Oddisee has enlisted the rhyme services of his Diamond District brothers yU & Uptown X.O. to craft a new track entitled “For Certain” over Rock Creek Park production. The new song is now available for free download. The album Rock Creek Park is now available on Vinyl, CD, and Digitally.

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New video off of Oddisee’s Odd Seasons instrumental project.

“Belgium’s ZBS Studio reached out to Mello Muisc Group about permission to do a video for Oddisee’s “The Blooming”. MMG of course was honored to have them interpret the song and apply their vision to the track. The resulting marriage of visual storytelling & instrumental perfection is a narrative work that tells the story of time’s passage in the life of a boy. The video was directed, shot, & edited by Tomasz Cibulla and Wojciech Drożdż of ZBS Studios in Belgium.

Filled with rich landscapes from Belgium’s countryside, smokey ambers, old typewriters, watches, clocks, and a father and son, The Blooming portrays life’s unfolding through the metaphor of time. Oddisee’s original track was last springs soundtrack to the rains and blooming growth of nature. Rich strings, bold piano, wood block, synth, flute, and snares that rest easy in the backdrop drive this instrumental track from Odd Seasons.”

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<a href=”http://mellomusicgroup.bandcamp.com/track/im-from-pg” mce_href=”http://mellomusicgroup.bandcamp.com/track/im-from-pg”>I’m From PG by Mello Music Group</a>

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Oddisee – Ci’iy Life feat. Tranqill from Oddisee Music on Vimeo.

Official music video for the song “Ci’iy Life” featuring Oddisee and London emcee, Tranqill. Video animation from Mark Phillips.Oddisee “Odd Seasons” Out May 17th via Mello Music Group!

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Oddisee has previously dropped “Odd Spring”, “Odd Winter”, “Odd Autumn” & “Odd Summer” over the years but come May 17th, 2011 Mello Music Group will be dropping “Odd Seasons” on remastered vinyl & CD physical editions as one cohesive collection.

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Producer/Emcee Oddisee sits down to talk about the Red Bull Academy. For all you producers out there.

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HHS: How did you link up with Oddisee?

Trek Life:We met through a mutual friend named brub.Oddisee was on tour with J-Live and they were out here in LA at the House of Blues. About five or six years ago, Oddisee asked brub, Rhettmatic and some others  about west coast emcees that he could work with and we were introduced. After talking about the game and music and touring and everything associated with it, we pretty much agreed on everything about how to go about things. So it started right there.

HHS:Can you talk a little about the album? I know it’s very personal to you.

Trek Life: Yeah, it is. The title of the album is Everything Changed Nothing. I have a two year old daughter who means the world to me. The first album, Price I’ve Paid was more about becoming an adult, the pressures of adulthood and having to become an adult even when you want to be young. But with Everything Changed Nothing, it was different. I was sitting there with my daughter who was probably 6 months old at the time and I was just thinking about how no matter how much she meant to me, the outside world hadn’t really changed at all. There were still people out there being foolish, bill collectors were still calling people, I had to still work and I really just had to live. So I just ran with that concept about life in general about how you can give a person everything and nothing about them will change. The concept gave from my little girl and I documented everything about my life on the record. The record is very direct and a lot of it is like therapy for me.

HHS: Is it hard to do that as an artist, to put yourself out there and let listeners get into your personal life?

Trek Life: It is, but it’s getting easier for me. It was very difficult at first because there’s a lot of weakness when you start to do that. Honestly, I always admired artists who could put it all down on paper. If you look at Kanye West, he talks about his entire life, even his flaws. That’ll be the next stage of my writing, being able to put my flaws down without feeling that the next emcee is going to dis me with it. It took a while to get to that point.

HHS: Listening to the album you don’t have the typical “west coast sound”. Is that what you’re going for or do you want to be viewed as a west coast emcee.

Trek Life: Yes and No. It’s strange because there’s a part of the west coast that continues to go unrecognized. If you look at The Pharcyde, Freestyle Fellowship and Dilated Peoples, they represent the existence of the regular, everyday, L.A. person. We tend to get either the most street perspective or the most Hollywood perspective. In between that, there are thousands of thousands of people that our music represents. So it becomes more for a city person. So a person in DC can relate,  a person in New York can relate, a person in Germany can relate because they are just average people that do everyday things like skating, clowning around and talking to women. So I just like to keep that perspective of  Los Angeles and if it becomes a global thing thing that’s a bonus. But I always like to present that there’s a less glamorous and less violent part of L.A.

HHS: Right, groups like P.U.T.S and Dilated and artists like MURS are able to rep where they are from without necessarily having to talk about street shit.

Trek Life: You get a city perspective about L.A., but now you’re hearing more of the suburban perspective, more people from the outskirts, more people from the Valley and the 9-0-9 because they have a voice now.

HHS: How about touring? Whats your schedule for that as the album makes it way out there?

Trek Life: Oddisee and I always do Europe in February and March. We’ve been doing that for 4 years. We’ll probably do New York and Atlanta in October, but the main tour is always in February and March.

HHS: What do you want people to take from the album?

Trek Life: That it’s okay to be a father and an emcee. It’s okay to be vulnerable and an emcee. It’s okay to put your experiences on paper. I want people that disagree with me to know that it’s okay. It’s okay to give your personal perspective and not necessarily have to embellish. I want people to also feel comfortable in writing down their own experiences and challenging my experiences.

HHS: How about collabos? You obviously got down with Oddisee for this, but are there any artists that you’re looking to work with?

