Some recent videos from Robust
Qwazaar
& He.llsent
Oh and you know what, while I’m at it, I never posted this here
If I’m forgetting any G4 videos that are still floating around out there, hit me with a reminder offwheezy@galapagos4.com
Offwheezy
Photos from Galapagos4 Mid-Summer Party on July 1, 2011 by Jam One jam1photo.com
Jeff
In preparation for the barrage of new Qwazaar music about to be released, it’s only right that we highlight some of the great things the man has been doing lately.
Such as the Qwazaar & Batsauce – “Style Be The King” EP, a pre-album release available now from Fifth Element Online
Or some footage from his recent tour through South Africa
Or some pics
Gallery: “RedBull Studio Session w/Ill-Literate-Skill & Mingus” on Qwazaar’s Facebook page
Gallery: “@ the Woods March 2011″ on Qwazaar’s Facebook page
Gallery: “Qwazaar @ Zula Bar in Cape Town S.A.” on Qwazaar’s Facebook page
What else can I say?? He’s a hard worker. Check for his full-length, official album with Batsauce dropping soon. And you can also check This interview with him on SYFFAL.
Also:
QwazaarMusic.com
Batsauce.com
Galapagos4.com
http://stonedgiantsnetwork.com/
@QWAZAAR
http://vimeo.com/qwazaar
http://www.youtube.com/user/QWAZAAR919
Offwheezy
Big ups to Chicago-based online mag Ruby Hornet for this insightful interview with Qwel & Maker. A couple mp3 snippets are included. Check it here:
Qwel and Maker – Road Warriors
(Photo courtesy of Jam One)
Offwheezy
The story for this entry begins here, at an inconspicuous grey building on West Lake Street in Chicago, just outside the Loop. Back when our Art Director JASH and I were students at UIC, we lived here in a loft with 7 other people – mostly graf writers and emcees, including G4 recording artists Serf400 and Dr. Spliffen. It was an eccentric crowd, and we definitely had some great times at 657B.
That was ’96, before anything related to Galapagos4 had even begun to happen. Or had it? In my opinion, it was a time when the independent hip hop scene in Chicago was becoming more defined. When thinking back to what Chicago records were in rotation for me at that time, E.C. Illa’s second album and the Talent Fest compilation are two that come to mind. I remember listening to Rhymefest’s “How We Chill Part 2″ for the first time just inside those second story windows. Those times, and the events that filled them, would personally influence my own music, and ideology of music, for years to come.
Fast-forward to the present day.. and I guess fate would have it that this small stretch of Lake Street remain significant to our crew. Across the street from the old loft, at 650 W Lake, is Crosstalk International, one of Galapagos4′s largest distributors.
Crosstalk is both a distributor and a label, and their latest vinyl release is definitely noteworthy – Tokimonsta‘s debut album, Midnight Menu. Crosstalk is the exclusive distributor of this record, so act fast if you want to own a copy.
Offwheezy
Our earlier post about the Midwest harkened back to the earliest days of Galapagos4 road life. Here, in the second installment of that series, we take a look at the crew’s maiden voyages to Iowa CIty, Champaign-Urbana, and Milwaukee.
Why is this considered a milestone? For one, we are all from the Midwest. Put simply, to perform in these nearby cities was to perform for our own kind, and hopefully to people that would understand us. And secondly, I want to stress that these were the first “out-of-town” shows that anyone had ever asked us to play, outside of Chicago, ever. I’m not going to lie – we were pretty stoked about going to these places, and why not? It was all uncharted territory as far as we were concerned. During those early days of us trying to find our first outlets for expression, in our attempt to forge an identity for ourselves and our label, these Midwestern cities were there for us.
Offwheezy
N.E.B. & Open i – Metamorphic Proportions
In the past month we have seen new releases from three of Galapagos4′s own super producers – Maker, Dreas and Open i. These are not official Galapagos4 releases, but they are very worthy of picking up. Support G4′s own masters of the beat!
Offwheezy
The Deejay OM ‘Reheated Naan & Curry‘ album came to G4 initially in 2004. Om had been working on the concept and some of the music before that point, but when I moved to the Bay Area in ’04, he presented me with the idea of putting the album out on Galapagos4.
I was intrigued by his ideas, not that using Bollywood samples in hip hop beats hadn’t been done before, but he was looking to do more than that. He was looking to make a record that would not only appeal to hip hop heads but to people such as Yoga teachers, soccer moms and fans of real Indian music also. We succeeded in exposing the album to those people, getting placement in Starbucks’ short-lived ‘Hear Music’ stores as well as being played at Yoga studios in Om’s home of San Francisco.
This album also got licensed for release in Japan on Easel Records, with a bonus track and different packaging. It was also the first Galapagos4 release to be carried by renown e-tailer TurntableLab.
Outside of this shine, and some love from G4 fans, the album itself was and is highly slept-on in my opinion. It’s a great concept executed perfectly, which is rare in music. I would urge anyone interested in innovative musical styles that culminate in 60 minutes of hard hip hopdrums, rolling psychedelic soundscapes and heart-pounding breakbeats to check it out…
On to the point of the post, after many years of constructing the album, we finally celebrated the release of Deejay OM’s ‘Reheated Naan & Curry’ in May 2007 at a time when both Qwel & I were living in the Bay Area (Richmond to be exact), which made it easy to gather some of the crew from Southern Cali to come up for a big G4 event… It was a Monday night at the Elbo Room, with Qwel, Mestizo & The M.O. opening up for Deejay OM in front of a healthy crowd in San Francisco’s Mission District… check out a photo retrospective here… Photos by Colin Hussey
Jeff
In a random fluke sighting yesterday, Dreas pointed out the appearance of a Galapagos4 T-shirt in NBA Live 2010. This was found in the XBox360 version of the game and the guy appears in all home crowds. Someone at EA Sports must be a fan. A nice surprise to start off the new year. If you play NBA Live, check for it!
Offwheezy
2009 has drawn to a close.. but we still haven’t gotten to post all of the “Milestones” entries that we wanted to post. So, as an official disclaimer, the Milestones posts will continue on.
Jeff, Qwel and I have all made our way home from the “Black Rain” Tour in Japan. It wasn’t the first time G4 artists had been to Japan – other artists had ventured before (Maker, Denizen Kane, Mestizo & Mike Gao) – but this tour was still a G4 milestone nonetheless. Pictures from the tour can be found here. Back with more posts in 2010.
Offwheezy
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