Time Drives A Beat Up Chevy

What up people,

It’s been a couple weeks since I last posted, but I had to give it some time to allow something to happen in my life, lol. Yeah, not too much.

*Last week I my girl and I traveled down to Akron, OH to go and give support to the Low Budget Crew and The ELs featuring Zo! and Asheru. Doug E. Fresh and Slick Rick were headlining the show. We had a lot of fun and I took a set of photos too, here’s the link:

http://crush.smugmug.com/gallery/5947290_gcEiV#370627809_4kvLo

***The beats for the Korona project are finally all done and she’s getting her writing on as we speak. This project is gonna be a monster. I can’t wait to have this done. We’re still shootin for January 1st, 2009. The shit is right around the corner.

***I just got done with the second beat I did for the new Phat Kat album, “Katacombs”. All I gotta say is WOW! Just wait. You’ll see.

***I just registered for this year’s Scribble Jam preliminary beat battle down in Cleveland. The winner of the prelim goes on to compete in the actual Scribble Producer Battle for like a piece of a $20,000 pot. I need that, and plus I’m kinda getting addicted to this whole beat battle thing. It’s fun, and it’s a good showcase.

***Still working on the score to a short film written by my dude Brub. Hope to have that done real soon.

***Look out for the Past Due album “Career” that just hit the stores in July. I have like 5 joints on that album. Good quality album. Also look out for The Regiment album, "The Prelude" slated for release in the next couple months. I did a good amount of the backdrop on that album as well. Banger!

Stay tuned...and get at me!

The Big Hello

What up people?!! It's that soul-prone beat maker, Apollo Brown, just trying to hopefully buzz around in the ears of many. If you have no idea who I am, that's good, now you can get the chance.

Here's is a very brief introduction of me:

I'm a producer out of Detroit by long way of Grand Rapids, Michigan. I produce songs, not just "beats". I'm not a fan of commercial music at all. I love grittiness in my sound, and a little static is even better. I firmly believe that the starving artist is the best artist. Creating habitually good music for about 9 or 10 years now, I've seen alot, heard alot, met alot, and haven't been impressed with alot. It's just me and my ear, my ear and my music. I concentrate on making the type of sound that "I" like, the sound from my favorite era of hip hop, 1991-1996. I don't conform to a certain sound just because it's a sound that everyone else likes. In my 28 years of age, my mood changes, and I create whatever comes to mind. I don't have much to say and publicly I'm kinda shy, so I speak through my music which I guess I can call my "wordless testimony". I try to make music that speaks to the listeners, even without an emcees lyrics. I like to sample any and everything that grabs me. I like to chop, cut, and filter samples to make my own melodies. I hate "keyboard beats" with a passion! Unless it's my dude Zo! I make music to incite the scrunch face and the natural headknod motion, music to provoke the talented MC's thought process. I admire alot of producers in the game who stay themselves at all times like Premier, Kev Brown, Pete Rock, Dilla, etc.

Whew! Now that the introduction is over! What up!

I decided to go ahead and start this blog thing basically to let everyone know what I'm doing production-wise and what kind of projects you can expect from me in the near future. I'm gonna TRY, yes TRY and keep this blog updated with the latest info, a little bit of good music, and maybe some events or shows i'm a part of. I have a little bit of back-dating to do but it's cool.

Let me catch you up:

***Earlier this year I put out a FREE Beat Album called "Skilled Trade" that contains 30 pieces of all original production by yours truly. It's a real soulful but hard collection of joints, some used already, some still open. I still have about 100 copies left, so grab me when you see me. I usually have some on me.

***I've been doing a lot of work in the past year. I'll just name some of the artists/projects i'm working on in no particular order:

Finale (Detroit)

Phat Kat (Detroit)

The Regiment (Detroit)

Paradime (Detroit)

Past Due (Chicago)

Miz Korona (Detroit)

Chief (Detroit)

Kool G. Rap (New York)
Invincible (Detroit)

Abrasive Method (Detroit Metro)

Damien Vega (New York)

SmartAlick (Detroit Metro)

Skyzoo (New York)

Verbal Kent (Chicago)

C. Reid w/ Fat Ray (Detroit)

Octane (Pontiac)

Magestik Legend (Detroit)

Tiffany Paige (Washington, DC)

Phathom (New York)

Illite (Detroit)

etc...just to name a few.

***I've been in 2 city-wide Producer Showcases this year and 1 National Beat Battle called the Red Bull Big Tune Beat Battle. That's some fun shit!

***I'm working on 2 full length LPs right now as we speak:

One joint is a very soulful, heartfelt project with my girl Miz Korona right now. We're in the process of getting the beats together, she's in her writing zone, and I'm constantly creating new joints for her to test out. All in all, it's coming along and we're real excited about this monster in the making. Most people are used to hearing Korona spit over real hard contemporary hip hop joints but I had to take it back to a mid-tempo soulful sound. I'm supplying the backdrop with somethin that listeners can think to but still equipped with the hard drums, the grit, and the staic to knod ya head to. You'll hear what i'm talkin about soon enough. Album should be done around the 1st of the year 2009. Stay tuned...

I'm also working on a full length album with my dude Chief from Past Due. Another soulful mid-nineties type joint with alot of feeling and hard drums. The beats for this record are already sorted through and the writing is almost done. Alot of people are gonna be surprised when they hear this "white boy" over this soulful shit like Milkbone back in '93. Taking our time on this one as well. You'll see it in the spring sometime. Again, stay tuned...

***I've been asked to provide background music and score for a couple short length films and musicals. Workin on that now also.

***Also, earlier this year I recieved my publishing from The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers(ASCAP) for my production company, 24 Carat Brown Music, ASCAP.

***Most recently I am featured in this week's(8/27/08) "4Play" section in the The Real Detroit Weekly by Origix of Zone Radio. Check me out.

http://www.realdetroitweekly.com/article_4540.shtml

Now that I got you somewhat caught up, I guess I can officially start posting some current shit from here on out. Hope you enjoy the overall blog. Get at me... 24caratbrown@gmail.com

Apollo