to do and in fact its easy to apply it to your own life when things just need a little touching up, but to get to a place where you've suddenly been made aware of your condition and it's shocking because you were under the impression you were all good, Is a whole OTHER thing.
Man...
This struggle is so good tho ya'all.
Im not saying that on some psuedo "right thing to say" junk either. But for real.
There is a clarity that comes with re-evaluating you're life in great detail. I have a Wife and a Son, Bot in whome i charish, Love and appreciate deeply. So examining my life is way more intense than just looking at me.
All this to say, Im excited about this record coming out. It's not a dense record at all. Its definitely heartfelt but at the same time it has managed to reflect a real good feel to it.
Rooted and progressive, Classic and well rounded, I have a feeling folks  will dig it.
Heartfelt music is always birthed out of some sort of hard ship, I hope mine identifies with yours and offers a bit of hope.
Peace and thank you for your support..
stay tuned
Ps. AT THE END OF THE DAY, its a hip hop record, but im everyday not your everyday.
...................an at the same time.........i sho nuff am.
God bless

Othello

Many of ya'all know i'm from seattle, some of you didn't until just now.
Either way, one of the most impressive things seattle has to offer is the MASSIVE MONKEYS amungst other things.
For the last 10 years Massive Monkeys have been showing and proving to the world that some of the best bboys and girls hail from upper left hands side of the map.
Last summer I had the privilege to tour with some the fellas and day after day they busted to a joint of mine called BANG.
This song is to be released on a record im doing with 14kt in the near future.

peep the video and if your in the northewest may 16th, make sure you're at the event/

whatupdoe!

So i want to let ya'all know you can get ahold of some rare music.
I have an ep on my page called The Rain System.
its a 10$ digital download.
All the Beats and Cuts were done by my Dj , Dj Manwell and of course its all me on the mic.
Besides the one feature Being Manchild of Mars Ill.
The ep was a free giveaway to folks that pre ordered Alive At The Assembly Line a year ago, and other than that, no one has really had the chance to get it....until now.
So go on over to my page and download it. Leave a message upon listening and let me know what you think.
peace ya'all , and thank you for your support.
Othello

what up ya'all.
So its the 4th of july and im in Austin texas (Live music capital of the world) on the warped tour and ironically enough were just passing through on our off day.
We're staying at the Omni Hotel. SWASS!! We'll be able to watch fireworks from the hotels roof pool......I know, dope right!!

I really want to document my thoughts out here on this crazy warped tour experience, so this right here will be the first of many hopefully.

We've done 10 shows already!! let's recap a bit.
We started out, Me , my wife Bekah and son Asa, accompanied by Braille, his wife Nikki, and they're daughter Gabriella. We lasted about a week all together due to the challenging gas prices and nightly hotel costs. For the sake of having my family out on the road with me, I sacrificed my spot on the bus and did the best I could to make the Ideal possible. In salt lake city, i came to the conclusion "if we dont want to be in the whole all tour, I should probably reclaim my spot on the bus and save us a very long and rough trip.
The transition was smooth. Braille and the gang were only 12 hours away from portland opposed to the next stop on the tour which would have put them at 20 hours away. My father in law was doing some work in wyoming (1:30) away and came to hang with my wife and son for the evening and took them to the airport the next morning. I made it to the bus and a spot was ready for me. THANK YOU JAMIE!!!

Being apart from my Beautiful family is hard tho. Im not used to having them around. The amazing thing about my wife and I is our ability to look at our goals, and decide to do whats best for us to reach it. Understand now...I DONT tour without my wife, its just how we have it set up. We love being around each other and feel stronger when thats the case. So if an opportunity comes up where its like "i can go, but you cant" its common for us to pass it up believing God will honor our prerequisite because it keeps our marriage healthy. BUT, there have been very few occasions (including this one) where due to our plans, finances, time, and tour conditions... Me being out alone is a sacrifice we're willing to make.
Everybody needs a DOPE WIFE OR HUSBAND....please dont settle...hahah, thats another blog tho.

so, heres an important side note...
I play somewhere between 12 and 3pm everyday on the Skull candy mix tent stage.
if you intend on come to see me do my thing, please come early.
I look forward to meeting ya'all.

thats about it for now. I'll make sure to break down my philosophy on Dumbed down Toys/parenting and keyboards in the next blog so stay tuned.

peace
Othello

I caught up with my man and heres what we talked about...


