Vulnerably Invincible.
The injection of energy it gives you can make you feel unstoppable but equally you now have a massive weakness in a way that you couldn't have ever imagined before.
I'm super happy to be able to finally say my EP "Premier" is now complete and out on Bandcamp. As a creative you have so many ideas and to bring one to fruition is always satisfying. You may have already seen the first two songs from the project "Extra Extra" and "L.D.N State of Mind" and I wanted to talk a little about the themes behind the last two - "A Million and One Questions" and "Invincible".
A Million and One Questions
This I think exemplifies the vulnerability of my current state of feeling invincible. I'm still very much on the high of having a baby (almost 4 months in). The injection of energy it gives you can make you feel unstoppable but equally you now have a massive weakness in a way that you couldn't have ever imagined before.
When I first came up with the idea of doing my version of Jay-Z's "A Million and One Questions" (produced by DJ Premier), I thought that I would be writing the song from the perspective of Amobi (my son). He would be asking all the questions about how life worked and I could explain it in a smart way. I thought I could use a child's innocence to highlight the twisted truths of life. But as I wrote the song, I realised parenthood had generated many more questions for me personally, which I found quite a captivating concept. Like we as parents are supposed to have the answers for our children, but it's not until you become a parent do you start asking the questions that you need to be asking in order to raise your child in a responsible and positive way.
My boy (not son, boy in homie sense lol) Nick asked me the other day when Amobi will make an appearance in one of my videos. If you watch this one closely you can see him in it, I didn't mean to catch him in it, the camera just swings round and you can see him in the background.
Invincible
Some of you may remember I actually have another song called Invincible. It was actually the first song that kinda put me on the map. It got me played on Radio (back when Radio was super influential) and introduced me on a national level. Kinda fitting that the final track on this EP (which was a "taking it back to reason I started doing this" project) spiritually harks back to it, even though they are very different songs.
This song is much more fun than the previous Invincible which if I'm honest was carried by its awesome beat (shout out Devonwho). It reflects on 2 decades of rapping and while I'm grateful for the successes I've had, it would also be very easy to be discouraged and quit. The fact that I haven't is evidence that my love for this is INVINCIBLE. Q.E.D.
PREMIER
And there we have it, the EP is complete. "Premier"... called so because it's me rapping over my favourite DJ Premier instrumentals but also it represents the 1st, the beginning, the spark that got me writing my own raps over 20 years ago. You can stream it all over on Bandcamp or even download it from there if you wish. It's completely unofficial so I can't put it on Spotify or Apple music, this is just for the people locked in. Much love - catch you on the next project.