GRAND NOBLE7 Deadly Sins EP
(2004)
The 7 Deadly Sins EP was completed and released in 2004. It wasn't widely available. I was manually burning CDs, buying slim jewel cases and printing the EP cover art at work (B.A.C.R. in the Bay Area). I created the cover art using Paint Shop Pro. The area under the tracklist really is burnt paper: I burned it carefully to create a look I wanted, then scanned it. The burnt paper on the left is simply an upsidedown-reverse of the same image.
Fun fact #1: At the time of creation, G-Unit was huge on the underground scene (they had not yet made millions, the world only knew of 50 Cent from 2003). On their constant flow of mixtapes, they had stars around the mixtape and usually a phrase at the top or bottom. I loved the look.. so I jacked them. hah. Fun Fact #1 ½: There in an obvious lack of color present on the cover art. This was on purpose to conserve printer ink...It was handed out solely as promotional material to friends and family members and to people I would meet who wanted to hear my music. It was so much easier as a newly-starting-artist to simply SHOW people a finished product, than to explain to them that I was a rapper/emcee and try to convince them "I was really good." All songs were recorded on Cool Edit Pro 2.0 using the illegal crack "Peter Quistgard" (so I wouldn't have to use the trial version).
It was created within my first 20 or 30 songs written/recorded. I simply picked out the best and my favorites (in the small catalog I had at the time). Which came out to 8 songs. When I had already finished compiling the songs (and already finished making the cover art), I wrote/recorded "Is It You." Which I decided I wanted to also use on the EP. Seeing as 8 songs was already long for an "EP," I squished a Bonus Track onto the cover art in the then-empty space on the cover.
Fun Fact #2: All of the songs on the tracklist are in the same order as creation date. Meaning I wrote track 1 before track 2, and so on. Track 9 (bonus) being the last track I wrote.1 - Tha Top 3 (feat Phaze, Logik 1)
2 - Pendulumn (feat Tik 777)
3 - The Cries of Shadows
4 - To All My Souldiers
5 - Headaches
6 - God Save Me (feat Doctor Deuce)
7 - Emotional Catharsis
8 - Understand (feat Kruz, Doctor Deuce)
Bonus - Is It You (feat Cherisse)
1 - "Tha Top 3" - I met Phaze via the website SoundClick, which I was apart of at the time. I don't remember who approached who about doing a collaboration. At the time, I had only written songs solo, this was my first collab. Phaze picked the beat from a free-beat website (which he directed me to, to download). Once I had recorded my verse, I emailed it to Phaze and he recorded the hook and his verse. He also had his own friend Logik 1 jump on the 3rd verse. Inadvertantly, the beat wasn't long enough so he had to make the beat drop, then start it again, creating a longer track.
2 - "Pendulumn" - Again via SoundClick, an artist named "Tik 777" was having a competition on his page. He had a beat with his recorded 1st verse and 1st hook available to download, the remaining track was instrumental-only. Whoever recorded the best verse and submitted it, would be placed on Tik's upcoming album. Of course I jumped at the opportunity. He had one strict rule: The verse had to be 16 bars. No more, no less. Not fully understanding how to count bars at the time, I wrote a verse doubly long: 32 bars. I was counting them, just not correctly! Needless to say, I didn't get chosen, so I didn't have a full song (Tik 777 was going to place the hook and another verse on the beat after the winner's verse). Not wanting to waste such a good song, I cut it up on CEP2.0, and spliced the hook after my verse.
3 - "The Cries of Shadows" - The original version had a poem being performed before the song by my friend Wade Wilson aka Joker. He heard the song and was inspired so he wrote custom poetry for the track. The recording was over a separate instrumental. When I was creating the EP, Wade's poem was cut for various reasons (such as recording quality). Embedded in my 1st and 2nd verse is anger directed towards the woman of my affection at the time. And the 3rd verse is actually a poem I wrote about the same young lady.
