DJ Rahdu – So Amazing (Trugoy Illustration)

I would like to begin by thanking everyone who continues to mine the site for goodies, subscribes to the newsletter or contacts me regarding BamaLoveSoul.com. The site began merely as a portal to allow discovery of alternative soul music and artists from Alabama, but exploded into something more, much to my surprise, in a short period of time. During these 8 years I have made many friends, talked with musical heroes, and watched careers explode from our site and land firmly on the world stage to become appreciated by millions. These things and more have made BamaLoveSoul a truly fulfilling experience. Thank you

However, during this time I’ve also lost my intimate relationship with music. It’s easy to point the finger at the lack of good musical releases, which luckily has not been the case recently, and other external factors but the fault actually lies with me. As the site became more successful, I would no longer listen to albums solely for personal enjoyment, I would listen to find the dopest song to share or the best song to play in my mixes or sets when I DJed. As a result, I became musically exhausted, and uninspired, which led to sharing music less. I slowly became aware of the catalyst to my lethargy and retreated into my crates to rediscover why I love music.

The site’s tagline is, “Decreasing Your Hard Drive Space Since 2008!,” and while it’s been decreasing the storage of your hard drive, it’s been doing the same thing to mine. I do an excellent job of keeping my hard drive well-organized by year and month, but my tags were disastrous. I set out to simply clean up my tags so when i played music from iTunes, apple tv or Serato I could see the correct artwork, artist, title and album name but this sojourn through my crates has done more than I intended.  I re-discovered forgotten albums and some I never even listened to, B-sides and alternative mixes, albums I passed judgement on too quickly that deserved a second listen, and old favorites that were cast aside when I became obsessed with keeping my playlist as current as possible.

1996’s Stakes is High has always been an important album to me (I’m presently on D in my Hip Hop folder and glad I relistened). I still remember the buildup to the album’s release and its impact once unleashed. Their scathing critique on the state of Hip Hop 20 years ago removed my rose-colored lenses and I have never been listened to Hip Hop quite the same. My first acknowledgment of Mos Def was on this album, if I recall correctly, and I finally realized who Dilla was on the Stakes Is High CD maxi single. I’ve always loved the Common assisted, The Bizness. It always felt like a group of peers having fun in the booth, improvising and feeling out the track as it developed. The quote on the graphic above is from this track, and became stuck in my head until I started to imagine what that would look like. I returned to my first love, illustration, to manifest my vision. Here it is!

I’m still correcting tags, and re-discovering my passion for music while enjoying the music of 2016 and before. I’m also now driven to get my illustrator skills back on point. Enjoy today, re discover your passion and let me know what you think of the flick. Peace!

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