Who I've run with-Crews/Families

Hey y'all, this is an appreciation post about some of the folks I've run with, worked with, and learned from. Some of these folks I've known since I was a kid, some I met in college or as an adult. All of them have given me a tremendous amount of love, support, ideas, game, and support and I'm happy to work with them.

Top to bottom, left to right: 

1. Trust Your Struggle Collective- (Bay Area, NYC, int'l) Crew of Graffiti writers, educators, muralists, organizers, etc who create large scale murals, gallery exhibitions, and educational workshops. Founded in 2003! I'm a proud co-founder of this crew. Learn more here.

2. Social Justice Children's Book Holiday Fair- (Bay Area) This is a kids book fair founded by authors, illustrators, teachers, organizers, and book lovers in 2017. This fair champions books featuring People of color, queer folks, and social justice minded creators to serve our community. See some photos from past events here.

3. Tone/ Umber: (Bay Area) Both magazines were founded by an incredible designer, artist, and father Mike Nicholls who has been going since 2016 I believe with Umber magazine. A journal to celebrate Black and Brown stories relating to manhood, sports, music, lifestyle, and more. I was briefly a part of Tone , a magazine dedicated to Black men which is currently dormant, but you can see Umber here.

4. Rad Dad Magazine- (Bay Area) Founded by Tomas Moniz in 2005. Rad Dad was a zine and magazine dedicated to helping fathers of all stripes share their experiences, triumphs, and challenges as dads. Read more here.

5. Muphoric Sounds- (NYC/London) Founded by Vanessa Warren in 2008 MS functioned as a booming part of the music blog landscape. We wrote about new and old music primarily focused on Soul, Hip Hop, Jazz, Funk, Electronic, and House. Read some of the pieces here.

6. The Bull Horn Blog/ M is for Movement- (Boston/Bay Area). This is a blog founded by Innosanto Nagara, Alison Goldberg, and Janine Macbeth that highlighted children's books from multiple age groups featuring stories by people of color and social justice minded creators. Read posts here.

Dig this? Check out my interview with Avy Jetter of Oakland Creates

Muphoric Sounds Throwback

For those of you unaware, I love music. A lot. I started buying my own tapes at 9 or 10, then at age 14 I moved on to vinyl. These days I don't buy that music but I still listen to new cats. For more than 8 years I wrote short pieces for a music blog started by Vanessa Warren called Muphoric Sounds. I started two columns; "In the trunk" about old records of every genre and "Press Rewind" about instrumental beats. If you started checking out my work recently and dig music, go check out some of the pieces I wrote.

Here are four:

Los Orientales De Paramonga- Botecito Cumbia
Funkdoobiest/ Buckwild- Rock On remix Hip hop
Marcos Valle-Nao tem nada nao Funk
Curtis Mayfield-Kung Fu Funk

Occasionally I wrote about stuff I liked that was new at the time too, like this.

Muphoric Sounds 44 - Curtis Mayfield (In the trunk)

It has been awhile since I did an "IN THE TRUNK" piece for Muphoric Sounds. If you have not heard this song by Curtis Mayfield I highly suggest you go on over to Muphoric Sounds : LINK

and listen to it. 

For those unaware, I have been writing as a contributing editor to Muphoric Sounds (a contemporary and old school music blog) since 2010 or 2009. It is a passion project for me because I love music, and the Chief editor Vanessa gave me a shot to write about old records I like. Please go there and listen to some of them. And if you're a beat maker/producer definitely download those songs and use them! Hopefully they inspire some new sounds. Share and support good music. I also write a series there called "PRESS REWIND" about old beats. Tune in.

Muphoric Sounds 43- Grand Puba

As I mentioned last year I started a new section of music posts on Muphoric about beats!! This one is produced by Grand Puba who rhymes and produces. Please follow the link to Muphoric sounds.

Muphoric Sounds 42- Press Rewind

Yo! I'm happy to announce that i am back to writing about good music over at the Muphoric Sounds blog. I started writing for the blog w/ the founder Vanessa Warren 6-7 years ago-writing about soul, funk, jazz, salsa, and so much more through the eyes of a hip hop head. I will continue to do that and I've added a new section called "Press rewind" which is about beats from the past that you might have missed if you're not a DJ or vinyl collector. Anyway, enjoy the 2nd installment of it here http://muphoricsounds.com/press-rewind-funkdoobiest-rock-b…/ and please subscribe to the site!

Muphoric Sounds 40- Los Orientales de Paramonga

What a beautiful song, been loving this jam for years and finally wrote something about it. Shout out to Super Sonido blog for putting me on to this. More at

Muphoric Sounds

Muphoric Sounds 39- Patrice Rushen

New "In the Trunk" on Patrice Rushen

Muphoric Sounds 38-Aretha Franklin

There are a few good songs on this LP, I chose to write about "Only the one you love" on Muphoric Sounds. Go

GIVE IT A LISTEN

Muphoric Sounds 37-Marcos Valle

Ahhh, it's been awhile since I've done an IN THE TRUNK for yall. It is hard to post if you don't hear anything that really moves you. However, I've had tons of random songs from different genre's in my head these past few months and this is one of them. Shout out to Allan Cole (Flwrpt). Read more please... Marcos Valle-“Não Tem Nada Não”

Muphoric Sounds 36- Mad_Lines

Young MC MADlines got an ep out, listen on Muphoric 

LINK

Muphoric Sounds 35-Mongo Santamaria

Go listen HERE "La comida pa' Chango" Por Mongo Santamaria

Muphoric Sounds 34-Yes

Heart of the sunrise by Yes was one of my favorite moments in Buffalo 66, Have you heard it? Go LISTEN HERE

Muphoric Sounds 33- Sheila Hylton/ w Sly and Robbie

One of my favorite albums, and one that I remember the most hearing the most as a child in my home. Listen to one of my favorites on Muphoric Sounds.

Muphoric Sound 32- Moe Koffman

New "In the trunk" piece up on Muphoric Sounds....If youre a Jill Scott fan, you'll recognize this one..

Muphoric Sounds 31- The Stuyvesants

Just wrote something quick about The Stuyvesants' new Instrumental LP, if you know an MC or Singer that needs beats, they should use these (with credit of course) LINK

Muphoric Sounds 30- Maylee Todd

Heres a short write up about Maylee Todd's new LP. Go read and listen por favor.
In case you're scratching your head, Im a visual artist yes but I like music and I write about it occasionally.

Muphoric Sounds 29-Talia Taylor

I met Ms Talia Taylor as a teacher and was blown away by her rhyme skills consequently when sitting in the audience of a Real nerds Mixtape party by CocoPelia. I was shocked and pleasantly surprised when i saw her up there rocking, and even further pleased when I heard her on Rocky Rivera's swagger Jackin and the Real Nerds mix. Wrote up a lil sumn on her. Keep an ear out for her.... LINK

Muphoric Sounds 28- George Duke

If you know Bay Area hip hop, you know this song has been played in old schools all over the bay since the late 80s. Another IN THE TRUNK piece for you funk lovers on George Duke and "The Dukey Stick" LISTEN

Muphoric Sounds 27-Maylee Todd

Just did a quick write up about Maylee on Muphoric Sounds. Now I wanna visit Toronto. Go watch the video....

Muphoric Sounds 26-Weldon Irvine

Weldone Irvine (Master Wel)- I Love You Listen here IN THE TRUNK