From Peace Uv Mine:

Welcome to Space City…”

Questlove’s “group to watch…” H.I.S.D. returns with the first single ‘Lando’ from their forthcoming LP/Book project The Weakend. Click the image on the left for your FREE DOWNLOAD or copy and paste the following link into your browser:

http://hisd.peaceuvmine.com

Get Ur Space Up!

The good people of The Legendary KO aka K-OTIX have released “The Reckoning”. This is an 8-track project that features some of the most aggressive, hard-hitting music that we’ve done to date. It also features special appearances by D Rose, The Niyat, Michele Thibeaux, Flow Factory, and Lower Life Form.

This is basically a snapshot of what we’ve been up to since “48 Seasons” and “The Reason”. It’s also indicative of the format that we’ll probably follow with future releases: shorter projects that are released more frequently. Soon to follow after this one – “The Redemption”.

K-OTIX / The Legendary KO

“The Reckoning”

1. Intro / Take A Bow – This song feels like the perfect intro track. In fact, we took the actual intro that we used at one of our shows and incorporated it at the beginning of the song. The irony is, most performers take their bows at the end of a performance, but we know that our shows have to go hard from the beginning. We’re taking that bow before we even get started.

2. Down – Heat! One of our mottos is that we specialize in bangers. Those of you who have been around long enough remember the old, laid-back, jazzy KO of yesterday. They died a long time ago. Get over it. We try to bring the heat now. Music that challenges your manhood. Makes your girl wanna do push-ups. Puts hair on your chest. That’s what we’re coming with on this one.

3. The Streets (Produced by Vango) – Vango has some stangers on the holster. I’ll have to admit – he stayed under our radar for a hot minute. Please be warned: this is another banger. There are also rumors of a KO / Vango project in the works. What rumors? Oops… did I say something?

4. The Science (Featuring D Rose and The Niyat) – You already know how we get down with D Rose; we’ve also been working with them Niyat boys since day uno. This is another sign of things to come – a lot more of these collaborations.

5. Addiction (Featuring Michele Thibeaux) – Everybody knows Michele. If you don’t, please catch up. Her voice is the silk sheet on a Tempur – Pedic mattress. She’s worked with us a lot in the past, most notably on the groundbreaking “Ethos” project. We used her a little differently this time by utilizing her on the prelude to the song. The bass was played live by Denis of Neon Collars.

6. On Ya Grind Remix (Featuring Flow Factory) – As the name implies, this is the remix of a track that will appear on Flow Factory’s long-awaited “Language Arts” album. These guys sound good together, and even better with us (wink wink). Can’t wait for their album to drop.

7. Damn Right (Featuring Lower Life Form) – This one was kind of like cheating, but why mess up a good thing. This is technically a remix for “Let’s Go” from Lower Life Form’s upcoming album. But in the tradition of re-recordings (see-Black Moon, etc) we completely re-imagined this song and still made it hit hard.

8. It’s Over Now – We end it the same way we began it – with heat. It’s more of a ultimatum than an affirmation. Step up or get stepped on. I wonder if we can get this licensed for an EA Sports game? Hmm…

Download THE RECKONING Here!!!

You can still download THE REASON here!!!!

HISD feat KO – Summer So Good

This album has been a labor of love for the last year or so, but what a lot of you might not know is that we were working on two albums at one time! Dig in and savor this album, but be warned that the sequel is going to drop in July…

Next week, we’ll go behind the scenes of The Reason with a track-by-track breakdown.

Enjoy!

  K-OTIX – The Reason (Download) 

On the flip side, we’re giving you “Destiny” featuring up and comers Hero and Rad. Just for the hell of it, you get the instrumental as well. We all know each other well enough by now.

Keep your eyes peeled for videos to both of these songs soon!

K-OTIX – Noise Featuring Kay

K-OTIX – Destiny Featuring Hero and Rad

K-OTIX – Destiny Featuring Hero and Rad – Instrumental

On the flipside, there’s a bonus track that we recorded over Lower Life Form’s cover of “PSA”. And just for kicks, we’ll throw in the instrumental for that one as well.

“What You Want” is one of the standout tracks from D Rose’s Taster’s Choice LP, and is certainly one of the most heartfelt songs to come along in a while. Produced by DJ Cozmos, of course.

Like we told you last week, D Rose has an album (Taster’s Choice) coming out soon, and it’s already an early contender for one of the best albums of the year! (Seriously, no bias.)

As you already know, KO is featured on the album. You heard “Safe Bet” featuring Big Mon last week. This week, you get to hear “Play It Cool”, featuring and produced by D Randle.

Play It Cool

It was originally recorded on an 8-track reel with a red light in the closet / booth, which made the words very difficult to see. Enjoy!

7 years later, we’re still getting emails from people who have just discovered the CPR Remix, which comes in a few minutes after the outro track. In the first of a series of Rare Remixes, we present the CPR Remix, produced by Damien.
 

 Track Listing:

1. Pimp University (Spontaneity, 1997)
2. Harlots (Spontaneity, 1997)
3. Love Song (Universal, 2001)
4. You / Me (The Black Album, 2002)
5. For The… Part 1 (48 Seasons, 2006)
6. For The… Part 2 (48 Seasons Deluxe, 2007)
7. Clap Ya Hands featuring Kay (The Reason, 2008)
8. Love Me Down produced by DJ Cozmos (Cozmosis, 2008)
9. Can You Feel It featuring Big Mon, Kay, D. Randle, and D Rose – produced by DJ Cozmos (Cozmosis, 2008)

Click on the image to download:

Okay, so the plans changed a bit. We said that you would get 2 updates in Week # 4, but you’ll get them this week. In Week #5 we bring to you some of our international collaborations.

The world is a pretty big place, and we try to make it smaller a song at a time. Although, hip hop started in the States, it’s probably more popular in other countries than it is here. Fortunately, we’ve had the pleasure of crossing over some geographical and language barriers to work with some very talented people from around the globe. For our first installment this week, we’ll showcase our Far East connections:  DJ Mitsu Beats and Cradle from Japan; and Loptimist from South Korea.

We came across DJ Mitsu Beats right after we finished Universal, through our Japanese distributor. For those unfamiliar with Mitsu, he’s one of the most prolific Japanese hip hop DJs out there, producing and collaborating with slew of American hip hop artists. We were invited to work with him on his New Awakening album. Dwele and Little Brother also contributed to the project. We jumped on a standout track titled “Tokyo”…  there wasn’t any science to the name of the song – it was just the working name while we recorded it. He liked it and decided to keep the title. As far as compilations go, this was one of the tighter ones to come around in a while. Click on the picture for a free download:

DJ Cradle entered the picture when we were prepping 48 Seasons for it Japan release. He came through a label connection that really wanted us to jump on a record after hearing what we did with Mitsu. ”Beautiful Thang” is just one of those melodious tracks that you lean back and listen to on a peaceful Saturday morning when everything’s right with the world. Tap that image to download it:

Last and definitely not least, we bring it back to our perennial favorite Loptimist, whose contributions to our 2003 Ethos LP opened the door to countless collaborations down the line. He’s one of South Korea’s best beatmakers right now, and released his debut solo project 22 Channels in late 2007. “KO Is The Name” received widespread acclaim throughout the region, and now it can be heard here at home:

Click below and enjoy!

DJ Cozmos featuring  Kay, Damien, and Big Mon – “La La Live”

Click on the image for a glimpse…