The Rosetta Stone was an album released by Beyond Space Entertainment. It marked my only solo endeavor outside the tent of Obese America's Cottage Cheese Industries.
4th Wall-Tack Fu laid down the backdrop over which I got rid of a lot of pent up Ras Kass styled wordplay, vicious and complex. The outro marks the first time I’d employed the use of a second hook, something to catch listeners’ ears at the very end to make them want to run it back. JON?DOE gave me some suggestions with the hook and I was all ears. Two minutes and 56 seconds of concise work, a suitably intense introduction to The Rosetta Stone.
Fool’s Proof-This is the second of three sub 3 minute songs that start off my album-watch the strategery involved-switching the mood up from combative to reflective as the listener gets further into the album. Think of this track as a partial explanation of my mind state. One of the things I learned while around those in sophisticated LA that game is nothing but being able to lie really well. I’ve never been a good liar. For the first time in memory, I quoted somebody else-my old scoutmaster (“there once was a fairy, her name was Nuff…fair enough”) instead of striving to make sure what I was flipping hadn’t been done. JON?DOE quoted the lines back to me and I had to confess they weren’t mine. The opening two lines of this track were originally intended for my album cut with Kashal-Tee, seeing as I had to make sure to come with it and not get outshined.
Dues-to me, this track is straight up hip hop, DJ Emm Are came though with some dope drums and I tried about 8 different verses to this song until finding the right fit. I had just moved to Fort Wayne and couldn’t sleep through the humid summer nights, woke up one night and started writing rimes on a yellow piece of paper. Usually I write to a beat, but these rimes were all over a tiny piece of paper, looking like a dyslexic’s faded treasure map. The next day I played the beat tape from Emm Are and happened to have the piece of paper in my pocket-tried it out and it fit on the track perfectly. I’ve always wanted to pay tribute to the cats who inspired me back in the days and the hook was my opportunity to do so. The lyrics are simpler than my typical fare, but it all works out, I’m better than you with a tip of the hat to my catalysts. The outro hook was a continuance of the practice I started with 4th Wall.
Angelina-when first getting this beat from Almighty, I sat back and couldn’t figure out how to tackle it. I started writing three verses about three different subjects and one of my focal points was my bittersweet home at the time-Los Angeles. As I kept writing, I realized I had enough material about Los Angeles for an entire song and kept at it until all but the hooks were written and recorded. I told JON?DOE about the song, said I was planning on calling it Angel, then he reminded me Illogic had a song by the same title, so I came up with Angelina. If all else fails, I figure cats might check it out under the mistaken impression it’s dedicated to Ms. Jolie. JON?DOE’s spastic response to this song made it a lock for the Rosetta Stone EP (to follow on vinyl). I couldn’t help but reference Gandhi and later realize Illmatic’s fingerprints aren’t so easily removed.
Sunday Morning-the original version of this song had only one fan, and that fan was me=surefire recipe for a remix. I shared my thoughts with Kashal-Tee and he suggested I send the acapell to a talented cat called Maximum. I followed his advice and the result was doper than I ever could have hoped. Between the time the remix/final version was completed and the release of the Rosetta Stone, Maximum changed his name to Earmax. This song was one of the first tracks that had me working on trying to make my songs memorable. The hook is catchy enough to have the listeners returning.
Vinegar Tongue-ognihs named this beat Turn2 and for those heads who have SA-2, the reason is clear enough. The track’s a mixture of wordplay and commentary on the blind followers. The night Will High broke Vordul‘s jaw, he hit me up on AIM and replayed the night’s events in the third person. It was only later I discovered that he was describing himself handing out the beat down. Said surreal event was the foundation for the end of my first verse. Vinegar Tongue was one of the most difficult songs to name but the bitterness expressed seemed to make my final decision fit. It’s strange. I don’t have problem writing songs, just naming them.
45 Notches-When Manic Depressive sends a beat my way, it’s a must that it gets my total attention. The man started out dope (SA-2, White Collar Criminals, Penny) and has only gotten better. I think cats’ll be surprised when they hear the track and discover the same guy who made half of the WCC album was able to switch his style up and develop like this. Originally intended as a track for Kashal-Tee and I to go back and forth over, it ended up being a solo cut. I had my verses written/recorded, song title selected (The King & I), but Kash wasn’t able to get his verses done in time for the release. We will be collaborating for future tracks, but the timing wasn’t right this go around. I must have written 8 different verses for this song after discarding the 3 sets of 8 I’d composed for The King & I and finally whittled down to the right balance of life and wordplay. The song title comes from Brendan Gleeson’s character in Gangs of New York, who had a club with 44 notches. The final notch was carved by Bill the Butcher after he killed off Gleason. Watch for the hook.
Bill Macy-I’d been sitting on these lyrics for quite a while, went digging around my vault before heading off to California for the Rosetta Stone sessions and figured I might as well bring them along. The beat-care of Robin Crates-was originally intended as just an intro track for my album, key question being what would I flip on it to bring my album in? As was the case with Dues, it was just by chance that I tried flipping the lyrics over what was going to be the intro beat. It worked out well. It’s a short story about me running out of ink and going to the hip hop shop where the salesman tries to get me everything but a pen. With this track, I did the JON?DOE technique of multiple vocal tracking and punched in every other line, enabling me to bring a fullness to the overbearing salesman. Against my request, Kash played this track for Vakill after ‘kill suggested I need to put more character into my voice and-lo and behold-it cracked him up.
