Reflections of the Sun Pt. 3 (Son Como Sangre) appears on the album Sacred Paths by Asia Jazz Project featuring Molina Soleil & Aju (2009)

Jazz meets Latin Reggae meets sultry Spanish vocals and spoken word poetry on the third Reflection of the Sun, highlighting Aju’s multi-faceted abilities as an vocalist, as well as Asia’s diverse sound. 

Asia Fajardo-Wright is an avant-garde saxophonist and composer who leads Asia Jazz Project, plays in the Latin-Reggae band Mono Verde, and writes and produces original cultural and musical productions. 

Sacred Paths – Soulaju’s 2009 collaboration with Asia – is very theme-oriented and theatric in its musicality.  My hope is that Sacred Paths leads to some experimental modern dance productions in coming years.  I would like to see a director/choreographer take Sacred Paths to another level, adding physical movement to these compositions. 

This fall, Asia will debut her own new collection of experimental works that fuse the world of theater and experimental art with her original music: 

Omecihuatl Rising (a tribute to the Divine Feminine) is a union of jazz, free-jazz, classical, world-percussion (Japanese Taiko, Native American hand-drums, Mayan water-drums, Aztec /Mexica Huehuetl) where modern dance, painting, and poetry are all woven together; free-form movement and structure are intertwined. Through the fusing of these elements, the countless representations of the Divine Feminine and age-old questions pondering ‘womanhood’ are explored.

If you will be in the Denver Area in October, you can see Omecihuatl Rising at the DNote in Arvada on October 2nd ($8) or the Fox Theater in Aurora on October 22nd ($10).  Click HERE for event info.  The production will feature Denver dancers, artists, and musicians, including Aju. 

“Sound like Blood, Blood and Song (Sound), Sound of the Heart, Pure Fusion.  We are a New Vibration, a New Sound.  Come onto these Wings.  We Shall Go, Navigating with the Heart.” – Aju (Son Como Sangre)

Reflections of the Sun Pt. 2 (Life Rituals) appears on the album Sacred Paths by Asia Jazz Project featuring Molina Soleil & Aju (2009)

Listening to Aju’s Life Rituals Reflection I am reminded of the importance of rituals, personally, socially, and culturally.  Not so much the Mannequin/mundane rituals of day-to-day life, but the spiritual rituals, love rituals, appreciation of moments that echo the circular and spiraling nature of this life. 

I used to think of life in terms of cycles.  I often found myself in the very familiar predicaments, beating my head against different walls that all looked and felt the same.  Through meditation, discipline, reflection, life work, I began to understand these cycles as circles that will always bring you back to your points of origin. 

How could I break old, unwanted cycles while embracing the circular nature of existence?  I began to understand the possibility of spiraling higher rather than endlessly circling back to the exact same point of reference. 

To reflect and meditate on this life is to live holistically, celebrating the unexplainable, living life’s countless riddles gracefully, recreating cultural rituals, creating and co-creating new rituals.  To truly love this life takes some appreciation of magic, of dreams, of stars, moons, suns, and sky.  The organic matter of life, as well as the intangible.  The divine.  The sacred. 

A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively is a 52-week blog series in 2010, focusing on five years of independent music by Adrian H. Molina. 

Reflections of the Sun Pt. 1 (Solar Flare) appears on the album Sacred Paths by Asia Jazz Project featuring Molina Soleil & Aju (2009)

During weeks 32 – 34 of A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively, I get to write about and reflect on pieces that I did not write or record.  Reflections of the Sun parts 1, 2 and 3 were written by Aju, recorded with Asia Jazz Project.  These Reflections reflect, compliment, and contextualize my Letters to the Moon. 

The Letters to the Moon and Reflections of the Sun explore the cosmic dance between the sun and the moon.  This relationship has been revered and celebrated cross-culturally throughout human history.  Life on Earth could not exist without the sun or the moon and the solar balance they create on the planet. 

In dance, art, ritual, life, and love, men often appropriate the brilliance of the sun, and women the magic of the moon.  There is that connection in these compositions, but these poems say much more about life and love than what can be expressed simply between man and woman. 

Reflections of the Sun Pt. 1 was written by Aju sometime during the summer of 2008.  The dream is this reality, played out over and over again throughout the span of time, always for the first time, always reminiscent of something familiar yet impossible to name. 

A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively is a 52-week blog series in 2010, focusing on five years of independent music by Adrian H. Molina (aka Molina Soleil of SOULAJU)

Twitter @MOLINAspeaks

“Skydreamer” by Adrian H. Molina w/ Mannequin Rituals featuring Helen Chanthongthip, Up Before the Sunrise, released by CHiTT Productions (2008)

Skydreamer is the opening track off Up Before the Sunrise, my first full-length album.  It was a dream.  I had been writing rhymes for 10 years, constantly envisioning what my first album might look like.  What would it sound like?  What would I say if I had one chance, one album, to say something to the world?

I started writing material for Up Before the Sunrise during the summer of 2006.  I had been through a lot during the years prior.  In 2005 I left the life I was living.  It was a life that wasn’t mine.  It was beating me down, slowly murdering me, and it probably would have killed me, mentally and spiritually, if not physically.  I faced my demons, handled my business, then tested out my wings.

