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As the one receiving all the gifts today, I thought I’d gift you something which is now available to experience on all streaming platforms.* These 11 pieces are a series of moments created between 2013-2018. Some too deep to go on collaborative projects I worked on at the time, others kept hidden as I didn’t want anyone to know how I was feeling, most moments captured but left unfinished until now.
Creating art is a very cathartic and therapeutic process however it’s time to purge myself of this energy by letting go of it.
Why 0800YOFAM?
Well I always said that 0800YOFAM sounded like it was a crisis line and for a long time writing and recording was the way I used to express some of my deepest and darkest thoughts. Â When I first started compiling the pieces that would make the album at the tail end of 2018 I spiralled into a dark place. I’m not sure whether it was the crippling self doubt I felt or whether it was because I was going through some real shit in the years leading up but hadn’t properly addressed it until when I started listening to the tracks. It’s almost as though they brought up some things and feelings that I hadn’t really acknowledged on a conscious level.
After burying my head in the sand, launching the 0800YOFAM blog to take me out of the dark place, I got fearful of the album and buried it. Sometime around July I starting working on it again and decided it was time to get to work, adjusted a few things, created the artwork and scheduled a release. I’m glad it took as long as it did because listening back to this in its entirety allowed me to understand not only the project but myself much better. It’s quite eerie when I think about it because the project is comprised of art written and produced between 2013-18. To think there were times I doubted the album and other times where I was more self conscious about the content until I thought fuck it. Time to launch!
Favourite Songs
Creatively, from the aspect of technical and flexible dimensional story telling, my favourite song is X-Files Pt.1. I wasn’t aware just how intricate it was at the time of writing and recording but the more I listen to it, is the more I discover something different that I hadn’t noticed previously. It really goes deep into the origins of why someone is the way they are and why cycles tend to repeat themselves, its definitely the global impoverished neighbourhood origin story -so many lives follow the exact themes and tangents in a perpetual cycle. I actually feel bad at the end of every listen tbh, it’s unintentionally petty and dismissive. I feel like if it really happened -its a fictional tale btw- would I be so nonchalant? but then again it’s also a case of someone that has moved on that wants no part of an ongoing drama, so the case must find another savior.
See life for what it really is; A bunch of doors on an infinite corridor, can’t exit when you choose a door, gotta walk through -deal with whatever’s in the room before see another corridor that leads to more rooms… Philosophising on Grime.
The excerpt above is from Grime Theo-Philosophy which, as you might’ve guessed, explores theology, philosophy and metaphysics; life, death, dark, light. The acceptance of the abyss and finality but also trying to achieve immortality through ideas, rhetoric and art – planting a seed for it to sprout, bear fruit and continue the cycle of enlightenment. It’s perhaps the first time I’ve successfully documented my outlook on life and the creation cycle with commentary about berevement and what our popular books say about how to live and the afterlife.
Do you hypersensationalise what you sublininally consume, is it all true?
Riding Around is dedicated to my nephews; RG, AG, EG. I wrote the first verse with the three of them in mind so when they hear it they can stand up tall and be proud of who they are, where they come from, and more importantly their heritage and ancestry. I want to inspire them to question everything, research black history’s rich and powerful cultural influence as opposed to what they are taught in school or how they are represented in the media imagery they consume.
Click here to listen on Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal etc
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