Alecjweatherwood’s Weblog

Allright, I promised that I would explain a bit about the history of and ideas behind my album One from the Heart. Before we get into that, it would be cool to run down the history of my ‘career’ in rap to give a bit of context to the album. As soon as I figure out how to post streaming audio in my posts I will stick exclusive unreleased bits and pieces of music to my stories. Until then, the words will have to spark your imagination.

I started writing rap lyrics when I was around 14 years old. The first few verses were of course endearingly embarrassing, but I will never forget my first stage appearance. This was back when the youth center Ojeesee in Hardenberg still existed and the stage, for those of you who remember, was still next to the back exit doors. On the ceiling above the stage somebody had draped one of those army nets and the lights were low. I think the entire performance, done by Magical and Warlord, took some 15-20 minutes, and my role in it was limited to two verses if I remember correctly. These moments passed too soon to remember preciesly but afterwards many people gave me daps and bigups. The respect, probably intended to acknowledge my physical presence on stage as admire the quality of my verses, stuck with me and encouraged me to write more.

And more I did write. I wrote prodigiously, in English, in Dutch and sometimes – if Magical could be bothered to check – in French. I shamelessly copied the flows of other MC’s (for those who have the first Verbal Punishment demo you can hear RZA all over my verse on “Cool, Vet, Dope”), talked about the most random shit anyone could ever imagine (”flip the next script twice/like/retransforming X to Y”) and began to write complete songs rather than single verses to complement Verbal Punishment tracks. I also began to develop my own ideas about music and beats and installed a funky little program called FruityLoops on my dad’s PC. As Medic pointed out in the comments, the next step was MadTracker, and some funky old beats will be revealed in my next post.

I’m a control freak. When I make something, it has to be good good or else it’ll end up in the garbage bin. It’s easier to control everything when you’re able to make everything yourself, so I started to develop my beat-creating skills along with my writing skills. As Medic said on VP’s second album “If you want something done right/You gotta do it yourself/So I stay on my feet”. This very same Medic also used Madtracker to great effect, most notably on the unreleased ‘hood classic “Livin it Up”, and I believe it was through him that I obtained Reason, a program with much more options and possibilities.

I will put some amusing early examples of my beats online as soon as I figure out how, but rest assured that I made some weird stuff in those early days. I always tell people I wrote like 5 or 6 complete CD’s before One from the Heart, beats and rhymes and all, but never recorded them. This is a bit of an exaggeration, but actually true to a degree. I did finish three full albums:

• Concept album 1. A ‘dialogue’ between two dudes, one spaced out and one down to earth, with some pretty strange songs and ideas. I was reading too much sci-fi and fantasy at the time. Completely finished, beats, rhymes and all but never recorded. I was young. And lazy.
• Smel & El D. An album which actually had two incarnations: the first was never finished in the idea stage, but I had – and still have somewhere – the complete beat tape for the second, along with at least 7 or 8 fully finished written tracks. One of these tracks was “On the Roll”, which I performed, with Annemarie Hans on singing vocals, on my secondary school open podium night. Very cute. I know.
• The Crash. Before I made One from the Heart, there was another album which I still had not titled but I now call “The Crash” because most of the beats were lost in a computer crash in, um, 2004/5? The songs One from the Heart and Otherworld Blues were saved from this crash and are as a result the oldest songs on my album.

So as you can see, my albums usually stopped short of actually being recorded. Fortunately, in 2006 Magical found a great way to record his own album Trukendoos. He found Sebastiaan Pierik, Hardenberg legend, former member of the Temporaries and current co-owner of a studio in Hoogeveen willing to record his album at killer quality. This was the connection I had been looking for and I started making fresh songs and conceptualizing the album that you now have or do not have called One from the Heart.

Next time: the first edition of the song-by-song breakdown of One from the Heart, some audio (hopefully) and more of my ranting. Thanks for bearing with me!

Shoutouts to Magical, Warlord, Freaky D a.k.a. D Astronomer a.k.a. Adan, Smel, Medic, Annemarie Hans, Miou Kaper, Sebastiaan Pierik and Rest in Peace to 5th Season!!!

EL D

www.myspace.com/alecjweatherwood