Here are some links to music that I've done.
Myself - album finished in 2008, available at CDBaby.
New site - I will be putting more free tracks here pretty soon (and on a more consistent basis), and discussing things about music that interest me, and hopefully help or inform others who are interested in similar things.
If you're interested, check the links out. Apparently there is an RSS feed that came with the software, but I have no idea how to use one of those. So I don't know if it works or not!
Anyway, thanks for listening!
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
Very impressive (downloaded a few).
You have some real talent. Maybe one day you can make a spoof about TASing. ;)
Are you trying to get signed by record labels, or something? Or is this something you do in your free time?
Zurreco: I wasn't aiming for generic, but I do prefer short titles. It's tougher to be non-generic with one or two words.
DK64: Thanks! There are video game references in a few of the songs. And I'm not interested in getting signed, I just like working on music. I talk about that more on the "Learn the history" page on the site.
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
Joined: 3/11/2004
Posts: 1058
Location: Reykjavík, Ísland
I am not a fan of hip hop, but I listened to some of that stuff, and it doesn't seem terrible at all. Certainly no worse than some commercially sold stuff I've heard. Then again, I don't listen to hip hop so I'm really not a good judge. For all I know, this might be the best hip hop music ever made, but I wouldn't be able to tell. Also, just the fact that you're doing this at all, has to mean something.
Zurreco: I wasn't aiming for generic, but I do prefer short titles. It's tougher to be non-generic with one or two words.
DK64: Thanks! There are video game references in a few of the songs. And I'm not interested in getting signed, I just like working on music. I talk about that more on the "Learn the history" page on the site.
I'm listened to a few more, and while I really thought 1 track sounded amateur-ish with the background music (the last track, Goodbye) in some places, the album as a whole was generally very good.
Although I don't listen to too much rap (well, I used to, and prefer some of the older rap songs), you are on par, if not better than quite a few of the mainstream artists. Not quite "King Koopa" status, but you're getting there. I'll be calling you JXQillionare soo.
You rap almost to the level which you tool-assist ;).
A real DIY-er when it comes down to what you do conceptively and musically. I have only listened to the first 2 tracks but I am impressed none the less because it's hard to find realness (by realness I mean one way or no way) from an artist. I don't really listen to Hip-Hop, in fact I listen to some so rarely that it must be forced upon me (someone else must be listening). Either way I think its damn good work.
It's a lot better than all other amateur rap I've heard so far... but nope, not in my zone.
Also, 100% of the lyrics bypass my brain's linguistic center, with the only information being processed being the rhythm and the tone. I.e. without conscious effort I have absolutely no idea what the lyrics are about.
So nope, not in my zone of comfort.
I could go on a rant about the entire hip-hop/rap genre, but... no. I'll just say that this album won't make someone who doesn't like the genre suddenly convert.
All I have to say. Then again, I'm hardly your target audience...
I just listened to the whole album and read the lyrics. Here is a rough order of the songs I liked most to the songs I liked least.
What's Up
Knowledge
Goodbye
You's a Hoe
Relentless
Dear Kitana
On Your Mark
As I Write
Feel My Fury
How It's Done
My Voice
Infinity
Hip-Hop's a Bitch
Tonight
I think your lyrics were definately the best part of this album. Sometimes your beats and background music just didnt do justice to these lyrics. You can be original and have catchy beats at the same time. Take Eminem for example, his songs are very catchy and have good beats, but are still original and still have a message (well most of them). Sometimes it felt like you were going out of your way to not sound like mainstream rap. The instumental sections were nice, but didnt always match up with the mood and tempo of the song.
As far as the lyics, they were excellent. It's good to hear some rap that actually has a message behind it and isnt just about bling and bitches. Ironically, Whats Up was the song that sounded the best, but had the least meaningful lyrics. Coincidence? The rhyming and rhythm were really good as well. I especially liked the parts of Feel My Fury where you were saying two things at once but they still matched up.
Overall, good album. I'm glad you've stayed true to yourself, and I look forward to any future releases.
Thanks for your comments everyone!
I don't like much commercial rap myself, unless the lyrics are very above-average, or about an unconventional subject.
Bisqwit: There are lyrics to the songs available, if you are interested in figuring out what the songs might say. But I would think that it wouldn't be the same as picking up on the lyrics while listening.
Greginator: I suppose I agree with you, as I think of lyrics as my strength and production as my weakness. It's much more difficult (for me, anyway) to be original with production and still keep familiar qualities than it is for me to do the same with my lyrics. And I do agree that I go out of my way to avoid mainstream sounds, for the most part. That can work to my advantage, because it forces more originality, and also my disadvantage, because having nothing familiar can be alienating. So it's a trade-off of sorts.
DK64_Master wrote:
You rap almost to the level which you tool-assist ;)
Well, I have the ability to re-record in both! :)
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
I can't listen to this right now, but I will as soon as I get home.
