Fernweh

Over the course of my life, I have had a lot of time to think as well as listen to music. Most days I have my iPod on shuffle. It flips through my entire musical collection offering the most eclectic sound a person could imagine. Since Valeria left, I have ventured away from KQQL (KOOL 108) to listen to other radio stations. Most of the hip hop on the radio is nauseating in the sense that if you casually listen for an hour, you may believe that the song never changed. Everything sounds the same these days. It didn't always, that is a fact I know. Although, still today I find some songs that I enjoy. I even find songs that can inspire me. But, for the most part, they have become fewer and farther between.

I want to know how to make beats. I have millions of cool ideas in my head. Of course everyone says that though. Still some days, when I am feeling a little bullet proof, I even imagine so much as fine-tuning the category of Midwest Hip Hop. There is East Coast, West Coast and Dirty South. Each of which have a distinctness to them. But what about Midwest? What about Twin Cities Hip Hop? It exists and thrives, but what the distinct features of it. Selfishly, how can we make Twin Cities Hip Hop distinct from the rest of the Midwest? In my quest to identify the distinctions that make the Minnesota sound unique from the rest of the Hip Hop scene, I suppose I will start with something very near to my heart: Whyte Chokolate.

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For all of those who do not know, this was the beginning of our recording career. During a Saturday afternoon in Hutchinson for Camp Meeting, Brandon and I escaped over to the house of Chris Emerson (aka Gician) for an improv recording session. Brandon and Chris jumped straight into the rhymes. This caused me anxiety and a bilious tightness. My flows were weak because I was too overly concerned about saying something of value, something profound. Throughout the session, however, I think we all became more relaxed around the mic and our true personalities began to shine through. The result will eternally be remembered as "Sally Struthers":

  Sally Struthers (feat. Gician) by xavyer 



Life seemed to take us all in different directions. Brandon headed down to Berrien Springs to continue college at Andrews University. Chris finished up high school at Maplewood Academy before leaving Minnesota to study in Tennessee. As for myself, college in Nebraska wasn't working and life was changing. In January 2008, I moved to Ukraine to teach English in Kiev with Nat Beedle. On the eve of my birthday that year we were walking around the center of Kiev talking about music. When we went back to our flat in Akademistetchko, the very western limits of Kiev, we recorded this little jam. I sent it out to Brandon, but never got a reply on it. It is still something that I would love to finish, whether alone or with Brandon and Chris:

  Akademistetchko by xavyer 


After living in Ukraine for several months, spring and summer were finally coming into season. Gician had a few songs up on the Internet that I took interest in. You see, Chris has always had a great amount of motivation and work ethic. He finds beats that he likes and records rhymes to them with little to no hesitation. This admirable attribute has been the driving force behind my quest for trying to write more rhymes. When I heard this, I was in a rush to head to the school to teach. The beat rolled around in my head all day and I started trying to freestyle to myself. Needless to say, there had to be a remix. So, I patched up the beat in Garage Band on Nat's Mac Book, loop it over several times and responded:

  The Big Race (Remix) by xavyer


As I have already mentioned, Chris is amazing and highly focused. After hearing the remix, his own creativity was boiling over. The result is one of my all-time top-five favorite Hip Hop jams by any artist at any time in history:

  The Root of Hip Hop by xavyer

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We are all still in separate locations -- hundreds and hundreds of miles expand between us. This summer, five years after "something was created," I hope to re-create that magic. There are free beats out there that I have found intriguing. There are still many ideas in my head . . . if only I could pry them out. Nevertheless, the quest is yet before us. Stay tuned because I hope to add songs that will rock people's socks off. If anyone is interested in helping out, just let us know. Fernweh.