After releasing an EP and touring my first play Phantom Discourse in 2007,  CHiTT Productions released Up Before the Sunrise in August of 2008.  I packed up what little I owned, put it in storage, and hit the road for some gigs with a $1000 in my pocket.  It was with UBTS in hand that I met the Papers film crew, Aju, DJ Icewater, E.G. Bailey of Tru Ruts, Hakim Be in Albuquerque, and a host other artistic folks.  These relationships would lay the foundation for my work in 2009 and 2010. 

“Skydreamer” will resonate with everyone with big ideas, honest intentions and a brave heart.  I wrote the track during the fall of 2006 when I took a job doing research for a gang resistance and education program in Greeley, CO.  I watched daily as police officers scared the shit out of mostly brown and working class kids.  There were some decent moments, a few well-meaning officers, but most of these cops weren’t teaching those kids shit.  They were indoctrinating them with self-defeating ideas of obedience and complacency, setting them up to fail, basically telling them where they knew these kids were going to end up – in prison.  They were already constructing prisons in these kids’ heads. 

It was one of my last research days.  I stopped taking notes, flipped the page, and wrote “Skydreamer”, thinking about all the prisons in my head that I had busted out of in my own young life. 

Tomorrow marks the 2 year anniversary of Up Before the Sunrise.  This album doesn’t carry the classic Hip-Hop sound of Shine Flow EP and SOULAJU.  UBTS was much more on the experimental tip, no samples, straight out-the-basement musicianship by my DIY homies at CHiTT Productions. 

I love the concept of sampling.  Hip-Hop was built around the art of taking something old and giving it new context, new style.  We are constantly in the process of sampling various ideas and realities, sifting through the possibilities, throwing out what we don’t need, keeping what we do.  I embrace this.

I’m also down to try something new entirely. 

Adrian H. Molina

A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively is a 52-week blog series in 2010, focusing on 5 years of independent music by Adrian H. Molina.  Follow MOLINA @ http://www.twitter.com/MOLINAspeaks

The music of “Skydreamer” by Mannequin Rituals is featured in the film Papers the movie: http://www.papersthemovie.com.  “Kite Runner”, another Up Before the Sunrise composition, is also featured in the film score.

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This is one of two tracks SOULAJU released with DJ Ceiba for “My America”, a benefit compilation for Papers the movie, released July 4th, 2009.  The other SOULAJU/CEIBA collaboration is “Believe It”. 

Sending love out to Brotha Sean aka DJ Ceiba, who recently became a father.  Ceiba is a Harlem-based drummer, DJ, and producer.  He puts together jarring, head-nodding beats, fusing Reggae, Latin, and Hip-Hop influences.  Ceiba flirts with some samples but relies mostly on his own musicianship. 

Ceiba played this instrumental for me in his apartment studio shortly after Obama’s inauguration in January 2009.  We had watched the inauguration at a nearby Senegalese cafe a few days before.  We chopped it up over the politrix of “revolution” that afternoon, going back and forth over whether Obama really had the intention of being the agent of change he claimed to be.  If so, would this man’s intentions be enough to budge the babylon regime, or would he be co-opted?

Politics is politics, we agreed.  Real “change” is possible only on small scales, beginning first and foremost with the individual and what one chooses to stand for, and who you choose to stand with.  The small stuff individually is the big stuff socially.   

These conversations led to the writing and recording of “Rise”.  Aju wrote the hook first: an elemental call for people to rise up and reclaim a healthy and just space for themselves.  I was really focused at the time on balancing her feminine energy.  Plus, Ceiba’s hard-knock beat really set the tone for the grittier side of my mentality and delivery as an emcee. 

MOLINA

A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively

The General is a makeup artist, designer, event emcee, blogger, and in her own words “a bunch of other shit.  Ask about me.”

On SOULAJU:

“It’s the kinda shit that makes you wanna just lay back and close your eyes so you can feel every word. It’s like dark smokey vintage lounge sexy meets earthy nature sexy meets 3am urban sexy meets revolution sexy. If that makes any sense at all. But yeah, its that good.”  READ MORE.

“Trinidad Undaground”

Our main goals in working with these young people were to empower them to tell their own stories and engage in a process of creating their own media.  Before we put cameras in their hands we ran some workshops with them, talking about their experiences, identity, their dreams, life beyond Trinidad, getting them writing their thoughts on paper.  The following video is a “making of” look at our work with this group of youth.

The Making of “Trinidad Undaground”

“Poet Gettin’ His” by Molina of SOULAJU w/ DJ Icewater

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Switchin’ up the vibe and pulse.  Recent weekly Retrospectives have explored the lighter side of my work.  A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively now moves back into harder-hitting territory. 

Everyone’s heard the song “Gettin’ Mine.”  Every rapper’s got a Gettin’ Mine track.  The world is in a Gettin’ Mine state of mind.  This is my version of Gettin’ Mine. 

The track is produced by DJ Icewater.  Dig the bounce in the beat.  Love the organ.  Was unsure about the “hook” when the DJ sent the beat, but the more I marinated on my concept the more I got into the hook. 

