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Gyp Hop – Gypsy influenced Hip Hop Music
Once upon a time I was on tour with my band Fishtank Ensemble through the Mid-west when I met a rapper, SBZ, who inspired me to start this project. We jammed for several hours that night and I recorded it on my phone. When I would listen to the improvised music we made that night, my blood would start racing with excitement because the music was so interesting and vital. I loved the combination of real music mixed with hip hop. He could rap over anything that I threw at him . . . Flamenco, Gypsy music, Odd-time grooves . . . and all with very intelligent and meaningful lyrics. So that’s one of the main ideas of this project: Organic hip hop played on real instruments (mostly) inspired by gypsy music. That’s where ‘Gyp Hop’ comes from. That won’t however be the final name of the project, it’s just a working title. After playing music for the last 20 years, I have a large network of incredible musicians at my fingertips to pull this off. I started writing these songs while on tour in Europe in the summer of 2010. In December of that year, I brought SBZ out to Los Angeles for a week to record 15 songs. It was a very ambitious schedule but we managed to finish the vocals on all the songs. Now it was left up to myself and engineer/ co-producer Jason Schimmel (formerly of Estradasphere) to turn these sketches into catchy hit songs. Don’t take my word for it. Take a listen to the first 4 songs that we completed for yourself. That way, there’s no mystery. You can hear exactly what you are supporting and how it is turning out. My goal with this project is to produce super catchy hit songs that cross genres. Is it hip hop, pop, world, gypsy music? . . . It’s all of them. I’ve been working non-stop on this music since the summer of 2010, putting thousands of dollars of my own money and countless hundreds of hours of work into this project I love so much. If you would consider helping me finish album, I would be truly and eternally grateful. I want this CD to sound as good as possible and the money I’m trying to raise will pay for the clear and beautiful mixing and mastering of the 15 plus songs we have started. There are many talented collaborators on this album and I promise by the time I’m done, you are going to flip out when you hear this new music!! I expect to be finished with everything by the fall/winter of 2011. It would be sooner except I have a very busy summer touring schedule with Fishtank Ensemble. I am offering a lot of great incentives with this campaign and I would be honored if you would help see this vision to completion. As an artist, it’s always very important for me to have complete artistic control. That’s why I am appealing to you, the fans, to make this possible. Without your help I could not do it. I thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything and am very excited for you to finally hear the album! On behalf of SBZ and myself . . . peace and thanks for checking us out, from your DIY guitarist, composer and producer, ‘douje’. |
