ialive Returns with Psych-Rap Album DON'T DO NOTHING & Pens Beat-maker Bedrock #24 for The Witzard (Cold Rhymes Records)

"It's hard to pinpoint the moment I wanted to become a producer. I do remember contemplating at a young age the elements of Hip-Hop, wondering where I fit in. My older brother wrote [graffiti]. My other brother's friends were DJ's and emcees. To 12-year-old me, it was logical to take a craft up in one of these cornerstones. I, actually, wanted to break, but having no actual training available to me, that didn't last long.

Around this time, I recognized my affinity for beats and beat-making. The part that interested me the most was seeing people come up with something from nothing. You didn't need to know how to play an instrument. The process intrigued and excited me. The rapping was cool, but what moved me the most was the music. I could get down with an average emcee, so as long as the sh*t he was rhyming on was tight; vice-versa, if a fire emcee had wack beats, it felt wasted to me."

Four Albums of Note (Honorable Mentions)

1. De La Soul - 3 Feet High & Rising (1989)
2. A Tribe Called Quest - Midnight Marauders (1993)
3. Gang Starr - Moment of Truth (1998)
4. The Roots - Things Fall Apart (1999)


"De La Soul dropped 3 Feet High in '89, when I was only 3-years-old, but it's timelessness carried through to 1996 when I was 10-years-old. There were records I really liked, but it wasn't until I heard this record that I could claim something as MINE. It was different from everything else I had heard in my life. It was silly, fun, the messages were great, and it knocked. I was a Native Tongues kid from that point on."


"A record I would continue to return to throughout my youth was A Tribe Called Quest's Midnight Marauders. To me, it's a perfect album and it's perfect production is only matched by it's meticulous song-writing. It had thought-provoking insight matched with grooving vibes fit to hold a 9th grade party down at the crib. If I had control of the CD player, "Steve Biko (Stir It Up)" was the first jam going on."


"When Moment of Truth dropped, Gang Starr was a household name in my home and to me this record was their masterpiece. Guru cemented his place as the street smart older cousin everyone needed and Preemo was in top-production form. This still is what I match beats to when I want things to knock, punch, and bang the way East Coast drums should."


"As I was forming an opinion on Rap music the way every good backpacker kid heading into high school was, at the time, Philadelphia’s heralded champs of Hip-Hop, my beloved Roots Crew would drop Things Fall Apart. This album had it all! It was sonically engaging, thoughtfully arranged, and Black Thought was doing what he does best. With assists from early Dilla, ?uestlove was taking leaps with production."


These four albums would create a backbone for my production style in the years to come and continue to inspire me today...


I. Cannibal Ox - The Cold Vein (2001)

"This is, actually, my favorite album of all time. I don't think it gets much better than this. El-P's bizarre, bugged out grittiness served a perfect backdrop for Vast [Aire]'s poetic take on life's struggles and Vordul [Mega]'s unique stream-of-consciousness/free-associating rhymes. The beats are a mix of thumping NY grit and beautiful synth-scapes. It's Psychedelic in it's approach by presenting familiar themes, while pushing experimentation with synths and wild samples.

The moments of beauty are much more powerful, when poking their head from dusty drums and odd musings. The production is strong enough to be able to carry a 20+ bar verse without getting stale. There is contrast in the weird and beautiful and in the light and dark. This record showed me that you could layer as much or as little as you want and by manipulating things, you could achieve something completely new. It's quest to be individual while working with sourced material is something I've adapted and never let go of."


II. Brand New - The Devil & God Are Raging Inside of Me AKA "TDAGARIOM" (2006)

"During high school, I had discoveries; musical discoveries outside of Hip-Hop. New friends shared Punk, Rock, and Metal with me. If, like me, you were in HS during the early aughts, you were exposed to "Pop-Punk." A term that's problematic, yet has stuck, and I was all the way in.

Bands like Alkaline Trio & Saves The Day were my go-to. Enter: Brand New. It took me a few years to appreciate the band and it, actually, wasn't until I was in college that my appreciation would cement. 2006's TDAGARIOM was what I imagine reading Beowulf in The Middle Ages was like. This was an epic!

For the record: f**k Jesse Lacey! I can't fully back the dude with what has surfaced in recent years. That being said, I can't take back the effect that this album has had on me, my creative process, and how I work on music.

What resonated with me with this album was it's ability to cover so much ground. It has soft subtleties and crashing, booming depths. Musically, it is an emotional roller coaster. They had pivoted from the whiny stylings of Pop-Punk into a more mature blend of heavy Art Rock. The guitar tones are ripe with fuzz, distortion, and echo. The melodies are heart-breaking and catchy. The song structure felt new to me.