My favorite rhymes on the track:

Verse I: “I swim wit da riddim, a tree said to give ‘em /somethin’ new for the listen, fresh for the mission / she grew new leaves, I saw my pen bleed / like a phantom in a dream planted a seed / like a fly new track by that man named Molina / just climbed out ya speakers and hopped in ya lap / opened up ya gut, swam through your chest / hit you in your heart so you felt it kick start…”

Verse II: “So suckers be like ‘please’, they hate when you like me / like ‘oh, I think they like him,’ now we gotta spike him / take his last life, strip him of his power / end the final game, conquer him like Bowser / I tower like a hawk, swoop through all they tricks / bypass the facade, see the game like Oz…”

Verse III: “…reflected dialectics, eclectic, polyrhythmic / A-freeka aesthetic, Mexika-type phonetic / like Nezahualcoyotl just snuck inside my head, took me for a ride, dropped me from the sky / like Damn Xicano Brown, he rip the mic right / inject the enigmatic and inflect the lime / with style that permeate, moist up the vibe /with rhymes that elevate, snake like wild vines…”

“Like a black JFK I know that I can…”

Get yours how you get it.  Give back. 

- Molina

Despite his young age and youthful appearance, Adrian H. Molina is a veteran Hip-Hopper, philosopher, law school graduate, DIY/indie entrepreneur, college lecturer and all-around human bridge.  Molina is nationally renowned for his eclectic music collaborations and his work as a poet, storyteller, and youth advocate.

A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively is a 52-week music blog in 2010 reflecting on five years of independent music, one song at a time.

Enjoying the free downloads and Retrospectives???  Support good music.  Name your price for the 15-track album SOULAJU.

Twitter @MOLINAspeaks 

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I was in Brooklyn when DJ Icewater sent this beat.  This was before Aju and I were SOULAJU, before we decided to make an album together. It was a winter day in January 2009.  I had the track on loop in my headphones, staring at the thick snowflakes falling outside Aju’s apartment window in Bedstuy.   No doubt about it, this was a love song…

I had no interest in releasing love songs when I began making music. 

I don’t write many love poems or love songs.  I don’t listen to much RnB.  I find most of it sappy and boring.  People try too hard to be sexy and what they put out ends up looking and sounding corny. 

I’m sure some people listen to Letters to the Moon or a song like Love Is and think these cuts are sappy or corny.  Despite their depth and originality I can understand how these tracks may dilute my street credibility among some rap fans.   I get it, and it is what it is, cuz all I listened to as a teenager was that hyper-masculine thug shit.  I ate what TV and radio fed me.  I got over my rap thug romanticization after high school, but I still preferred aggressive “hardcore” revolutionary Hip-Hop. 

As I have grown into a more complete person, my musical tastes have broadened and shifted.  I have less of a desire to maintain a particular steelo as an emcee.  My artistic work reflects this growth. 

Some men hide from the mirror but we all have many faces.  I aim to embrace the totality of my experiences as a man.  As an artist I aim to offer as much as I can to the people who follow my work. 

Sometimes it’s Fire.  Pain.  Anger.  Frustration.  Sometimes it’s Culture.  Politics.  Worldview.  A little Bravado.  Some Swagger.  Confidence.  Insecurities.  Reflection.  A little Love.  A taste of Lust. 

Life pulse.  Enjoy. 

Adrian H. Molina is a modern-day storyteller and philosopher who uses Hip-Hop, poetry and oratory to entertain, educate & elevate diverse audiences.  In addition to lighting up stages under the alias "Molina Soleil" of SOULAJU, Molina is a college professor & music supervisor for Papers the movie.

FOLLOW MOLINA on twitter @MOLINAspeaks

Letters to the Moon Pt. 3 (Scandinavian Dream) appears on the album Sacred Paths by Asia Jazz Project featuring Molina Soleil & Aju (2009)

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I was on a train from Copenhagen, Denmark to Berlin, Germany when I wrote this poem.  There was a lot of movement that day, in the waters and in the sky.  The colors held me.  I watched everything in silence, breathing it all in until it was time to write…

I find it hard to write at the moment.  The words do not come easy now.  By contrast I was in a zone at the time I wrote these Letters to the Moon.  I had a lot of ideas and I was heavy on passion, hungry to create.  I consider these Letters to be some of the best poetry I’ve ever written. 

Those moments ebb and flow.  I don’t accept the idea of writer’s block, but at the same time creative energy is circumstantial.  Mental stagnation reflects physical stagnation.  As a writer you have to remain open and ready to put your ideas in motion when the moment is right. 

“Until then, I write of you, hovering over brick paths peacefully, humming dreams of tomorrow until the day that I come home.  To taste the color of your mouth.  To smell the sweet scent of your flow.  To get lost in you.  Again.”

Following are links to retrospectives on the other two Letters to the Moon on Sacred Paths:

Letters to the Moon Pt. 1.

Letters to the Moon Pt. 2.

A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively is a 52-week blog series in 2010, focusing on five years of independent music by your man Molina.  For blogs, free downloads and updates, follow me on twitter @MOLINAspeaks.