Trek Life: Umm, rhyme-wise, I’ve worked with people that I want to work want with. I definitely want to work with yU, he’s one of my favorites artists out right now. I’m a big fan of Fashawn and the energy that he brings. But otherwise it’s just production. My man J.Bizness, I want to constantly do records with him. I’m finishing this up this project with Babu.But the dream producer work with at this point I want to definitely work with is 14-kt.

HHS:Beyond this new album are there other projects that you’re working on?

Trek Life: I’ll be doing a JB3P, a three song EP that J.Bizness produces that he’s been putting up every month. I’ll be doing one of those in November.  I’m working on a project with Babu tentatively titled Fire Outside. We’re looking at early next year for that one.

HHS: Any last words?

Trek Life: Of course shout out to Oddisee and J.Bizness. Without them, I pretty much would have been done with this. And to anybody that listens. Listen, get your perspective, like it, love it, hate it. If you don’t like it, I’m not upset, just realize that it was 100% genuine.

Check out Trek Life at: http://www.treklifemusic.com and on twitter at http://twitter.com/treklife

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Green Street is a hip-hop/jazz group originally from Boston and now residing in Brooklyn, NY. Consisting of emcees A-live and Soupa, and producer Renaissance, Green Street looks to bring back the sound from the Native Tongues era, while keeping it fresh and relevant for today’s audience. “Crossroads” is a unique, personal project which fuses experiences from the lives of three twenty-somethings with progressive hip-hop beats. Features include Oddisee, The Black Sunn, 810, Nieve and more. Taken from the full-length, Crossroads, available now via Bandcamp.

LISTEN: Green Streets – “All I See” (ft. Oddisee) (MP3)

Green Streets – “All I See” (ft. Oddisee) (MP3)

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HHS: What’s up man? Can you introduce yourself to our readers?

yU: Yeah, one third of the group Diamond District and also one half of the 1978ers with myself and Slimkat78.

HHS: Just peeped your new album, Before Taxes. Can you talk a little bit about that?

yU: Yeah, it’s features Grap Luva, I made about half of the beats on there, and Slimkat produced the other half. Oddisee did one on there, Kev Brown did one on there.

HHS: As far as promoting your album, are you doing a lot of things in the states or are you going more overseas? Where are you focusing more to get your buzz going?

yU: There’s no specific place really. We went out to New York and got a lot of love at Fat Beats. But I also get a lot of love overseas. People flew in from Switzerland and France to see us. So I have to go wherever the influence is. I just do my music, and let people find it and then see where it reaches.

HHS: The Diamond District Album, In The Ruff dropped about a year  age. Can you talk a little about the group?

yU: It’s me, Oddisee and XO. I met Oddisee at a beat event at a spot called Mirrors. My boy Slim Cat was there, Oddisee was playing beats and Roddy Rod was playing beats. I came up to rhyme over some beats and I met Oddisee then and there. We were both using the ASR-X, the red one, and it took him forever to load beats (laughs). It took me a long time to load beats too, so I asked him questions about that. We started talking mainly off of that [topic] and slowly but surely we started building.

HHS: How’d you hook up with XO?

yU: I met XO at this spot called Capitol City Records, at this Friday night open mic thing and he started rhyming over one of my beats. And it built from there. Oddisee just said for us to both kick a verse for “Foot In The Door”. The track we did ["Gully"] ended up on his album and got a nice response.So while he was out in Europe he said he’d bring us out as long as we finished the album. And we did.

HHS: What kind of response have you gotten on the album so far?

yU: It’s been a good response so far man, can’t complain. It was actually supposed to be an EP, but as I was recording, it went from a 20 minute EP to a fifty six minute album. A couple cats out in Europe remixed the track “Fine”, as both a house and dubstep track. It’s wild how you can just freak a song different ways and give it a different feel.

HHS: The scene in DC has gotten a lot bigger over the years. I remember going to an EPMD show a few years ago where Kev Brown opened up for Black Sheep and EPMD…

yU: You were there? I performed at that show with Kev. The track “It’s Almost Time” on Before Taxes is all about that show. Kev called me the day before and asked if I wanted to drop a 16, we met up the next day with Roddy Rod, Cy Young and go the show tape together. The song is about that whole day.It’s funny that you brought that up.

HHS: It was a dope show, man. It was great just seeing known artists from this homebase out there.

yU: There needs to be more of that. I see it happening a little more now with Wale and Tabbi Bonney, so it’s happening. Let it keep happening.

HHS: So what are you doing now, just out touring, promoting the album?

yU: Yeah doing small things now, but will be touring with Oddisee in the next couple of weeks. There are few things in motion right now with In The Ruff and Before Taxes being out.

HHS: Any last words?

yU: Yeah, just trust in yourself and don’t allow the populous to affect how you think. I do things that work for me and let people know that it’s cool to be yourself. People think you have to be glamorous to get somewhere and you don’t. But on another level, there’s a lot of good music coming out. Slimkat put a beat tape called Sound Freakers, google that. Oddisee [just dropped] Odd Spring, which has a new Diamond District joint on there. Kev Brown is putting out a new album with LMNO called Selective Hearing Sean Born, Ken Starr and  Roddy Rod are dropping new projects. You can find them all at Fat Beats and online.

HHS: Thanks your time man. We appreciate it.

yU: Good rappin’ with you man.

Check yU out via Twitter: www.twitter.com/yuthe78er and Myspace: www.myspace.com/yuremainz

In the Ruff and Before Taxes are available on Amazon.Com, iTunes, ughh.com. Or contact yU directly to purchase.

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Over the course of the last four seasons Producer/emcee Oddisee has dropped season-themed releases known as “Odd”. All four seasons are now complete and available for free download. Check them out.

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