GRAND ANGELGuardians of The Bay, vol. 1
(2006)
Currently, this mixtape is available on ThatCrack.com.
- Music video for "Dark Soul Mafia" (click to watch: HERE).
In late 2005, both myself and Wade Wilson moved to Los Angeles around the same time. We were friends from High School, having met at Young Actor's Workshop, a class that put on theatre plays at Contra Costa College in Richmond, CA. I've known Wade longer than I've been writing raps, which at the time was only a hobby. I got serious about a "career" in music when I moved to L.A. and started writing songs at a furious pace.
Meeting up with studio producer Mike Kelly, he advised me that the way to succeed would be to find a producer and work group projects. As such, the rapper of the group would get free beats, and the producer would get fame as well. Having failed to create a Grand Noble/Doctor Deuce group project in 2005 (re: 7 Deadly Sins EP), I didn't know who to group with. Coincidentally, my friend Wade Wilson wanted to start making beats. He was dorming at CSULA campus with a few rappers and producers so was getting exposed to the doing-it-yourself-at-your-house rap scene. Producing his first few beats on his roommate's system, I caught notice. After taking Wade (who became: aka Archangel) to the studio to hang out a few times, we grouped up in the Producer/Rapper fashion. All songs recorded on Cool Edit Pro 2.0; except Mic'foridagale, recorded at Executive Sound Studios. All songs un-mixed and un-mastered.
2 - Mic'forigadale (AA)
3 - My Turn feat Game (Noble remix)
4 - Gas Skills (AA)
5 - Y'all Don't Know
6 - Trying
7 - A Voice To Be Heard (AA) (Archangel solo interlude)
8 - A Voice Unheard (AA) feat Archangel
9 - The Dark Soul Mafia
10 - Money In The Bank feat Lil Scrappy, Young Buck (Noble remix)
11 - Thizzlamic (AA)
12 - Bay Arean feat N'ron, E-LOCSTA
13 - Off The Extraordinary feat Archangel
14 - Bay Boy
15 - Snap Ya Fingers feat Lil Jon, E-40 (Noble remix)
16 - My Hands
17 - An Angel's Jealousy, pt. I
18 - One Angel (AA) (Archangel solo interlude)
19 - An Angel's Jealousy, pt. II (Words of A Fallen Angel) (AA) feat Archangel
20 - Shout Outs (AA) (Archangel solo interlude)
(AA) Music produced by Archangel. 9 songs.
1 - "Guardians of The Bay (AA)" INTRO - We've never (as of yet) ended up writing a song to the beat used on this interlude. However, we did later use it as our intro-music at a 2007 performance, while Archangel introduced the group to the crowd.
2 - "Mic'forigadale (AA)" - This was the first song that Archangel made for me. I took the beat and flipped a song reppin the Bay Area, where we both came from. Mic'forigadale was a word I created for this song, which was a blend of "microphone" and E-40's common phrase "For Shigadale" (meaning Yes).
3 - "My Turn (Noble remix)" - Getting pretty good over the years at splicing an original track with the instrumental track, I did so often. Listening to a mixtape, I heard a song by Game that had a familiar beat. I realized it was a remix track to Rick Ross's song "Blow," which I had the instrumental for. Not wanting a remix with Rick Ross, I remixed the remix with Game instead.
4 - "Gas Skills (AA)" - Archangel and I had been throwing around ideas for new slang words (ie. mic'forgadale, off the extraordinary) to use as songs. We were listening to a Mistah F.A.B. song were he used the phrase "gas skills" in relation to cars. We both loved the phrase. When Archangel created this very dark, eerie beat.. I somehow decided this was the gas skills song! Reppin the Bay, the hook shouts out: Richmond, San Jose, Oakland, San Pablo, Frisco and East Palo Alto.
6 - "Trying" - Another song that was written and recorded before Grand Angel. Trying was written 1 week after I moved to Los Angeles, from Richmond; which is documented as lyrics in the 2nd verse. I was trying to document some of my hardships of life and just general hardships of the hood.
