ILL BREAKS CREW

In case you missed it a couple months ago, Dale Baker released a new album. Check out the official music video for the single, “Cut You Down”, and interview below!

Ill Breaks Crew: What is the song about?

Dale Baker: The song is about a few different things. Each verse from each emcee is a different take on God cutting you down [bringing judgment]. My verse is about a guy who got hung and is on his way to hell. Awol One’s verse is about someone sitting in the county jail. Spoken Nerd’s verse is about someone confronting the Anti-Christ.

Ill Breaks Crew: How did the concept of the song come about?

Dale Baker: Well the sample for the hook kinda lays it all out. It just calls for a story type of song.

Ill Breaks Crew: What is the concept of the video, and is there an element of your faith in Jesus Christ that comes through the song and/or video?

Dale Baker: I’m being chased by religion and not the relationship with Christ. It seems I’m always bumping heads with the Christian community regardless of the fact that I have a relationship with Jesus. They always want to nit-pick the superficial even though I’m trying to reach a few people.

Thanks Dale for the Q&A!

Move Merchants is the music brainchild of duSt from Phatmass.com, who combined the forces of ATL emcee ManCHILD (Mars Ill and Deepspace5) with the Texan beat genius DJ Sean P. (Beat Producer and the DJ for Playdough). Check out the new music video below and interview with ManCHILD and DJ Sean P. below that.

Directed by Danny Hidalgo of Spirit Juice Studios (spiritjuicestudios.com). Motion graphics 3D compositing by Renzo Reyes (renzoreyes.com). Copyright 2010 Spirit Juice Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Ill Breaks Crew: What is the song about?

DJ Sean P.: The song is an introduction to ManCHILD and Sean P. together as Move Merchants. Straight up raw beats, cuts, and raps.

ManCHILD: Like Sean said. It’s just an intro to who we are. “Two-man conglomerate, bumrush the populace.” And I also just wanted people to know that “Sean stomps out beats like Elephant Feet”. People needed to know.

Ill Breaks Crew: How did the concept of the song come about?

DJ Sean P.: No real big concept. I made the beat in 2003 and it had just been siting on a hard drive until ManCHILD did his thing. The drums are super chopped from a Buddy Rich record (the great Jazz drummer). DJ Stibs put me on to him back in the day.

ManCHILD: I think Sean suggested it be the intro. And with a lot of this record being from a party rocking standpoint, we just wanted to blast you one quick time on the intro.

Ill Breaks Crew: What is the concept of the video?

DJ Sean P.: Danny Hidalgo made the video (SpiritJuiceStudio.com). His description is “A ‘Move Merchant’ busy moving product transcends a reality he can’t escape.” As far as I know…they shot the video of ManCHILD in ATL and then the rest in the Chicago area. It was all filmed in a few days, but the CGI animation you see took a while to complete, which was done by a talented dude, Renzo Reyes (renzoreyes.com). That’s why it is just now coming out. Thanks to Dustin at Phatmass.com for putting this together and to Danny Hidalgo for stepping up to do the video!

ManCHILD: Sean covered that one pretty well. Shot all the green screen stuff in my basement here in the A, believe it or not. On each side of the green screen were toys thrown everywhere and my kids trying to run through the shot.

Ill Breaks Crew: Is there an element of your faith (in Jesus Christ) that comes through the song and/or video?

ManCHILD: Like everything I write, God is in it. There’s no grand statement on my Christian faith in the song. But believe that, no matter what, Christ is right there in the center. Thanks to Sean, Danny, Dustin from Phatmass and everyone involved. If you like this video, go to www.movemerchants.com and buy this record. It’s the best kept secret in town.

Thanks to both guys for the Q&A. Not only are they great hip-hop artists, but great guys too. Check out the album and catch a show if you can!

Big ups to Urban D. and all involved. Check the video and description below.

“The song tells the story of Hip-Hop’s history from the South Bronx to where it is today. It paints a picture of it’s humble innovative beginnings to where it began to blow up and change to now where it has mostly lost it’s way. The song doesn’t just celebrate the culture or talk about the problems – most importantly it brings a challenge and an answer at the end as Urban D. talks about eternity and introduces Christ. The song structure is purposely set up like this as verse one walks people through the 70’s and verse 2 through the 80’s and verse 3 brings you to the 90’s and today as it comes to a climax.

The music video was recently shot at Crossover Church’s former North Orleans Campus in the infamous skate park where one of the Flavor Fest stages was in 2008 and 2009. This is now vintage footage as that skate park no longer exists as Crossover moved and the new church demoed the park. The video features Crossover’s own DJ D.Vize and Reflex The Son on the hook along with several faces from the church and some of the B-Boys and B-Girls that are part of the ministry.

This song is featured on Urban D.’s album Un.Orthodox and is available on iTunes along with a remix version and instrumentals.”

With the release of his free EP entitled Rosario Dawson, we asked a NomiS, from the Gallery Drive supercrew, a few questions about the song and video for the track “Rosario Dawson” and his approach to music. Check it out the video and his answers below.

Well the song was easy to make, it flowed really natural in its nature. The tracks that come naturally out of you are always the freshest to me. When a beat hits you and makes you want to rap on it, the rest is just filling itself in. My man Diaz from Hungary made the beat and I instantly wanted to rap on it when i heard it. I originally wanted to make like a “Get By” (Talib Kweli) 2010 type of song but the Rosario Dawson concept just came to me while watching “Seven Pounds”. I was watching the movie and thought to myself, “man, she is far from bad looking…I would like to meet her….but that will never happen”. That idea quickly transformed into, “man, why do I want all these things I can’t have? I have so many incredible things right in front of me”. We have our family, our friends, our God and more. Those things are more than enough to sustain us and make us happy. Next thing I know, I have a song about that concept called “Rosario Dawson”. I’ve already been blessed to hear stories of people literally hearing the song and wanting to change something in their own lives because of it! That is amazing to me and reminds me why I do this.

My approach to music isn’t the same as some other “Chrisitan rappers” (for lack of a better phrase) I know of. I dont plan on making a “Chrisitan song” sometimes, and then a “non preachy song” another time. I just make music, period! I make it a point to always be growing in my friendship with God and let the rest fill itself in. Kind of like I said earlier, God is that perfect beat, the rest will just fill itself in as long as Him and I stay connected.

The video was so much fun to shoot. Ive always been a fan of skateboarding since I was a kid so as soon as I got a chance to get some skaters in, I took it! Sean Conover is an amazing skater who I hadn’t met until the day of the shoot, but I had seen his YouTube videos previously and was super geeked to have him there with us. Also, hanging off of the back of a moving vehicle is always fun too. My man Sam Wells (videographer) was shooting while literally sitting on the hood of his car while someone else drove it! I love those raw independent-esque moments like that! Thats Hip Hop!

At the end of the day, I love inspiring/encouraging music, and I love Hip Hop; this song embodies that to me.
Much respect,
-NomiS

Thank you NomiS for the insights! To get his free EP, check out his Bandcamp page by clicking here and clicking on the ‘free download’ link. (It’s also in our free music section.)