Fun Fact #3: In later years, Wade, who is now: aka Archangel, and I became a group. Forming our names together, we created "Grand Angel." More on that above in later posts..4 - "To All My Souldiers" - Although I was just starting out and was still a novice, I was affiliated with Dark Soul Records. Led by Alex Maldonado aka A-L-E-X (but at the time: aka The13thAngel). Soon after affiliation, there became tension between certain members, ie. Alex and a rapper named N'ron. My loyalties were to Alex; however, I didn't jump into the beef. With this song, I tried to squash their beef. Rapping with Dark Soul, I cited we're all "souldiers," which was spelled incorrectly on purpose. There's some witty punchlines in the song that still surprise me to this day.
5 - "Headaches" - This was perhaps my first real concept song. If you listen to the song all the way through, it's obviously about a women and the problems (headaches) she causes me. However, at the end I reveal that the "headaches" she is causing me are via "biting down" during fellatio. Now knowing this, if you were to listen to the track again, what was written has a different meaning. Despite the subject, this song was held high in my catalog because of the lyricism involved. It took careful planning while writing, every line having a double meaning was not an easy task for me at the time! Since this song, concept songs have become a staple in my rap-style.
6 - "God Save Me" - Doctor Deuce was actually a member of Dark Soul Records. He was the opposite to me in the beef between Alex and N'ron. Me being "Alex's homie" and Deuce being "N'ron's homie." Neither wanting to squabble with each other. We had already planned to do (and had started recording) an album together as a group. With Deuce making the beats for the album, we were knocking songs out very quickly. We wrote and recorded at least 10 songs, and had planned-out another 5+ before the project diminished. Deuce has the 1st and 2nd verse and the hook. I'm actually the one being featured, having the 3rd verse. Memory failing me, I can't say why this song made the EP and none others did.. OR why I included it at all, seeing as we were planning a group album.
Fun Fact #4: Track four aside, I later started beefing with Deuce and planned a diss record entitled "Slay Jay, vol. 1" (re: Kill Bill, vol. 1). I only wrote about 5 songs (recording 3 of them) before I dropped the project.7 - "Emotional Catharsis" - At the time of EP release, I was only 14 or 15, so female-problems were a constant in my life at the time. This is another song for the young lady of track three. This one was written after having a falling-out, as a "back in the good ol' days" type of song. It has an amazingly strong hook, and is still one of my favorite tracks from this EP. I threw in a few lines and stories about a few other females, but I projected during the song as if it was all one girl.
8 - "Understand" - Again, I was approached to be the "feature" on a song, but I liked the end-result so much that I included it for the EP. From what I was told (and remember), originally the song was to included Kruz, Doctor Deuce and a different rapper. But that rapper flaked, so Deuce came to me for a verse. However the hook was already recorded, which includes the names of the projected artists: Kruz, Doctor Deuce and the mystery 3rd verse rapper. I've never been able to fully understand (no pun intended) what Kruz is saying on the hook, so I've never known the other rapper's name. I do know, however, that my name is NOT in the hook. Hah. No one else ever noticed it though..
9 (Bonus) - "Is It You" - One day I got a generic email, from a fledgling record label, stating to check out there new singer's website. I tried to decide whether to mark it as Spam or not, eventually going to the website. The singer Cherisse was very good, but the website was garbage! That aside, she had a few tracks available for free download. One of them being sung over Xzibit's beat for his song Paparazzi. I recognized the instrumental (which I had on my PC) and downloaded the song. I was awoken in the middle of the night with the burning desire to get on CEP2.0 to splice the tracks together and write the song. I blended the instrumental with Cherisse's song to make an unofficial remix. Later I tried to contact the website (which took time to find! This was before Google..), but never got a response. It appeared the site had been abandoned as there was nothing up-to-date for quite a few months.
Fun Fact #5: The title was inspired from a friend David Defabio, who is a devout Catholic. Although I wasn't religious.. he would teach me lessons about the world which applied whether you were religious or not. He would consistently test my memory to see if I could remember all 7 of the Deadly Sins.