7 - "A Voice To Be Heard (AA)" INTERLUDE - We wanted an intro for the following track "A Voice Unheard." When I was creating the cover art, I didn't want the name to solely be "skit #2" or something generic. So feeding off the topic of the interlude, I came up with what I thought was a clever title. Being an intro for the next track, it uses the same instrumental.
8 - "A Voice Unheard (AA)" - Archangel and I would commonly get into discussions about race and race-relations. Besides simply being best friends, I think it secretly pleased both of us that we were in a multi-racial music group. Archangel came to me with a new beat he made which had Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" snippet for the hook. This is the only song on GOTB1 that Archangel raps on, writing his own lyrics. When we had finished recording the song, AA took the song and added the whole MLK "I have a dream" speech after the 3rd verse, being performed over AA's beat. We both loved the sound and the powerful message.
14 - "Bay Boy" - There is a Game/Lil Scrappy song called "Southside" which I am a big fan of. It has a bangin beat and the hook is anthem-like. Finding the instrumental online, I wanted to do my own version. (This was during Grand Angel, but before Archangel was writing raps). So on the hook, I changed "Southside! Ay ay" to "Y'all know I'm a Bay boy! Ay ay." Because of the Bayish nature of the song, I had to throw it on the mixtape (being called Guardians of The Bay and all...)
15 - "Snap Ya Fingers (Noble remix)" - Another spliced, cut-up track. Lil Jon had a song on the radio with my favorite rapper E-40. The song was sub-par, in my opinion, except E-40's verse and the dope hook. Originally, I was only going to cut out Lil Jon's 1st verse, but I wasn't a fan of Sean Paul's 3rd verse either, so I cut that out and wrote another verse to fill it's place. The song turned out to be a banger, and I tried to copy40's style on the song with call-and-response rapping.
16 - "My Hands" - I place this song along with "Trying" because they both have what I used to call "real Hip-Hop" type of sound. With the hook ("I've got the whole world in my hands") already on the beat, I knew what I would rap about! For the last verse, I flipped it again and rapped about having a secret in my hands, that everybody wanted.
17 - "An Angel's Jealousy, pt. I" - This is a concept song I wrote from the humans perspective, talking about how angels are jealous of the human race. And for 3 verses, I list reasons why they're obviously jealous of us. I would like to take full credit for the topic of the song. However, I was 200% inspired from watching the movie "Constantine" with Keanu Reeves, where he battles demons and "jealous" angelic forces. Immediately after watching it on TV, I jumped up and HAD to find a beat to use to write a song about jealous angels. I just so happened to find an Alchemist beat that fit PERFECTLY.
18 - "One Angel (AA)" INTERLUDE - After I wrote an recorded "Jealousy, pt. I" Archangel wanted to make a beat and have me do pt. II: from the angel's perpective. Being an intro for the next track, it uses the same instrumental.
19 - "An Angel's Jealousy, pt. II (Words of A Fallen Angel) (AA)" - For the 1st verse, from an angel's perpective, I take shots at the human race. Being fat and rude, but STILL God loves them! But we were created as the highest beings and we still do not get the rights or "free will" that lowely humans get. For the 2nd verse, I talk to God himself. I ask why why why!! And to God, I make my argument against the humans.
Meeting up with studio producer Mike Kelly, he advised me that the way to succeed would be to find a producer and work group projects. As such, the rapper of the group would get free beats, and the producer would get fame as well. Having failed to create a Grand Noble/Doctor Deuce group project in 2005 (re: 7 Deadly Sins EP), I didn't know who to group with. Coincidentally, my friend Wade Wilson wanted to start making beats. He was dorming at CSULA campus with a few rappers and producers so was getting exposed to the doing-it-yourself-at-your-house rap scene. Producing his first few beats on his roommate's system, I caught notice. After taking Wade (who became: aka Archangel) to the studio to hang out a few times, we grouped up in the Producer/Rapper fashion. All songs recorded on Cool Edit Pro 2.0; except Mic'foridagale, recorded at Executive Sound Studios. All songs un-mixed and un-mastered.