1.Tell us a little about yourself (your name, and where your from)

N-My Names Nick Campos, im 21 years old , born and raised in Vancouver British Columbia Canada, in a little area we call Deep Cove.


2 So you won my man, how do you feel.

N-I feel really stoked to win this contest man, ive partaken in a couple other contests on the hhim forum board that were fun, and i came like 4th on one of em so when i saw that u were holding a contest I figured I best join in on it and try to get the 1st place this time haha.


3. How long have you been producing?

N-Ive been producing for about 3 years now


4. What equipment do you use?

N-I started off screwing around on this program called ejay which basically anyone can make a beat on its so easy. So I learned the basics of how to put together a track on there , and then about a year later i got Steinberg Nuendo 2 off a friend and ive been using that ever since. My Setup is pretty ghetto people i got a couple little cambridge speakers with the sub. Im actually tryin to get my hands on an mpc 1000 rite now and a couple turntables so i can really up my game.


5. Do you have any projects coming out, or have you been on any projects.

N-Rite now the only project im on is an instrumental cd that Braille has put on itunes, its a cd of the winners from that contest i mentioned earlier, my tracks called praise the lord. Other than that ive got sooo many beats that are sitting doing nothing, I believe Braille is gonna help me get an instrumental cd out pretty soon so peeps look out for that, and much more to come in the future.


6. Where do you draw your inspiration for what you do and who are some of your mentors or favorite producers?

N-I basically gain inspiration from everything around me. People, Music, Places. Whenever someone tells me a beat of mine is hot or somethin like that im inspired to keep on pushin, when someone tells me a beat is wack, im inspired to make better tracks. As for producers that have influenced me, there are so many man but to name a few, Dj Uneek, Dj Premier, 9th wonder, Alchemist, Dr Dre, I just really like the dudes who take samples and make em into something amazing and different. I watch alota these vids on the net of guys flipping samples on there mpc and that gives me alota ideas and inspiration even tho i aint got an mpc yet lol.


7. Any shout outs?

N- Shout outs to Trophemus, u might see a beat cd with me and him soon. Shout outs to Meegz at Diamond Blade Productions, Braille and all the dudes at hhim, Nomis, and all my fam and friends out here givin me encouragement. God Bless and PEace Out

First of all,
Thank you to all of the contestants who submitted music to me for the comp. we got dope submissions from all over the world. Hip Hop is so big ya'all. It's really fresh to know there are so many talented producers out there. RESPECT and I wish ya'all the best in your craft.
It's a blessing hearing new twists on an old song of mine. I also want to thank everybody who took the time to vote.

which brings us to the winner of the comp being....


NIKADEMUS.


check out the interview in my blogs.


and just to clarify, i know how this works and there are always folks who wanna be skeptic as to how the winner was really decided upon and imma let ya'all know, this was 100% the publics opinion. So again no sketchy biz took place in deciding the winner of this competition.
thank you.

Ps. more comps to come.
Peace

I just wanted to officially say thank you to all the Producers who submitted tracks for this competitiion. We were only able to pick 13 of the many remixes that were entered in.
If you were not selected, please keep rocking and submit again next time around as we will be having these every couple months...

thank you again for your time and talents.

for now.. GO ahead and vote on your favorite RE:mix on my page.


Peace
Othello

so we did it ya'all!!
for those of you who came out on the 31st of Jan, THANK YOU!
We had around 150 people up in Rendezvous on the grand that night and the owners were pleased.
Now I'm proud to announce Elevation Lansing as a WEEKLY event beginning in March every Sunday.
This will be an 18+ event. There will be a cover 18+=5$, 21+=3$
We will be featuring Emcees, Bands, Dj's , Spoken word artists, and Visual art galleries each month as a window into more of this culture we're a part of.
Special thanks to Premier Located in old town on grand river ave. for their support. IF you haven't seen what this shop is bringing to the city of Lansing, make sure you stop by for your latest in hot off the press Rare kicks and wears. Guaranteed to be satisfied. www.premierskateboarding.com

. I also want to big up my man Lain Lee for L3designs for lacing the flyer and the whole Sky Children family for letting us be a part of the movement. Dj Ruckus and DJ Collectives will be holding it down on the tables weekly and brining you that classic, current, and rare Funk, Soul, and Hip hop from all over (including Local).
Your's truly will be hosting and you can bet there will be giveaways.

Come out and see us march 2nd in old town lansing at Rendezvous on the Grand.
Peace ya'all