So it’s like 4 in the morning and I’m working on a beat, really slow but I’ve got a pretty kickin synth sound going on. I’m going to go for a hypnotic sound at the moment, but I always let my mood and heart decide what happens to the music, not my head. Basically it means I have no qualms about changing a beat half way through.

Masheek and I are heading downtown tomorrow, and I’m planning on getting some marshmallow, bubblegum, and mint papers. I’m most excited about mint because I think it’d taste pretty damn classy, but marshmallow sounds like a damn good flavour too, in a less classy sense.

Afterwards we’re heading back to the studio and start writing something to it, possibly record as well if we get it done early. We usually do a set of scratch vocals first, which basically are vocals that aren’t the best of quality, rough vocals to be exact. We listen to the scratch vocals for a few days and use them to help us remember the lyrics, and also to listen to any parts we’d like to change. If something annoys us after a few listens, either the flow or the wording, then we take a note of that and take measures against the “mistake”. Then we give a good take when we’re ready, and then it’s up to me to engineer the vocals. I usually do a decent job.

I’ve been writing for a long time now and, it’s been so long that I can barely remember the first rhyme I wrote. Man it was crazy though, the year was 1999 and I wrote about who is the best espionage character Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid or Gabriel Logan from Syphon Filter. I was just doing it for fun at the time not really thinking that I would be doing this now to actually make an album. But here I am 8 years later doing it more and looking to put out our first collaborative album. The beat I used for this track was Mobb Deeps Quiet storm. The name of the track I wrote; The Great Infiltration. Now I didn’t think it was going to be that good but the response that I got from this rhyme was amazing. People were actually feeling the track and I was stunned. But in that same year more travesties were happening in the rap game, P diddy was taking 80’s songs and putting his vocals to it and that made me sick. The cash money click came on the scene as well that year to make their mark on hip-hop. I was disgusted that there were actually people out there that liked this shit. I was ashamed for hip-hop, knowing where it came from and where it was going. I didn’t like it one bit, so I decided to take it upon myself to try and help hip-hop along back on the path of righteousness.

Then I started to think about the game itself and how it had been transformed to something that wasn’t that great anymore. I mean I have less hip-hop influences now than before, and that might not be a big thing for most people but it was huge to me. I wondered to myself what was I going to do. Then it hit me, why don’t I make my own album dedicated to taking other artists beats and putting my vocals on it. And then I thought to myself that this album has to be made sometime to show these artists how to do it right. So I decided that I would call the album B.E.A.T.Jackers. But I never went through with the idea because I didn’t have the time to record it all. But I’ll say this, it’ll be coming very soon, trust me on that.

My style has changed over the last few years since I started writing rhymes. When I first started I used a simple format that helped me along as I started to formulate stories and such out of rhyming. But there was a time where I thought to myself that I couldn’t improve myself anymore than what I have done. I took sometime away from it and started to read books. I know it sounds kind of nerdy but it really helped me out and not only did I improve my game I also came up with better ways to articulate the message that I was trying to get across and also developed different rhyme formulas that I could utilize at anytime.

We’ve only had the privilege of performing once at a CD release party back in 2000. I must say that was a lot of fun. The party was for a record label that Kawlinz belonged to. Kawlinz asked if I could perform with him. They said it was okay. That night is one of the nights that I will never forget. I felt that Kawlinz and myself had great chemistry on stage. At one point I forgot my lines for one of the tracks I was performing. So I had to come up with something, so I just started rhyming and anything that came into my head I went with it. After the performance Kawlinz asked me if I had forgotten my lines and I told him that I did. I told him that I came up with the remaining 16 lines of my rhyme, because all I could remember was the first 4 and that was it. Something that I’ll always be proud of is coming up with a 16-line freestyle.

There were a few tracks that we worked on, as a group well there was Kawlinz and myself and the Hussdiesel. But one in particular that stood out for me was a track that we recorded and it was the three of us dissing this kid named No Needz. He went on dissing Kawlinz and then we decided that we were going to diss him back and show him true hip hop artists. Honestly to tell you the truth the dude had no style, so when we wrote out rhymes it was so easy cause this guy really had nothing to say to begin with. I think that was the first time that we actually sat down and wrote something together. We heard the end result and it was awesome. Basically giving us the confidence we needed in the first place in order to branch out and let other listen to our music.

Over the years I went back into it and then left it for a bit, but when I finally had time to meet with some peeps in the summer of 2006 and it was there that I saw the other half of the founders of the NKC, Kawlinz. We talked for a bit and he said to me that he was getting some new equipment and that he was making beats and working on some stuff. He then told me that we should make an album, and I was down for that can’t refuse that, I felt like this is out time and we have to show everyone out there that we have the skills as well. And here we are now doing our thing and making a lot of progress too.

Kawlinz and myself decided that we would leave our solo albums and make a collaborative album. Once we laid down some tracks we decided that we weren’t just going to be the NKC but we were going to be the founders on the NKC. And everyday that we get together and work on the album brings us one step closer to reality that we have an album. This is our time, and when we take to the stage we’re going to run game like we never ran game before and it’s going to be sick.

It’s been a long time since I’ve started writing, the first actual verse I wrote was one dwelling on the subject of Cunnilingus. I’d downloaded the instrumental to “Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See” by Busta Rhymes, and recorded the verse mostly as a joke. I then sent it off to a few of my friends who loved it. In that rhyme, the vocals had a smooth, laid back vibe to them, which isn’t meant to be a bragging statement, it just contrasts greatly with the vocal style I’d used in the years to come. I wasn’t trying to be a rapper or anything in the first rhyme, I just wanted to put something together to get my friends to laugh at something so I wasn’t very concerned with my delivery.

The next twenty songs or so that I wrote, and a few that I recorded, were in a completely different direction. After I got some initial feedback, I felt I had to live up to some sort of standard. I became worried about my voice, and in order to have a bit of a rougher sound, I deepened my voice whenever I spit. I swore a lot without good reason, and, while writing a few good tracks, wrote many things that didn’t represent me. I didn’t pretend to be gangster, so I guess that’s something positive, but I didn’t portray myself in an accurate manner.

I can’t remember many of the old rhymes I had, and unfortunately I’ve lost most of what I’ve written, so I don’t have much of what I’ve done to use as an example. I do remember going through an awful phase of multi-syllable rhyming for no good reason. I look back on that style today and kind of laugh, sure, the multi has its place, but there’s no point of making nonsense rhymes and pretending that they’re something other than that.

The turning point was when I wrote “Hip Hop Radio” a track that really meant something to me. Basically, it was a song of disgust about the state of what was on the radio at the time, written with Masheek Hype 5 and Huss Diesel. We should’ve tried to release that song somehow, because in the next few years, quite a few of the songs on the radio were, ironically, anti-radio songs. I had some sort of revelation in the way I wrote and constructed my lyrics. Then I wrote a few more songs, and became burdened with a massive writer’s block.

After a temporary lay off from writing, I got back in contact with Masheek and we decided that it’d be best to put our solo efforts aside for the time being and write an album together. Quickly getting back into the swing of things, we wrote 6 full songs in the span of a few weeks, and both of us improving our writing technique.

There was a void in my lyrics, though I can’t explain what it was, it’s almost an intangible hole. As soon as I find a way to describe the space that I’ve filled, I’m sure that I’ll be writing about it.