I think I met that guy with the dew rag on my last trip to Rikers.. but....

good stuff cav... rip it up and rap it up..

 

Couldn't agree more about switching the beat up. Part of it is that it was a spur of the moment Sunday project and one day is not a lot of time to make a beat, write some verses, record audio & video, mix, etc.... but probably equally significant is that I have some fairly bad habits when it comes to composing. Using Ableton's session view has me accustomed to writing all the parts, then sequencing them, and THEN adding variations, transitions, FX, etc. last. Obviously I skipped that step for this particular project. Just laziness, really.

But HOW DID YOU KNOW!

Thanks again for the kind words y'all

 

Very good job!

 

I also forgot to mention, your brother pulls off his character/act really well when delivering... he has a very different style, but he owns it well with the way he presents his own image. Subtle things like how he opens his eyelids angrily or uses gestures and such. Good shite...

 

Yeah I know, he's such a character. I felt kind of inadequate after we shot him recording his verse. I've been saying to him for a long time that he's gotta be our 'frontman'. I'll do all the production and mixing and such (and half the rapping) but he's gotta bear the burden of being the interesting one.

 

Thanks Cav Emp!

 

Ok, I thought I better stop lurking clicking agree, like etc, stop being lazy and actually comment...lol
The vocals really are awesome, and you guys look the part too, very impressive overall, and I assume that's not the finished track?
Would like to check out some more tracks Cav, cheers mate.
P.S. I'll listen to another of Cav's tracks one of these days......

 

Last edited by a moderator: May 7, 2016

Good to hear from you, my man. I've got lots more on the way. Distribution is putting the album out in a few days. I'm gonna try and do one of these microphone videos every week or two as well. It's tough to get an entire day of uninterrupted music time but banging these quick ones out is doing wonders for my creativity. Helps me to feel less committed to the outcome of a particular track, which in turn makes me freer during the composition process. Thanks for checking it out fam

 

Nice Video Brother! It is Hard to tell you guys apart not made much easier by the video! Definitely want to see some more videos, of your songs now. See music producer, Artists, Videographer, you Have to do it all these days

 

omg that's a great idea. Consistently putting out youtube videos will definately get you in the radar. Focus on more of that than working on another album.

You already have your first album ready to hype up as you put out videos so that's good. Now focus on making youtube vids so you can get an image and put yourself out there. Youtube is the most powerful media tool right now and that place will get you the most exposure.

Keep at it with the youtube vids... but rather than once a week, do like once every three weeks or once a month because you wanna focus on quality not quantity. Eventually once you grab an audience, build on a larger plan and start getting some hookups and collabs with artists you care about and care about you... take it from there and work on another album this time with better quality and maybe a few featured artists and such... slowly get some music videos in as well [even if it is just something simple, just start off small]. Build it up and work hard on it... because you are a rapper and focusing on music you can escape the whole 'youtuber' title...

After all of that, the icing on the cake would be to have enough revenue and audience to promote a tour...

But all of this will take time so be patient. 2016 should be your year to crank out some youtube videos... create a plan for every year like:

2016 - Make youtube rap videos, build up audience...
2017 - Have enough audience and get picked up. Do some collabs, work on and release second album, make music videos for some tracks...
2018 - Get booked to do some shows from people and events you like. Earn revenue from audience, shows and attention from other successful artists in your genre and style of rap. Work on third album.
2019 - Continue touring and make some monies, work on fourth album...
2020 - Release fourth album along with your first independent tour and show that you promote and hype.
2021 - Caveat Emptor.

 

@( . ) ( . ) yurp. You get the idea. Although this is the social media age - things happen faster than they used to. i'm thinking a shorter timeline - like three years.

 

Great video, it's awesome to see you both in your setup.
I like the beat (the kick is nice, I'm gonna check kick2, you did a good job here) dark, crisppy and hip hop for real.
You both performed really good, as @( . ) ( . ) said you should make more of these (but I'm checking "bad for business" right now) not just for promo, but for working the dynamic of your duo act. Be a pair in the way you rap, what you say and how you appear. Your voices are close in register but different, you're slightly higher, you should play on that do intricates verses and choruses together (and if you write them as a pair it will work even better), it could be really cool.
Love your rhyme schemes from polite to the tiger stripes (G.Rice, lol....I can't spell it )), you're both skilled writters.
I really enjoyed that, thanks for sharing Cav.
When the album is out, make a post man, I'll buy my copy straight up.

 

@Talmi I can't recommend Kick2 highly enough. You can copy all your foley samples into the 'user' folder and layer up to three of them with starting point, lentgth, pitch, and filter controls and then design the actual 'kick' with minimal effort and limited knowledge. Honestly designing my own kicks probably takes me less time and produces a result truer to my vision than digging through a million samples, then finding an 'acceptable' one and wrestling it into submission in the mix. Particularly useful is the ability to transpose the kick without the obvious drawbacks of pitching a sample up and down. I would have paid twice the $70 asking price. (Side note - another great way to transpose a kick without the obvious drawbacks of pitching a sample is to load it into Harmor's resynthesis engine. Then, if need be, you can add sub back into it harmonic-by-harmonic.

This is fantastic advice. Thank you. We do have one or two tracks that have a very back-and-forth vibe in one or more of the verses and some hooks where we bounce back and forth off of each other (one of which, "Magnificent," is also on the YT channel).

I also really appreciate the kind words. I am supremely, almost delusionally confident in my rap skills, but I still feel touched when I get enthusiastic support from people. Maybe that's just the nature of the relationship between artists and people who appreciate their music. My distribution company actually did release the album just a couple days ago on a few dozen prominent vendors. I just haven't gotten around to actually putting them up on my social media where everyone has the option to download for free. I will do so this weekend.