Malik 16 Week (Day 3)

It's still Malik-16/Gangstarr Girl Week on both sites where we dropped part one of his double mixtape--How to Make a Mixtape (Side A, Who Doesn't Rap)--on Monday, premiered his video "My Block, Harlem" and posted other cool videos like promo commercials the two of us shot (all improv, btw) and I even posted pros and cons of his first mixtape just to be fair.
Today is special for two reasons. One, it's Malik's birthday! Two, part two (aka sideB) of the mixtape Disco Inferno) drops today.



You can check it out on his site by CLICK HERE. When you get there, check out the brief intro video, scroll down and you'll see the mixtape icon next to a subscription box. Sign up and do your thing. And if you're still not convinced, or just lazy, you can take a short cut by downloading some select tracks from both sides of the mixtape in my "Download This" section on the right panel of my site.

Make sure that if you haven't been following what's going on this week, that you go back and get up to speed.

PREVIEW

DAY 1

VIDEO PREMIER

DAY 2

If you're still wondering why the hell you should be interested in this dude, here are three good reasons that I can think of:

1. He's nice lyrically.

2. He knows his hip-hop and respects good artistry no matter what region.

3. He's an overall well-rounded MC and I love that women can relate without him being extra sappy, lovey-dovey or cheesy.

I previously interviewed him more in-depth on HiphopDX (you can find that link on day one if you review what's been going on this week), but here's a brief update interview specifically pertaining to this special week and the mixtape we're doing, on the whole process of creating the mixtape and what he hopes to gain out of it:

Malik on the Creative Process and Grind:

I spent so much time doing music in the group context that it seemed more rational to do something on my own. In 2005, I was living in Georgia and working with my Boy Brandon Carter, who had just started producing, we were working on a demo and reference project with a young singer in hopes of getting a publishing deal. We didn't finish by our estimated deadline, so I wound up having to move to D.C. to wrap it up.

While I was writing all of this girly R&B for this young singer, I felt like I had to release some testosterone. [Plus] I realized [that] I had never released my own project since I've been rapping, so as soon as I finished the R&B project, I dedicated my time to doing a big project [that was my own].


I [got] back to New York in Winter ['05] and wrote three mixtapes in three months. I was working a crazy ass shift at TGI Friday's and got home every night at one, but I made myself write one song a night, before I went to sleep, and decided that any mixtape I did would always have 16 tracks. That's [also] when I decided to make it a double mixtape..

I [needed] a place to record so boy Sol-Leks told me that his boy had a home setup, and I started recording there in 2006 but then [said] homeboy fronted on me before I could finish both projects [and] I didn't have any copies of what I recorded--so I spent the rest of that year re-making the samples and loops, getting the beats together.

I downloaded a program, sat and chopped and spliced away myself and took this as a learning experience for next time.

Finally, that winter, Sol-Leks told me that he had just made his own Studio and we vibed out and did three songs one day with a dope singer named Franchesca-Mil.

We did this song "Ghetto Love" that went on my Moonlighting mixtape, and the track "Come With Me" that's on side B of How to Make a Mixtape mixtape.

After that, I was able to use the studio when ever I needed and it was a learning process for all of us. We were working with limited equipment and grinding crazy hours. I was dead broke and walking [40 blocks] from Harlem to [Washington] Heights some nights and doing 32 songs at once.

This mixtape would have come out in the spring of 2007 but when I was recording the track "F**k Who You Wit" with A.Pinks, he was breaking down his experience with releasing his first mixtape and I got shook because I started to see that that first venture out is a gamble. I knew that with 32 songs, I wanted to make sure that these mixtapes got to the widest audience possible, and do it on a gow G is that??
rand scale Like GangstarrGirl/Malik-16 week... and this is where Starr comes in. I was
working with a hard-headed DJ--[to host How to Make a Mixtape]--who is set in his ways, and at the last minute, he got into trouble with the law. That prompted me to move forward without him on one half of the tape. She happened to approach me in August about collabing on a project, and I thought using this mixtape was the most practical idea. This is why you don't hear the Dj yelling all over the first side of the mixtape.

Malik on Why it's a Double Mixtape:

I decided to make it a double because when I got back to New York in Winter '05, the street mixtape scene was still buzzing. Cats was still capitalizing off of the 50 cent model and t his was inspiring, but at the same time, because I knew I was coming from being a no-name, I knew I had to come in at a different angle and decided to combine two of my mixtapes.

When I first started writing them, I knew I wanted to re-do a classic album in my own way to get some response. I chose to do Jay-z's In My Lifetime Vol. 1 because it had a lot of available instrumentals and it's been kinda overlooked among the New York classics. That's why there's so many Jay beats on side A.

But to separate myself further, I knew I didn't want to rap over the current beats that a million other dudes were rapping over and get lost in the sauce. Since alot of rappers had just started the trend of going back into the crates around then, and spitting over old school rare hip-hop instrumentals, I wanted to go even further back and do Disco. NOBODY thought to do this. It's borderline gay [but] I pimped it out. I knew a disco themed mixtape by itself would get met with crazy looks so putting the two mixtapes together was the best thing to do.


Malik on What He Hopes to Gain From This

I hope that this week just increases the awareness [and] introduces me to a whole new audience because my only job is to gain as many listeners as possible. I'm not a myspace rapper [who] just picked up a mic a year ago and decide this was something I could do.

Most importantly,

I hope the overal view of this is not that Starr is doing some poor rapper a favor. This is a cross promotional event. We're two artists enterprising and building careers and sites that are in the formative phases of their existence. I'm familiarizing her brand with people who may not have known her and her site before this week, as she is doing the same for me.

MISC:

I'm seeing a lot of zero comments on all of the participating blogsites that have been showing us love, even up here.

People, you know you've clicked on a lot of trash and commented on it in your day--that day being everyday--so how about you click on something worthwhile and try to say something constructive for a change??

I'm just saying...this is a week long thing and the mixtape is only good if you actually DOWNLOAD IT.

It's FREE.

I wouldn't be co-signed by so many different folks if it was a waste of your time.

Please make your way out to MALIK-16.COM and support. And you can even pick up some tracks from Starr's "Download This" section if you still need a preview.

Don't be afraid of my mailing list, it won't flood your inbox!! Promise.

Shout out to Reenie (Starrene aka GangstarrGirl) for doing this, 2 DopeBoyz, Str8nyc.com, AllThatsFab.com, Nasdank, PigeonsandPlanes.com, FunCrusher Plus, SunriseSunDown Blogspot and my homegirl TDJ.

Thanks to everybody who downloaded tracks.