Def Jam Cipher Sessions: West Coast Edition

This lil cipher session was originally suppose to happen tonight, but according to Diz Gibran's tweet, there were a few flight delays, pushing the cipher session to Monday, January 31st. The left coast fellas that'll be reppin' in the east at S.O.B's will be Skeme, YG, El Prez, TiRon, Diz Gibran, and Fashawn.

If you're livin' in NYC, you know where to be Monday night. Buy your tickets here.

Fashawn...

Fashawn has been dropping songs to catch on his next project called Higher Learning 2. When will it drop? The sooner the better. Here are all the joints he's dropped so far:

"Papers (remix)"

"Going Home"

"4 The G's feat. Grafik"

"In The Rain feat. Grafik & Bravo"

"Strange Fruit w/ Common & John Legend"

"Manny Pacquiao"

Fashawn - Dark Fantasy Freestyle

Here's a freestyle coming from Fresno native, Fashawn. He's hopin' on Kanye's Dark Fantasy and putting his spin on it.

Listen to Dark Fantasy Freestyle

Fashawn - Grizzly City 3

Working with DJ SKee, here's Fashawn's third installment of Grizzly City. On a couple tracks he features some of his Fresno natives, Grafik and Bravo. He also has Ron Artest featured of track number 7. I know a few of us have been waiting for Grizzly City 3 to come out, so here it is.

Download Grizzly City 3

Fashawn - The Ecology / The Score

Here's the official video for "The Ecology" off of Fashawn's album, Boy Meets World. This is definitely one of the hardest songs to learn off of his album (trust, i've tried lol), yet it's one of my faves. Check the chill video taken on what seems to be the streets of his hometown.

Fashawn - Santiago's Revenge

You can find this track on Fashawn's Grizzly City Mixtape 3, which will be out on August 24th.

"Where my tongue is like the barrel of a gun"

In true Fashawn style, he delivers his rhymes passionately. I can't wait for the whole mixtape to drop.

Listen to "Santiago's Revenge"

Fashawn - Ode to Illmatic

"... real eyes realize real life, so stay focused..."
- "The World Is Yours"

I had mentioned this mixtape in a previous blog, but i haven't posted the link yet. With much comparison to Nas, Fashawn decided what other way to pay homage to Nas by creating a mixtape dedicated to one of hip hop's greatest albums, Illmatic. Seems to me that the music that Fash creates and puts out for his fans is nothing, but filled with good sh*t. All the songs on this mixtape are worth listening to, nothing to press skip to. My fave song is "Memory Lane (Sitting in the Park)" and "Life's A Bith".

Download Ode to Illmatic

June 14, 2010

I was lucky enough to spend most of my Monday with Grafik and Fashawn and sit in Evidence's lab listening to music not even out yet.

Here's a short background on the boys I just mentioned...

Fashawn is a CenCal native, raised Fresno. He's been on the grind since the age of 17, dropping out of high school and hitting the road with Planet Asia. He put out his very first mixtape in 2006 titled Grizzly City. Since then, he's worked with Mick Boogie & Terry Urban on the Orisue clothing sponsored, One Shot One Kill mixtape and has put out a grip of other mixtapes. He recently put out another mixtape called Ode to Illmatic with XXL and Orisue clothing. But prior, he released his debut album Boy Meets World in late 2009. He's also graced the XXL magazine being one of the 10 freshmen for 2010.

Another Fresno native, I was introduced to Grafik by Fashawn earlier this year. He's been into the whole rap game since he was little, but actually started recording tracks in the studio at the age of 15. He's been out and about getting his name out there. He has a mixtape called Money Ave. and just recently put out another mixtape called LL Cool Graf. He's young in the game, but is making the right moves by going to different places wherever he can to spread his name.

Evidence is a man who reps Venice beach hard in everything he does. He was a part of the group Dilated Peoples . Aside from the group's success, Evidence has accomplished so much. Not only is he a rapper, he's also a producer. He's produced music for Planet Aisa, Linkin Park, and the Beastie Boys just to name a few. Not to mention, he's earned a Grammy for co-production on Kanye West's album College Dropout. In 2007, he came out with his first solo project called The Weatherman LP. Then in 2008 he released The Layover LP. He now has another album coming out soon titled Cats & Dogs.

