
I’d like to start this entry off by thanking AJ and the amazing people at Salem Psalms Library for making the mixtape and contest happen. I’m so glad I was able to be a part of it, and thanks to them I got to work with one of my favorite emcees. Possibly one of the greatest things an upcoming producer can experience. If you’re lost, let me explain…
A short while back I was asked to submit instrumentals for the Beatz & Lyrics 2 Go vol. 2 mixtape hosted by the A3C Hip-Hop festival in Atlanta, GA. It was to be recorded live in a mobile studio truck at the festival, I wish I could have been there! It turns out emcees Ekundayo and the legendary J-Live were digging one of my tracks and “Ascending” is what became of it. The good folks handling the mixtape had a contest for who had the best track and thanks to all of your continued love and support, I won the contest. I definitely didn’t mind that Blue Microphones, Auralex, and iZotope were the sponsors of the contest.

Blue Microphones hooked it up with their latest creation, Spark. It’s red. It’s very nice. It sounds very good. Definitely the ideal replacement for the ubiquitous MXL990 I’ve been rockin’ with since ’08.

It came in a sleek wooden box with a pop filter and shock mount pictured above… Did I mention it sounds good?

Auralex hit me with one of their MudGuard mic isolation thingies. If you’re an upcoming artist who records vocals at home, it’s a good cheap way to reduce unwanted reflections. You can definitely hear a big difference in the recording and you won’t ever regret buying one. I’m also a big fan of their MoPad product to isolate my monitors.

Lastly, from iZotope I received a full working copy of Ozone 5. It’s a well reputed mastering plugin that I’ve had my eyes on for a while now. I’m so thankful for all of this. Be on the lookout for future releases if you want to hear it all at work!