Fun Fact #1: The songs on "Guardians of The Bay, vol. 1" are called "Grand Angel" songs; however, half of the songs didn't include Archangel's input at all. Whether vocally, lyrically or topically. Half of the mixtape consists of songs that I had written before we had started a group, and simply wanted a platform to present the songs. I will include (below) which songs were produced by Archangel, for comparison. To combat this, I had Archangel record 4 solo skits, which all used music he had produced as a background.
Fun Fact #2: Once again, I created the artwork for the cover (and on the reverse, the tracklist). The font used for the text "Grand Angel" later became the un-official Grand Angel font. Using it for merchandise, Grand Angel TV, and our debut album (re: Dark End of the Stage).1 - Guardians of The Bay (AA) (Archangel solo interlude)
2 - Mic'forigadale (AA)
3 - My Turn feat Game (Noble remix)
4 - Gas Skills (AA)
5 - Y'all Don't Know
6 - Trying
7 - A Voice To Be Heard (AA) (Archangel solo interlude)
8 - A Voice Unheard (AA) feat Archangel
9 - The Dark Soul Mafia
10 - Money In The Bank feat Lil Scrappy, Young Buck (Noble remix)
11 - Thizzlamic (AA)
12 - Bay Arean feat N'ron, E-LOCSTA
13 - Off The Extraordinary feat Archangel
14 - Bay Boy
15 - Snap Ya Fingers feat Lil Jon, E-40 (Noble remix)
16 - My Hands
17 - An Angel's Jealousy, pt. I
18 - One Angel (AA) (Archangel solo interlude)
19 - An Angel's Jealousy, pt. II (Words of A Fallen Angel) (AA) feat Archangel
20 - Shout Outs (AA) (Archangel solo interlude)
(AA) Music produced by Archangel. 9 songs.
1 - "Guardians of The Bay (AA)" INTRO - We've never (as of yet) ended up writing a song to the beat used on this interlude. However, we did later use it as our intro-music at a 2007 performance, while Archangel introduced the group to the crowd.
2 - "Mic'forigadale (AA)" - This was the first song that Archangel made for me. I took the beat and flipped a song reppin the Bay Area, where we both came from. Mic'forigadale was a word I created for this song, which was a blend of "microphone" and E-40's common phrase "For Shigadale" (meaning Yes).
3 - "My Turn (Noble remix)" - Getting pretty good over the years at splicing an original track with the instrumental track, I did so often. Listening to a mixtape, I heard a song by Game that had a familiar beat. I realized it was a remix track to Rick Ross's song "Blow," which I had the instrumental for. Not wanting a remix with Rick Ross, I remixed the remix with Game instead.
4 - "Gas Skills (AA)" - Archangel and I had been throwing around ideas for new slang words (ie. mic'forgadale, off the extraordinary) to use as songs. We were listening to a Mistah F.A.B. song were he used the phrase "gas skills" in relation to cars. We both loved the phrase. When Archangel created this very dark, eerie beat.. I somehow decided this was the gas skills song! Reppin the Bay, the hook shouts out: Richmond, San Jose, Oakland, San Pablo, Frisco and East Palo Alto.
Fun Fact #3: On Grand Angel's debut album, Dark End of the Stage, Gas Skills was included. However it was remixed with a new 3rd verse and a new up-tempo beat. Also, the hooks range from shouting out the Bay Area, SoCal, to as far as Seattle and Vegas. Also, the name changed from "Skills" to "Skillz."5 - "Y'all Don't Know" - This was a song I wrote before Grand Angel, but recorded during Grand Angel. A popular song that we have performed on many occasions since GOTB1. It was apart of our 2-song set of Grand Angel's FIRST performance. A (very low-quality) video of this performance can be viewed here: youtube.com/watch?v=UhCqrE7VeUE
6 - "Trying" - Another song that was written and recorded before Grand Angel. Trying was written 1 week after I moved to Los Angeles, from Richmond; which is documented as lyrics in the 2nd verse. I was trying to document some of my hardships of life and just general hardships of the hood.
