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.