Ellis' Lean Style Liner Notes | Written by Brasby / Ellis
Lean Style: A style of creation based on limited resources. Use and re-use is a fundamental principle. As are Making Due, Raw Aesthetic and DIY.
Brasby Introduces Ellis
The idea here was for one half to introduce the other half. Brasby the DJ uses a sound montage to introduce Ellis. You hear snippets of old recordings, a snippet from Discolobos Profiles 12" as well as snippets of Ellis. Things that sort of define his mentality, "I don't even like talking to people," or "Whiskey, Coffee and Coke."
At the end you hear a Raekwon skit from Cuban Linx in the background. I liked the idea of "hiding audio." Also there's a reference to KMD's Black Bastards album, which I was listening to a lot while recording this album. At one point on BB there's a loud noise and the MC reacts like, "What the fuck was that, almost blew my headphones."
1-4-Rhymesake
I've always been a fan of tracks without a chorus. The Forget-The-Formula Style. Where the MC grabs the beat and lays a ton of lyrics over it. The last verse over the switched-up beat tells the story of a kid who has lost his parents. Nobody has time for the kid.
The mid "smoke" break is revisited at the end of the album.
One Man Setup
One of my favorites. It's a collage poem based on the life/death cycle and loosely tied to the way some artists' craft their own demise. One man sets himself up, one man destroys himself.
I Must Warn You
I wanted to do a, "I'm A Badass Track." This is one of the most prevalent themes in Hip Hop music, even to a fault. Notice the intro, "Hand me my dream book dreamer, let me be." That's some deep poetry stuff I was feeling at the time. I feel that really explains the mentality of artists making tracks like this. It's the villain mentality, whether real or imaginary.
Butterfat
The bust loose B-Boy track in full effect. Wagun told me I needed a high-energy party track, especially as a catchy single. He was right! He helped me craft the structure. It's one of every listener's favorites.
The Place
Made this track Christmas morning '03 when my mother gave me three Sun Ra records. I was hipped to Ra's music through the Quasimoto The Unseen album. The Place's lyrics tell two parallel stories woven together. One in which I take the trash out, smoke an L and crush a snail. Story 2 is about a prostitute doing everything in life for a drug addiction. She understand she's waiting for death. No matter what I do, it won't change any of this.
Beyond Space
Companion track to The Place . Same drums, different arrangement. The idea being the prostitute got her drugs / I got my high. We've reached that hazy space....but then things really pick up. We come back to Earth in the end.
Heat Fuzz
Beat done by Wagun. Great work on production. The very loosely scripted idea here is having returned from Beyond Space , the spaceship is hot and malfunctioning. Lots of stuff going haywire. Towards the end of recording this album, I started listening to Vic Vaughn. The second verse on this song plays off some of the events in that album and in a way, tries to pick a fight with Vic.
Natural Sound
Just a rap about rapping, the influence of it. The essence of the cipher. Rapping for the sake of rapping, about the things in your everyday life. Also being happy for what I do have.
State of the Union
Mad bugged joint. Try to follow this story: hip-hop music is a female cassette tape. I own this tape and if I don't like the way people are acting with this music then I can crush this tape and destroy hip-hop music. There will be no more hip-hop as we know it. Kids in Harlem will make country songs and a "battle" will consist of roping a break dancing cow. Everything's all mixed up once I've crushed this tape.
Because of these circumstances I'm treated like a superhero. I wear nice tuxedo suits and all that. The second verse tells of the way to keep the tape safe, which is not to rap down on people, be original and creativity rules. Honestly I feel the 2 nd verse is a bit lacking and one thing, in retrospect, that could have been improved upon.
One Liners
Produced by Wagun. He actually had the whole idea for this song. That idea being that I'm doing a track and I keep getting cut off by these rap samples which makes me increasingly angry.
Fire in the Field at the Break
This one is psychological. When I was about 20 my sister took me to a party where someone smoked us out. I was done for the night. I went to the couch and did not move for the entire evening. On the TV played a concert DVD and I zoned way-way-way out. Time slowed down and I had the sensation that I was floating. My mind was clear but I could not speak. I was floating in space and I met my little brother up there [who had passed away] and I just hung around with him up there, floating. It was an amazing experience.
In this track I revisit the "smoke break" in 1-4-Rhymesake but here I experiment of expanding time. |