I'm not well-versed in music theory or any formal education at all, but I learn by copying. Rap's stagnant 16-8-16 formula had grown stale to me extremely fast and I was feeling a new approach to writing songs. Building from quiet tones to crashing crescendos and bursting back into soft choruses had me all Jazzed up and experimenting alone in my room. This record, also, is the catalyst for me wanting to sing choruses. An ode to this record can be found on my 2015 release, Awake In The Snakehole. The song is called "VS Myself" and it’s a clear delineation of me being inspired by the track "Limousine."'


III. Morgan Delt - Psychic Death Hole AKA "PDH" (2012-14)

"I think, a common sensibility beat-makers have when digging is the search for unique and interesting sounds. You may hear some bizarre chime among a basic piano solo, a fuzzed out guitar sparkle, or a strange voice. Essentially, something out of the ordinary to spark a creative loop.

In 2012, fate brought me to Morgan Delt's Bandcamp page and his album, Psychic Death Hole, brought me to the edge. I have yet to hear something so dense and otherworldly that still retains focus and balance. It sounds like it came out of the acid-dripped San Franciscan 60's, yet it, also, sounds like it fell off of an alien spaceship.

Some things can't be re-created and the beauty of recording is capturing these moments. The moments captured on PDH are f***ing stupendous, tremendous and bugged the f**k out. Listen to "Barbarian Kings" and tell me you don't want to hijack the stupid Jeep Wrangler your rich white neighbor cleans every f***ing day and crash the sh*t for fun. It's a certified neck-snapper. These sounds were new and I wanted to be able to make things like this."


IV. Mos Def, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, The Beatles & The Kinks (1960-present)

"These days, the way I make beats is a reflection of what I'm writing and the process is simultaneous and intertwined. It's become less about beats with rhymes and more about crafting songs. I find inspiration in well-written songs. I think, Mos Def (AKA Yasiin Bey) was an amazing emcee and could easily pivot from rapper to song-writer. Stylistically, I find myself aligning with Mos' approach towards writing, in terms of not being pigeon-holed."


"Unknown Mortal Orchestra's Ruban Nielson has a great ability to write catchy melodies that walk the line of familiar and fresh that I'm so fond of. I'm often checking dude's music for inspiration, especially, his older more Breakbeat-oriented stuff. I could, also, say the band Grizzly Bear serves a similar purpose for me."


"I've always been a fan of The Beatles, but the past few years, I have been really appreciating the production techniques on songs I've heard a million times. The Beatles were on the cutting edge of British Psych. The way they flipped any type of sound and/or instrument they wanted is tight. George Martin, their long-time producer and engineer, actually, used some samples in Sgt. Pepper's."


"Other than that, it's basically, The Kinks. When you got The Davies Brothers writing whatever they fancy and Mick Avory's swinging drums, you can't lose. "Skeletons" off of my new album, DON'T DO NOTHING, is definitely a dollop of Kinks oozing through."

Last Friday, January 11, 2019, Philly-based Rap singer, song-writer, and producer ialive returned with his third proper solo studio effort, DON'T DO NOTHING. It was released on Height Keech's extremely dope label, Cold Rhymes Records, produced, recorded & mixed by ialive himself at "The Green Gem" in Philly, and mastered by C$ BURNS. DON'T DO NOTHING is the quasi-follow-up to one of our personal favorite albums of 2017, Height-produced TIMEWAVE ZERO, which was also, released on Cold Rhymes. Both albums posses an interesting vaguely spaced out, Psych-Rap type of feel with influence coming from, as ialive mentioned above, everyone from Yasiin Bey FKA Mos Def to The Beatles and Unknown Mortal Orchestra to The Kinks. ialive's previous full-length releases include 2012's The Age of Reason and 2015's Awake In The Snakehole, as well as The Jelly EP... and a slew of other Bandcamp-exclusive releases worthy of your times and dimes!


In addition to TIMEWAVE ZERO with Height Keech, ialive has also, issued collaborative releases with Darko The Super as The Hell Hole Store and Cody Cody Jones FKA Stillborn Identity as Four to The Floor. The Hell Hole Store are currently gearing up to let loose their third full-length, Three The Hard Way, as well as another separate ialive solo release with Cincinnati-based Grasshopper Juice Records. Earlier this year, ialive & Darko The Super, actually, appeared together in Homeboy Sandman & Edan's "#NeverUseTheInternetAgain" music video from their collaborative EP, Humble Pi. Boot & Saddle will be hosting an Album Release Show & Birthday Party for ialive on his actual birthday, Monday, February 18, 2019 from 7-11:00pm. ialive will be performing select cuts from DON'T DO NOTHING, along with appearances throughout the evening from Cat & Kat of Amanda X, Height Keech, and Andrew Milicia with additional details listed on Boot & Saddle's Facebook Events page.