Blue Sunshine-(feat. JON?DOE)-during the Rosetta Stone sessions, JON?DOE got a CD with a gang of beats. When he was at work, I sat down and went through what must have been 60 beats from Moss until I found the one that called me. It was sinister menace with a drum track. 38 bars written and recorded later, I had one really long verse in the evil tradition of Robeasts that got played for JON?DOE. Sure enough, when I was gone, I returned to find the Deezious One had split my verse in half and written/recorded/inserted a suitably dark verse of his own=dope. For the record, Pestoh is a rapper project who never got out of the incubator stage. Suffice it to say my WCC cohort had a chance at sellout stardom and wisely declined. The first 6 or so lines of my opening verse were originally the hook for a song (entitled Hydrochloric) that never saw the light of day. The Episode IV reference near the end of the song is a tip of the hat to a Silvermiths song JON?DOE and I flipped over a beat from the mighty Kno. Blue Sunshine is named after a movie featuring a psychotic serial killer dropped in LSD as an infant. This beat is straight up dark disco.
Eeyore-after the darkness, comes the light. This track was the last track recorded for my album. At Scribble 2003, Scott Matelic introduced me to two of his Indiana buddies-Fangface and Joe Harvey. Each handed me a CD. Fangface’s was full of beats and Joe’s was snippets from his forever in the works solo. I combed though both after getting back home to Fort Wayne. One of Fangface’s tracks made me think of Show & AG’s Goodfellaz and-as a DITC disciple-I had to rock it. The vibe of this beat meant I couldn’t rock it angrily, had to be smooth and I did what I could to make it happen. The first part of the hook (“I’m sick of rap nowadays…”) was originally going to be the hook for 45 Notches, but it worked out better on this cut. If there’s one song on my album that non rap listeners could bump, this is it-laid back and…hell, you can’t go wrong with two hooks. The laughter at the end of the song was inspired by a cut Seron and Kashal-Tee did where the outro had them doing shout outs until they start laughing, at which point the track fades out.
After the light comes…
Asphyxia-I’ll make no bones about it. There’s nothing subtle about this song. It’s pure telltale heart sledgehammer. After unAuthordox sent me a beat CD from which to choose a guest verse for his album, I heard this Apocalypse Now meets Funcrusher track and had to have it. If Blue Sunshine is a Robeast, this song is a Robeast family reunion-nothing but dark. This is the track I would have listened to in younger days to built up rage during Slayer, Black Flag, NWA and Danzig, Ice-T and Pantera sessions.
Deep Fried-damn, this song went through so many different transformations. It started out as a cut for the Moth’s compilation to which I ended up contributing Hinton. Next it got remixed by tablist/producer DJ Emm Are, dope track, but the only time I heard it was over the phone. The acappell went to Mic Dagger of the Prhymemates for a remix , but there was a glitch in the master burn. Finally I sent it off to Fangface down in Indianapolis for treatment. Like Dues, this song is more straightforward than other efforts. I made sure to namedrop some cats who inspired me and kept the rime scheme straightforward. Many moons ago, Fangface was a drummer in a southern rock styled band and his older brothers raised him on the stuff. Deep Fried is a reflection of his influences. He’d been holding onto that harmonica sample for years until the proper opportunity presented itself. He told me he ended up liking this song so much that he considered not giving it to me.
Rockfish-By this point, you know how I feel about Manic Depressive’s work. Dude’s one of the most talented cats out there. (See man, told you I’d say it when I was sober.) This beat came from out of nowhere. I was lounging at ognihs’ place, getting my ass kicked in yet another Dreamcast game (Virtua Tennis or Soul Caliber) when MD showed up with a CD and handed it to me. You have to understand, beats from this guy are once in a blue moon with Haley’s comet backdrops. Sure enough, I put the disc in the system and immediately got transported to the days of the Rockford Files (one of my all time favorite shows). So transported that I start singing something about Corinthian leather and Cadillac Broughams. See…back in the days, Isaac Hayes had a Rockford Files cameo and instead of calling him Rocky or Rockford like everyone else, he called him Rockfish and it was only right I do the same. The hook was the result of me ad-libbing the intro and realizing it could be transferred to the entire track-something catchy to call the listeners back to the song.
All of Heaven’s Angels-the idea for this track came after yet another night of walking the streets of Fort Wayne, seeing all these majestic buildings that were once the center of commerce and community with boarded up windows and crumbling foundations. I wanted to capture the sadness of these trophies of what was a place where people thrived and then moved on. El-Keter produced this track and JON?DOE broke out some dirge work for the hook. The title is taken from a line that didn’t find home in the song, (“churches big enough for all of heaven’s angels“).
The Making of Believe-ah, the cynic meets the optimist over a beat from Arka (Flyphonic). This track is based on my observations of human behavior (specifically the tendencies of those within the realm of music). You might say this is an fleshing out of the sentiments expressed in Vinegar Tongue. I start with a dream only to find out there’s a lot of Wizards making Oz. For some reason, this track makes me think of De La-older and wiser but not any happier for it. This would be my most sarcastic song if it weren’t honest. In the end, it all boils down to making music with friends.
RDB-the most difficult song I ever had to make, Kno had three beat snippets for me to choose from. As soon as the horns began, the sadness within this track called me and I knew exactly what song I had to make. This song is about my Dad.
Cause I Said So-I couldn’t end my album on a down note and DJ Cast one was cool enough to let me use this track for my solo. A short, uplifting, track with an anthemic hook summing up what makes me-a perfect outro to The Rosetta Stone.