My Monday... started off by going to class, then went back home. Nothing out of the ordinary. I knew Grafik and Fashawn were gonna be in town, but I didn't think anything of it. Main thing is I got to Pasadena, where they were posted for their stay here and picked them up. We grabbed some Chipotle for lunch, then headed to L.A. soon after. The car ride there was pretty interesting. I was driving and thought to myself "Do i change the music!?!" lol i mean, how oftendo i have one of the freshmen for 2010 riding in my car haha Then Fash asked "Do you have any instrumentals?" Yeaahhh, 'cuz I sit in my car spitting bars for days o_O lol But now i know to always have instrumentals in my car lol We were stuck in non other than (drumroll please) L.A. traffic! On the way to L.A., I turned down my stereo while Fash turned up his iphone. Graf was freestyling, Fash was freestyling... Did I!?! Of course not, they weren't ready for my bars ;) HAHAHA We finally reached L.A. where Evidence's lab is at. Dropped Fash off, while me and Grafik looked for parking, how I love finding parking in L.A. -_-, but it wasn't too bad. We walked in toward the end of Evidence Ustreaming, so if you caught an asian girl throwin' up the duces, that was me. As I sat down, Evidence and fashawn were tryna think of where to get some weed, cuz Fash soon found out the one spot near the lab was shut down haha Getting past that, Evidence played some new beats and new songs that I'm guessing will be on Cats & Dogs. I will admit that I'm not an avid listener of Evidence's, but prior to this i have listened to a few of his songs. Then being able to hear the new stuff that hasn't come out yet, i told myself i NEED to catch up on Evidence's work quick! As he played track after track, he and Fash would talk about this and that and so on and so forth. Then I caught myself thinking "DAMN! i'm in the same room as Fashawn and Evidence listening to music that isn't even out yet or might not even make it out. How many people would wanna be in my position!? I'm one lucky chick!" I just soaked everything in; from the conversing that was going on to the music that was being played. There was also quick talk about how there are some girls that are good for you and some girls that are bad for you. I found out how they feel about certain artists in the game to eagerly anticipating a video Evidence wanted to show us. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to watch the video, now I have to anticipate a little bit longer. Evidence said he was gonna put it out in a week or two, so be on the look out for that. All three guys were nice as fu*k! So I soaked up all that I could, sometimes catching myself sitting in awe thinking "Damn, what am i doing here!?" lol I was lucky enough to have them freestyling in my car and sit in the lab listening to good new music. With that being said, my Monday didn't turn out to be quite so ordinary.

Here's the pic i took when I was sitting down, trippin' on who i'm lookin' at hahahaa

Fashawn feat. Blu - Samsonite Man

Here's the official video for "Samsonite Man" by Fashawn feat. Blu, off of Fash's Boy Meets World album. Poor girl in the video is waiting for her man, Fash, but he's continuously keeping her updated by sending letters and pictures. You get to see the places Fashawn has been. Btw, being the Samsonite Man that he is, he's about to finish up a lil tour he has going on with Wiz Khalifa in Portland, Oregon tonight and Seattle, Washington tomorrow night. Take a look at the video and see where Fash has been :)

Fashawn - Life As A Shorty

i've liked this video ever since it came out. just thought i'd share :)

ETNIES x Fashawn

'cuz i've always liked my fair share of skater boys when i was younger :)

Here's Fashwan playing a game of SKATE with some kid. You can catch Hecktik, and Fash's fellow Fresno based artists Bravo and Grafik . I didn't know Fash was such a talented skater. Watch the video and see him land all his tricks!

XXL Magazine's 10 Freshmen for 2010

here are two more players in the game that i think deserve to be on this list.


Fashawn


J.Cole

Now just a lil' time to vent. OJ Da Juiceman. That kid made it on the freshmen list! Next to the other cats like Nipsey Hu$$le, Freddie Gibbs, and the others i've mentioned being on the list, you've gotta be joking about OJ Da Juiceman. His freestyle was... WACK lol I wanted to post his freestyle up, but why waste room on this blog? You can look for it on http://www.xxlmag.com/ if you want. MAYBE they just put him on there 'cuz he was a guest blogger on the XXL site, idk. After watching the video, it seemed as if he didnt even fill up the bars he was given to prove himself... i'm just sayin'...

i was lookin' through XXLMag's site and i came up on this Freddie Gibbs track.
Listen to "Slammin" by Freddie Gibbs

But remember to cop XXL Mag on March 16th, 2010 to catch all of the freshmen featured on their list.

Fashawn Interview w/ The L.A. Leakers

Fashawn stops by The Takeover to talk with the L.A. Leakers about how he teamed up with The Alchemist for The Anecdote, his influences growing up, and his upcoming mixtape.

Pure II

January 14, 2010, Zoolay hosted Pure II at Leonardo's on La Brea. Acts that performed were Fashawn, Evidence, Pac Div, and more.

We got there a little late thanks to Jenbunnie, but as TiRon told us, "Blame the universe." lol

Here's some footage from that night.