Good Music Remix - Jerrico & KIC w/DJ Havik [ft. Dannu of The Visionaries]

When the album In Motion dropped it was a breath of fresh air for the hip hop community. But then, remixes started to emerge and once again the air was filled with the aroma of deep soulful lyrics poured out by Jerrico, technical machine gun scratches by DJ Havik, and tasty rhythms whipped up by producer KIC. The first single to emerge was of the title track "In Motion". Now, there is another to add to the list of treasures by this trio. The release of "Good Music (KIC Remix)" by Jerrico & KIC w.DJ Havik [ft. Dannu of The Visionaries]. This track offers a taste of the original "Good Music" track but with a taste of something extra. KIC, who only appears on the background vocals of the original track as well as on the production side, drops a throwback verse reminding us of the Golden Age of hip hop. Then, when you think it's over, Dannu of The Visionaries comes in and murders the track with another throwback verse about the former hay days of hip hop. All in all it is a single you must download for the rotation. You can download the single here.

Download it on iTunes here.

What Happened?

I was 14 years old, and was just getting started with my rapping career. I had just rocked the mic at a local club in Pico Rivera in front of about 200 people. They loved it. My name was MC Shatter. I got some respect on my way off the stage and then one of my crew members approaches me and said, "hey man, there's a DJ out here who thought you were dope and he wants to meet you." I went outside to talk to this guy, and He introduced himself. He said, "Whassup, I'm DJ Phix. But,you can call me Rhett. I like what you do. You're dope on the mic! For being so young you got a lot of talent and skill. I'd like to get together with you sometime and work on some tracks and put together a demo."

I was in the market for a DJ at the time, so I agreed to meet up with him. We met up at some guy named Tito's house where they had most of their equipment and the most room to move around. Since most DJ set ups are in someone's garage, or at best... Someone's bedroom, which makes for some tight skeezes and some uncomfortable moments. Especially if there's no A/C (been there done that...not fun). So, We pulled out the beat machine, DJ Phix (Rhett) pulls out some old records and starts scratching, and I recite some lyrics that I had recently wrote. The end result was a track called "My Method" that we wound up recording in a local home studio in Long Beach. The track didn't seem to go anywhere because we had no management at the time, but what it did was stir up our love for hip hop music even more. It was in such a way that we saw it as a way to actually be able to materialize the music we wanted to make with no boundaries or limitations. It was no holds barred! So we went for it!

We played at UCLA, CSFU, Houses, Backyards, small venues, and any club we could get in to. And pretty soon we had to come up with a name for this group. We called it "ShatterPhix". Pretty catching, but oxymoron-ish. people were loving our concept and our music and started coming out to see what we were doing. After a while something had to come through right? Well, this is all taking place in the years 1987 and 1989. I'm sure you were probably thinking this was probably another decade, but this was when it all started. At least for me. I had been an up and coming MC/producer since 1985, and it was during this time that it seemed that things might work out for me. Or... So I thought...

To be continued...

Is There Something Wrong?

Today I was surfing through YouTube looking at other artists videos and seeing if I can come up with any inspiration as I always do. And, I came across this one video that I noticed had over 500,000 views. I watched it. Good video. Well shot. It was a quality video. The music, on the other hand, was horrendous! I couldn't understand how they got so many views on this video and so many positive comments. So, the next step was to go to the artists You Tube channel and see what they're really doing. When I did I noticed that there were major company ads on his videos, so I know he's getting paid.

He has over 140,000 subscribers and almost 2 million channel views. I figured he was signed so I read further and discovered that he's not. He clearly states that he is unsigned and shooting all the videos himself, as well as making his own music. Now, I'm not one to hate on anybody for coming up quick, but I have to admit, that little strand of jealousy creeps in for a while until I can get a handle on it. Because, if you're like me, you want to know how this dude got out there so fast and so big. So before any of you get the wrong idea let's just set the record straight...I'm not hating on this guy. Now that we've got that out of the way, I just wanted to project a couple of questions I had in my head at the time I was viewing this guys channel.

1) How is he doing all this?

2) How is he doing all this?

Yeah...I asked myself that question twice, because I didn't get it. I mean the videos were really good. I'll give him that. Very well done. I just don't get the music. It doesn't sound like anything you haven't heard before, which isn't that big a deal considering most artists do what's been done before only with their own twist on it. It's only a matter of 'how well are you doing the same old thing'? That was something I couldn't wrap my head around. And, before any of you start thinking of what that could be I couldn't help but send a message to the guy asking him how he does it all.

Now, I didn't say anything like, "Man, how are you doing this with such horrible, average music?" or, "How did you get so many subscribers being so corny?" I simply asked him if he was willing to share what he did and how he did it as an independent artist. Because anybody knows that this is the hardest industry around to make a decent living from. Especially as an independent artist. I've been doing it for over 20 years and, to be honest, the industry hasn't treated me all that well. So, when I see kids like this coming out of nowhere, and are getting all kinds of publicity that don't have a whole lot of musical talent, there has to be another factor behind it. Possibly a good business plan, which is what I'm all about. So, if I see that there's a good business plan behind the madness I want to get to know those people. Because, I am always thinking, "where did I go wrong? What could I have done to get that many subscribers or views? Do I really have to sell out to get ahead?" That's not the case at all, because there are many artists who are not selling out that are very successful at what they do.

So, I know that's not the answer. Although, as an artist, it does cross your mind every now and then. So, what is it then? I know that most of you reading this would probably say something like, "Just hang in there!" or, "You'll get there someday!" Those comments are all fine, but it doesn't get me the 1 million plus YouTube views that I need. I guess my question should be, how do I open up more access the world then what I have now? How do I get more of the world's attention? Because time isn't slowing down for me and I'm not getting any younger. So, I need to do this yesterday. I just don't want this venture in life to have "woulda" and "coulda" tagged on the end of it. It's a struggle to make it in this industry. And anybody who's in it knows, it's frustrating at times. But, I couldn't see myself doing anything else. It's all for the love.

If you have any ideas regarding the topics in this blog and want to share them, please feel free and leave a comment. I would love to read your ideas and thoughts. Feedback is important to us.

Kicology Vol. 2 - Digital Release - FREE DOWNLOAD!!!

July 21, 2011 at 9pm was the official digital release of KIC's "Kicology Vol, 2" instrumental album. The album is the follow up to KIC's 2010 release of Kicology Vol. 1, which contains the same measure of hip hop fortification one would expect from him. Kicology Vol. 2 contains 18 of these signature beats and none are worth skipping. To top it all of, it's a FREE DOWNLOAD!!! KIC states, "Sometimes you gotta give out some stuff for free," which is true in this day and age of download mayhem. This album offers a very wide variety of music ranging from deep and dirty hip hop, neck snapping funk grooves, to smooth jazzy electric piano riffs that KIC is famous for. This is a must have in your instrumental album collection. To get your FREE DOWNLOAD click here.