Oakland Drops Beats: sOuL (Hip Hop)

April 19th, 2014

@

The Spice Monkey

1628 Webster St, Oakland, CA 94612

7:30pm - 10:30pm

A Thousand WordZ 

and

Presents:

(Hip Hop)

Nobody gave sOuL (aka sOuL from the O) permission to make his brand of Hip-Hop, and he likes it this way.

Biography

Nobody gave sOuL permission to make his brand of hip-hop, and he likes it this way. Sometimes eclectic, sometimes fierce, pounding on the doors of the establishment, sOuL has been on a collision course for expanding the boundaries of contemporary music for some time now. Releasing his first album in the early 2000's A World Without End showcased sOuL's own beats and lyrics with the collaborative mix of live musicians, recorded in a day; this combination brought forth a steady stream of live performances with his 4 piece band in and around the California Bay Area. In 2006 came sOuL's 12” vinyl offering: Body in the Trunk (A side) and As I Walk (B Side) circulated amongst local, national and international DJ's along with numerous free downloads on the internet. This single was the setup for the long awaited second EP release: The Unspoken Word. 

With sOuL's unfiltered lyrics The Unspoken Word is both introspective and futuristic traveling through the social, political, the serious and the funny. One such example is the song “Go Back”, a track that echoes the feeling of longing for yesterday with its 70's beat, allure and feel: “ Street signs don't look behind but keep reaching/ forward and I know it but the past strip teasing/showing off the best disguising the unrest making me feel like them times was the best” 5 years in the making, the album took many twists and turns, as sOuL experienced the haunting of perfectionism, the project got put on hold twice, with numerous song versions and re-writes along the way. Turning over a majority of the production duties to a talented group of beat makers, producers and musicians freed sOuL up and aided the album's completion. As sOuL explains it, "This album is my tribute to the chants, the rhymes, and the invisible that moves and unites us all! I had to make it as hot as I could!" Upon release in spring 2011, the album was made widely available through iTunes, CDbaby.com, Pandora and a host of other digital and traditional music sites.

Links:

Web: www.11525.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/soul11525

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/soul11525/videos

Twitter: sOuL11525

Bandcamp: http://s-o-u-l.bandcamp.com/album/the-unspoken-word

Pandora (after you're logged in): http://www.pandora.com/#/music/artist/soul

About Event:

"This event is part of the larger Oakland Drops Beats music crawl in downtown Oakland.  The first ODB event is happening on Saturday, April 19th and includes 10 venues, over 20 Oakland-based acts, 1 outdoor stage, and lots of community engagement.  

FREE. All day. All ages.

Go to www.oaklanddropsbeats.com for more information on the event."