Monday, April 28, 2008

Myspace Mondays with... SoulBrotha



SoulBrotha

Hip-Hop Is Readers (see how I did that?) know SoulBrotha all too well by now, but I thought it was finally time to give him his own Myspace Mondays feature. Reppin' the H-Town, SoulBrotha is one of the hardest working cats in Hip-Hop, and hopefully you caught that James Brown reference. Here's a quick bio from SoulBrotha's website:
Born and raised in Nigeria, and being exposed to diverse forms of music from folk, 80’s pop, reggae, rock and hip hop music inspired a young Soulbrotha to choose hip hop above all other genres as a means to impact his community and the world at large most importantly. This emcee is always bent on “moving the crowd” and makes no excuses for his faith in Jesus Christ, whilst refusing to be pigeonholed into a particular kind of sound. His music can be best described as spiritual, conscious, emotional, and soulful. His fist interest in hip hop sparked back in 1987, “when I was first taught the lyrics to the song by Eric B & Rakim's "Paid in Full,"” he recounts, as he emphasizes that this was his first true encounter with music of this genre. Fans can thank his cousin for introducing him to hip hop, as SB recalls that his cousin was the one who always rhymed the words to the song “Paid in Full.” At that moment when hip hop graced its presence into his life, he knew that he would never be the same. The rise of Yo! MTV Raps spawned an even greater interest in hip hop for SB, where he then discovered artists such as Slick Rick, Doug E Fresh, LL Cool J, Run DMC, Audio Two, MC Lyte, Salt N' Pepa, Big Daddy Kane, Father MC, Queen Latifah, Lords of the Underground, Naughty By Nature, Snoop, Dr. Dre, and many more that influenced him as an artist.
His style is slick and hard to catch: on some tracks he'll ride the beat slow (Song of Sorrows, Believe It) and on others he'll rapid-fire the joint a la Bone Thugs-n-Harmony (Illuminate). His debut album The Ezekial Hanani LP was released to positive reviews. The record also came out along with a mixtape titled Music for Agony which is still available for a free download here:

SoulBrotha - Music for Agony
[FREE DOWNLOAD]

Music for Agony was the first in a chain of mixtapes SoulBrotha is working on:
...[Music for Agony] gave Soulbrotha “the opportunity to do something with a 'darker' tone, if you will, on the album and also the opportunity to put together songs [that] I had done with different producers that may not have made it to actual later albums or projects.” Exodus, yet another project taken on by the multi-talented artist is a continuation of the ongoing mixtape series of which Music for Agony was the first installment. “This series,” he explains, “entitled, The Good News, gives me a unique opportunity to be more flexible with [a] subject/topical matter as well as experiment with rhyme schemes, cadences, and other intricacies that make up songs and also help [to] show [my] growth as an artist.”
Exodus, SoulBrotha's upcoming mixtape is being prepped for a surprise release any day now, and you can be sure to find it right here on Hip-Hop Is Read when it hits the web. 'Til then, you can check out some of its preview tracks @ SoulBrotha's Myspace:

Links:

Myspace Page
Album Page



Keep Hip-Hop Alive!
...see you next week for the seventh installment of 'Myspace Mondays'...

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