I agree with Bisqwit about the language thing, it's incredibly difficult to understand the lyrics immediately. Just now, I looked through the lyrics of As I Write, the only song I've listened to repeatedly, and it made me realize I still only knew like 30% of the lyrics :) Which obviously makes it tough to fully appreciate it.
Anyway, while hip-hop certainly isn't in my "zone" either, I'm looking forward to listening to this.
Is the problem that you actually don't know what the words mean, or is it too much slang? Or something else?
It's not that I don't understand the words, though I'm guessing the fast pace might have something to do with it. I don't know it's kinda hard to explain. I think part of it is that I'm not used to listening to english being spoken so fast, and I guess unclear. Like if you're watching a movie or whatever, people will almost always talk in a way you (I) can clearly understand and have time to process everything or something. Even though I consider myself to understand english just as well as swedish under normal circumstances, in certain situations something just doesn't click, probably because of inexperience. Like if I hung out with 5 americans for a month I'm pretty sure this problem/phenomenon would go away, at least temporarily.
Here's a new brilliant theory I just thought of. I think it's because many words sound a lot like each other to someone like me, and your (my) brain forms a sentence that makes no sense, and you're kinda hung up on that for a bit, so you can't process the rest of that sentence.
That made no sense, so here's an example. Second line of As I Write (still the only song I've listened to more than once here): "This chicken scratch isn't matched in givin' me tranquility"
Ok. Since the first time I heard the song, this line has started out like this in my head: "This chick is scratched bla bla makes no sense", and once you (I) decide that this is the line in the song, it's tough to hear anything else. Also, you(r brain) get confused when you can't make sense of stuff, so you kinda just pass by it unless you really concentrate on understanding what's going on.
I don't know if this made any sense to you americans, since you should never have this problem. I hope the non-native guys can understand what I'm talking about though. This is something I find really interesting actually, how language is understood and processed in the brain. I definitely know I work differently with swedish and english, unconsciously.
Fabian, I know exactly what you're saying. English is the only language I speak (besides a little Spanish) and this happens to me a lot too. Not so much with JXQ's stuff, but with some other music I listened to. If you read the lyrics as you're listening though, that should eliminate the problem.
Joined: 5/27/2005
Posts: 465
Location: Turku, Finland
Not bad at all, even though I don't like hip hop at all. In fact, I'll add your album to my mp3 collection as soon as I get back to home ;). Though, to be honest, I listen more game music rather than "normal music".
Is the problem that you actually don't know what the words mean, or is it too much slang? Or something else?
In my case, I said "without conscious effort".
If I attempted to direct my attention to actually listening to the words, I could probably understand most of it. (Assuming I don't get stuck in the way Fabian described.)
But when I listen to the music as a background music, I only hear the melody and the rhythm, and the tone of the voice. That's different than from JXQ's Zelda voiceover. I could understand it well even without conscious effort.
Awesome work JXQ, my respects! Your songs are great and (for me) in no way of less quality than the many other popular Hip Hop Songs of famous artists. I didn't have the time to fully listen all of them yet but from what I heared so far I really liked the energetic "How it's done", "Knowledge" but also "My Voice", "You's a Hoe", "Goodbye" and of course "As I Write".
I also have to say that your lyrics are very good with a deep sense. I checked the "As I write" one carefully and was shocked how much I understood wrong from just hearing this song. After much better understanding of what you are rapping in it this song become of even more quality for me.
Keep up your nice Hip Hop work and hopefully we can hear more songs/albums of you in the future.
Joined: 8/11/2006
Posts: 33
Location: Northern Sweden
Wow, that ruled. Love the feeling and the lyrics, also am envious of all the people who seem able to speak without breathing for like 3-4x longer than me.
Although I'm ~80% metal, I always get inspired by other stuff and I've already tried making some "techno"-kind of thing, guess what I think I'm going to try to do now? Hehe. Hard to come up with such awesome lyrics without main language vocabulary though...
Thanks again for the comments everyone! :)
I'm glad the lyrics were able to help people out. I can understand myself (obviously) and most rap pretty well, but I speak only English, and have been listening to rap for at least ten years.
I know that a lot of people either don't listen to much rap, but something that didn't dawn on me until this thread was that some haven't had enough exposure to speaking English verbally to catch all the words.
<Swordless> Go hug a tree, you vegetarian (I bet you really are one)
Joined: 4/21/2004
Posts: 3517
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Totally forgot to comment your songs. I was very impressed, did not expect you to be this good :) Only small thing that bothered me was I wish you could have either lowered the music so I could hear your voice or if you could rap a bit louder :)
Nitrogenesis wrote:
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Arc wrote:
I enjoyed this movie in which hands firmly gripping a shaft lead to balls deep in multiple holes.
natt wrote:
I don't want to get involved in this discussion, but as a point of fact C# is literally the first goddamn thing on that fucking page you linked did you even fucking read it
Cooljay wrote:
Mayor Haggar and Cody are such nice people for the community. Metro City's hospitals reached an all time new record of incoming patients due to their great efforts :P
