The Time (to collab) is now...

Ok...so Happy New Year and All that Malarchy...

(Studio Video at the end if you dont want to read....but please read..)

Its a new year, so I guess its time to do New things....I dunno about resolutions most of the time because people dont really stick to them but Ive got one that I think Im going to try and stick to...

Looking at myself from the Outside in, ive come to realise that musically, im quite a "snob".

What I mean by that is that I dont really collaborate with other artists (outside my immediate camp of Shax and now TE1) to the point where I can honestly say that if I worked with you in 2008 (or at anytime in the past for that matter), I have either seen something in you that I thought was EXTREMELY special (not just special...EXTREMELY)...OR...you bugged the hell outta me!! ...and thats real...

Quite snobbish right??...well actually, the reasoning behind this isnt so bad.

Coming up musically, I learnt that relying on people is LONG because everyone is prone or able to let you down at some point...you can let yourself down...but then thats your own doing and no one elses...this is why I taught myself how to play piano, guitar, produce, bought equipment for my house so that I could record, engineer, master and be a self contained unit - no one to rely on...no one to slow me down...no one to blame....

I guess this mentality, plus a ridiculously busy schedule rubbed off on my outlook of collaborating with artists - I havent got time to open myself up to relying on something that could possibly let me down in anyway...etc...

ALSO...a couple artists who have reached out have been in a better position in the industry than I am and I hate to think that after ALL my hard work of doing everything myself and building myself up as an artist, im going to be introduced to the mainstream on the back of another artists career and for this reason, I even (foolishly) shy away from collaborating with bigger, more known artists...

THERE ARE a few artists that I wanted to work with last year but just HONESTLY didnt have the schedule to do it...Its no excuse because I shouldve MADE the time...im just highlighting the fact that there are ONE OR TWO people I DID want to work with last year but just didnt make enough effort...so dont automatically be offended if i didnt/havent worked with u...

In 2007/8 though, I reached out to shax because I saw something EXTREMELY special in him as an artist but he was slightly unfocused at times so I brought him into my space so that he was able to record more regularly, and learn whatever I could teach in terms of engineering...and the technical side of making music...since then...we've been musical co dee's, Ive learnt alot from him creatively, and we've made REAL good music together..seperately (Including a song with Kadija Kamara that I produced)...and collaborating on songs like release - my upcoming single...

Last summer...I randomly drove past a guy a producer I new from college who I was always meant to work with. I knew he was talented ages ago and fate would have it that I was just stuntin in the sun with the roof back with no where particular I pulled over and let him catch up...
I exchanged numbers with TE1 to record a track, which we did the following week but again, the chemistry was there and so we ended up doing a WHOLE mixtape together of songs entirely produced by him (which is in its final stages). We made some REAL good music on that as well with songs like "Nothing Compares" (somewhere in a previous post) and he stretched my musical boundaries to another place...

What Im saying is that collabs are actually a good thing and I collaborated with one or two other artists/producers who reached out to me that year as well...all with positive results (Shout out to Origimoz, Leslie Lewis Walker, Crey Mey, Chocolate Blonde Raw Smilez and Cappuchino).

Realising that now in retrospect...ima try and MAKE time, and reach out to people and stop being a "Musical Snob"...im on collaborating with ANY and EVERYone (that makes GOOD music)..thats my resolution...

Heres the studio video of a collab I done on the TE1 project with Kyza Smirfnoff...