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My Top 3 |
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Yes people, Mareko’s second full-length solo set is now available for your purchasing pleasure.
Knowing that this album hit the racks this week really got me to thinking… I was talking to my man Andy (from Dawn Raid) today and we discussed how we all seem to get so obsessed with what’s coming up and what’s next. But you really have to pause for a minute to appreciate the amount of work that our brothers and sisters put in to keeping our scene buoyant. A lot of work goes into making, promoting and marketing a single album. And in NZ these projects are usually only driven by one or two people and it’s very seldom that anyone sees any return on their investment. People do it for the love of it all.
It’s only when i look back at the amount of work that we have put into Eth’s project since we signed him, that I really start to think how immense the workload is to get an album out in the current climate. Ethical has been on multiple trips to Australia, toured with Roc Raida in Asia, toured NZ consistently, appeared on countless mixtapes, featured on albums from Juse, BWW, Tyree, Tyna & JB, Perceive and Young Sid, recorded an E.P to set up the album, had multiple looks in a lot of MTC videos, shot 19 Effin’ Diaries and we have put up tons of blogs, myspace/bebo/facebook updates and posts on forums. Then there’s the photo sessions, interviews, recording, (starting from 10 demo’s that we put to one side and started fresh once he got to NY to record). We also had to then mix and master the album. And on top of that we only just finished this process with Young Sid (last week), who was virtually unknown when we started, AND during Eth’s project we started the process again with Smashproof.
We all do it because we love it and we love to see our crew elevate to the next level. We do it because we pride ourselves on a job well done, and for the feeling that we get from breaking a new artist into the consciousness of the NZ public; and hopefully beyond. It’s no joke people. So props to all of our NZ Hip-Hop comrades that have let out that big-sigh-of-relief as they peeped their album finally get ingested on to iTunes, or have had the satisfaction of holding that final piece of product in their hands at the end of it all.
2008 is off to a strong start with releases from Flowz, Mareko, Horsemen Family, Mr. Sicc and Perceive already in store. On top of that, two our new veterans of the scene have received a well deserved leg up (this week), thanks to placement in an American movie and by one of them showcasing their talents in front of one of America’s most respected producers. By the way, who cares how it comes, this only stands to show that our guys are world class and only need an opportunity to be heard; and the rest will follow. The roll call for the rest of year looks crazy with David Dallas, Savage, Nesian Mystik, Beatrootz, Ethical, Dei Hamo, PNC, R.E.S, Chong Nee, Smashproof and P Money all gearing up to release new albums. And that list comes off the top of my head, i’m sure that there are plenty of others that i am unaware of.
Thats a lot of new albums and a shit-load lot of work by a very small group of people!
Respect it people, it’s ours!
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