7 - "A Voice To Be Heard (AA)" INTERLUDE - We wanted an intro for the following track "A Voice Unheard." When I was creating the cover art, I didn't want the name to solely be "skit #2" or something generic. So feeding off the topic of the interlude, I came up with what I thought was a clever title. Being an intro for the next track, it uses the same instrumental.
8 - "A Voice Unheard (AA)" - Archangel and I would commonly get into discussions about race and race-relations. Besides simply being best friends, I think it secretly pleased both of us that we were in a multi-racial music group. Archangel came to me with a new beat he made which had Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" snippet for the hook. This is the only song on GOTB1 that Archangel raps on, writing his own lyrics. When we had finished recording the song, AA took the song and added the whole MLK "I have a dream" speech after the 3rd verse, being performed over AA's beat. We both loved the sound and the powerful message.
Fun Fact #4: We later re-recorded this song on ProTools at Executive Sound Studios, to be placed on "Dark End of the Stage"... however, after long talks about whether the speech was TOO long (we didn't want to cut it short, we felt it would diminish the message), or whether we needed the licensing rights to use MLK's speech in a song... we dropped the track from the album.9 - "The Dark Soul Mafia" - Another song written and recorded before Grand Angel came to fruition. As mentioned below (re: 7 Deadly Sins EP), I was affiliated with Dark Soul Records. When I found the beat quoting "Me, I'm Mafia" on the hook, I wanted to flip the topic (re: concept songs). I rap as if I'm talking about the Mafia and killing many. However, the mafia means Dark Soul and the murders in the verses refer to being lyrical as a rapper. Later, Archangel and myself filmed a music video in mid-2007, which was never released until April 2009. You can view it HERE on youtube: youtube.com/watch?v=JU1XCJaBCuU. Or read the blog about it HERE: grandnoble.blogspot.com/music-video-dark-soul-mafia.html
Fun Fact #5: Recently, my friend (Noah Waterman) told me the beat uses a sped up version of his favorite Ska song "Mafia" by Bad Manners.10 - "Money In The Bank (Noble remix)" - I was a fan of this song on the radio, and came up with a clever way to flip the verses. Instead of talking about having money INSIDE the bank, I rapped about constantly never having money at all! And when I did have it, I kept it OUTSIDE the bank. Splicing over Lil Scrappy's first verse and keeping Young Buck's 2nd verse.
Fun Fact #6: This was during a time when I was remixing every track I could. Ranging from Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy" to Beyonce's "Deja Vu."11 - "Thizzlamic (AA)" - The idea for this song came before Archangel had produced it. In the Bay Area, there is/was the Thizz movement, and the "nation/religion" of Thizzlam. AA had a clever idea to make an indian-sounding beat, where we could boast about being "Thizzlamic." A clever idea, yes, but I didn't think it would be created. However, AA soon came to me with the music! We wrote the hook first, wanting the song to be catchy. Lyrically, I still love this song, as it reps the Bay Area hardcore via the slanguage.
Fun Fact #7: A 90 second snippet was going to be placed on "Dark End of the Stage" as an interlude. However, before the release, we realized the quality wasn't the best and we didn't have time to re-record it, so it was dropped. Unfortunately.12 - "Bay Arean" - This song was actually written loooong before Archangel and I teamed up! It was recorded right after I had finished the "7 Deadly Sins EP" in 2004 and because of the no-project time-gap, I had never used it on any album or mixtape.
Fun Fact #8: This song was originally slated to be Track 2 on "Dark End of the Stage." However, due to difficulties in remixing the song (we were going to take N'ron off 2nd verse, and replace it with Archangel), it was dropped.
