Time

Imagine feeling so ill that a single work related thought did not pass through your mind for a whole week. Ok, well not a single one, but less than a handful, of which none even slightly tempted your immune system to heal you faster.

I was there.

I’ve spent the past eight days bed ridden with a viral stomach infection, one which only time and not medication can cure. I’m nearly there, and now it’s time to start building strength again – not just physically, but mentally too. I was at one of the most productive and pivotal points in my career thus far, and it seems to all have been put on ice out of the blue.

But what this opportunity has given me is a better sense of time – how quickly time passes. Before you know it we will be middle-aged, sipping red wine in our cosy arm chairs, winding down the pace of life. Make your health count  while you have it.

Exhibit A (via Oxford Circus riots, London) RE-UP

Precisely a year ago, I was wandering around Oxford Street with my good friend Michael ‘Forte’ Chang. We noticed there was some sort of uprising, and after walking further to discover what was going on, we saw an even greater sea of chaos. The first thought which popped into my mind was “this is history, we need to capture it”. The second thought was “via music”. We ran back to my flat not far from the location, grabbed your standard point and shoot camera (no better than a modern phone) and hit record. This my friends, was the outcome:

Love what you do, and do what you love.

I first heard the phrase coined on the Kev Brown produced “For Da Love of Da Game”, via his mixtape a few years ago. Little did I know this would become a motto my peers and I would swear by in years to come.

As I write this blog post, I re-listen to the track, gently refreshing myself with the nostalgic emotion of being back in my college years; when my judgement wasn’t interfered with so much by business strategy and responsibility. I was doing things with an extremely inquisitive attitude, almost like a child that was seeing everything for the first time, over and over again. Well, some time has elapsed now and I guess you could say that although I’m still very much that person, I’m also now much more experienced at what I love; life.

Exit 2011; Enter 2012

It’s been a year of many contrasting tales; quite easily both the best and worst year of my life combined into one. But what I can take from this remarkable 365-day-experience is knowledge – how to deal with things better (good and bad), the importance of listening, turning the ideology of desire into a tangible force (thank you Alya), and possibly the most crucial – realising the necessity of instinct.

We all have those moments when we are presented with a decision that could go either one way or another – be it with your education, your family, your partner or your career. Well, I’ve learned the best option, 100% of the time, is to go with your gut feeling. Sometimes it is too easy to over-think a situation, and then in turn undertake the completely wrong plan of action. Your gut is never wrong. Before language, thought processes and opportunity became so expansive, our furthest ancestors, primitive beings, had nothing but their instinct and basic knowledge to go with when for example hunting. Do not forget, we are merely more advanced versions of the same species, we all have this supernatural power within us. The key is to use it.

And so on that note, enjoy your last day of 2011 – and I hope you and I both make 2012 a year where our decisions enable us to fulfil our goals.

Happy New Year.

Cynikal – Losing My Balance (Official Video)

Been so busy handling the promo for the video itself, that I actually couldn’t summon the energy to blog it with my usual bit of prose. But here we are, precisely one week since the visuals dropped, and at least we now have the luxury of hindsight.

I’m very happy with how it turned out – the boys over at PHDLDN (directors) allowed me to incorporate my creative vision to the fullest. I wanted to capture the essence of performance, together with the sense of movement, and partnered with the use of minimal editing, creative camera play and good colour grading. Well, we have that.

It’s a warm up video, and so the key was to not get ahead of ourselves and maintain the middle ground between action and cutting. Seeing as my Exhibit A video worked so well, I thought it would be best to encapsulate some of that guerilla-style production value.

It’s been received well by various media outlets, with bloggers including DJ Semtex, SoulCulture, Hip Hop Chronicle, Yin&Yang, True Tiger and We Plug Good Music for example. The track was also placed on the A-list for a second week over at 107.3 Reprezent FM. I hope there is lots more good news to come, but for now.. lose your balance:

Also, here’s a little bonus, behind the scenes footage which was recorded via my friend Fuzzy Phase‘s mobile. The verse and outro is the actual take we used for the video!

Cynikal – Losing My Balance [free download]

Here’s a brand new track which I recorded recently. It’s a refix of J Cole’s Losing My Balance, taken from his The Warm Up mixtape. The track (in particular the music) really resonated with me on a deep level, so I felt to discuss some issues that I was going through at the time. I guess you could say it’s a very personal song, and I wanted to encapsulate that in the recording phase, so I ensured that the process was continuous from beginning to end – literally – if you listen closely you can even tell small differences between the choruses. I also wanted to incorporate a slightly different feel to J Cole’s version for the hook, so I worked out a singing part, as well as a couple of harmonies and brought in a friend of mine (Theo Llewelyn) to lay them down in some sort of hybrid Caribbean/Portuguese type accent. I shot a video to this a couple of days ago which should be online very soon! In the mean time, listen here:

Download: u80h8gy22tiv

If you’d like to download the track, you can get it from: http://hulkshare.com/u80h8gy22tiv 

Cynikal – A Milli [2011 Remix]

I’ve had this in the locker for a little while now. Written when Lil Wayne’s anthem was still fresh on the radar in 2008, this version is something I never got round to recording. However, having tracked it last week, here it is:

My Top 10 Most Influential Albums

Over the years I’ve listened to and absorbed so many different brands of music, either as single tracks, mixtapes or albums. The challenge of making an album which works as a uniform force throughout is huge, and there aren’t too many albums that I’ve heard that can capture my attention through the entire journey. I decided to compile a list of ten of these that are the most influential in forming the person I am today.

Of course, I’ve left out some classic albums, artists/producers I deeply admire, and genres which are far more diverse than those stated here, but I wanted to be true to myself, take a step back and really analyse what was more than just music, more than just art, and was in fact a catalyst to my formative creative process. Not all of them fit my taste palette any more, or give me the same buzz as when I was in that state of mind, but they are nevertheless the soundtrack to my first few years of being an active musician. So without further ado:

1. 2Pac – R U Still Down?
2. Craig David – Born To Do It
3. D’Angelo – Voodoo
4. Eminem – Marshall Mathers LP
5. Eminem – The Eminem Show
6. Kev Brown Mixtape
7. Lloyd – Lessons In Love
8. Marques Houston – MH
9. Michael Jackson – Thriller
10. R. Kelly – TP-2.com

* In alphabetical order

A few which I believe deserve an honourable mention as they narrowly missed out include Common’s “Be”, Kanye West’s “College Dropout”, Kevin Mark Trail’s “Sketches”, Mario’s “Turning Point” and  Ryan Leslie’s “Transition”.

Apologies (video update)

Unfortunately the much anticipated music video I recently shot for Travellin’ will not be made available for public viewing. My team and I had to make the decision after viewing the edit to not put it out for various reasons – the main ones being that it was neither an accurate representation of who I am/what I do, nor the vision I approached the director with to develop further.

It sets back my plans of course, the mixtape (Breakfast) I was going to drop in accompaniment has now had to be pushed to a later date, and so have other related projects which were pivotal to my future. But it is this kind of decision which is a testament to how much I deeply believe in becoming a success in the manner that best suits my persona.

Some new work will be dropping soon, and rest assured it will be very much the Cynikal you have come to know. Thank you for your patience, Happy Halloween.

UpRise Festival and Ronnie Scott’s [photos]

UpRise Festival 2011

Full album on: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150339601378811.349379.13906268810&type=1

Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, September 2011

Full album on: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150339653668811.349385.13906268810&type=3