No-So-Fun Fact #1: E-LOCSTA is currently in prison (re: difficulties in remixing the song). Coming out in 2010!"13 - Off The Extraordinary" - Early in our Grand Angel group-creation process, our overseer Mike Kelly was helping us get in touch with bigger names in the music industry. Linking us up with Demetric Collins to produce this beat. Archangel realized that he wasn't going to make EVERY beat and felt a little lost, group-wise. So I wrote a verse, tailor-fitted coming from Archangel's perspective for this song. One day, AA was reading something outloud to me, and I misheard him. Thinking he said "Off The Extraordinary"... which made no sense. It turned out, that's NOT what he said. However, we thought this would be a cool title for a song. Our own made up slang meaning "Very Cool." It was an idea for a very long time before it became a song. We would use the phrase in conversation. We used it for Grand Angel's FIRST performance (along with "Y'all Don't Know), and the song totally bombed, tanked, crashed and burned. We don't often speak of this song or phrase since then...
14 - "Bay Boy" - There is a Game/Lil Scrappy song called "Southside" which I am a big fan of. It has a bangin beat and the hook is anthem-like. Finding the instrumental online, I wanted to do my own version. (This was during Grand Angel, but before Archangel was writing raps). So on the hook, I changed "Southside! Ay ay" to "Y'all know I'm a Bay boy! Ay ay." Because of the Bayish nature of the song, I had to throw it on the mixtape (being called Guardians of The Bay and all...)
15 - "Snap Ya Fingers (Noble remix)" - Another spliced, cut-up track. Lil Jon had a song on the radio with my favorite rapper E-40. The song was sub-par, in my opinion, except E-40's verse and the dope hook. Originally, I was only going to cut out Lil Jon's 1st verse, but I wasn't a fan of Sean Paul's 3rd verse either, so I cut that out and wrote another verse to fill it's place. The song turned out to be a banger, and I tried to copy40's style on the song with call-and-response rapping.
16 - "My Hands" - I place this song along with "Trying" because they both have what I used to call "real Hip-Hop" type of sound. With the hook ("I've got the whole world in my hands") already on the beat, I knew what I would rap about! For the last verse, I flipped it again and rapped about having a secret in my hands, that everybody wanted.
17 - "An Angel's Jealousy, pt. I" - This is a concept song I wrote from the humans perspective, talking about how angels are jealous of the human race. And for 3 verses, I list reasons why they're obviously jealous of us. I would like to take full credit for the topic of the song. However, I was 200% inspired from watching the movie "Constantine" with Keanu Reeves, where he battles demons and "jealous" angelic forces. Immediately after watching it on TV, I jumped up and HAD to find a beat to use to write a song about jealous angels. I just so happened to find an Alchemist beat that fit PERFECTLY.
18 - "One Angel (AA)" INTERLUDE - After I wrote an recorded "Jealousy, pt. I" Archangel wanted to make a beat and have me do pt. II: from the angel's perpective. Being an intro for the next track, it uses the same instrumental.
19 - "An Angel's Jealousy, pt. II (Words of A Fallen Angel) (AA)" - For the 1st verse, from an angel's perpective, I take shots at the human race. Being fat and rude, but STILL God loves them! But we were created as the highest beings and we still do not get the rights or "free will" that lowely humans get. For the 2nd verse, I talk to God himself. I ask why why why!! And to God, I make my argument against the humans.
Fun Fact #9: This song was brought up to appear on "Dark End of the Stage" (after being mixed and masters officially). Normally we had re-recorded old tracks to do this. However, inbetween the 2 verses, Archangel does a poem directed at the humans. Which I had beautifully edited in CEP2.0 in our beginning recording stages. I doubled the track and made his voice get more and more demonic sounding. It was something I didn't want to lose in re-recording..20 - "Shout Outs (AA)" OUTRO - About 3 years later, we finally used the music used for this interlude. Called "Story Of A Bullet." We thought it would be cool for fans that know our music to go back to old mixtapes like this one, make the connection, and go "Wow! I know that beat! That's (so and so) song!" But it took us a lot longer than expected! Hah.. It will not be released on a project until after 2010, for Grand Angel's sophomore group-album. Better than never I suppose!
