“Young Brown Poet” by Adrian H. Molina w/ Mannequin Rituals, CHiTT Productions (2008)

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The Journey

Circle back to one of many beginnings.  It was November 4th, 2006.  I had the opportunity to open for Saul Williams at the University of Wyoming.  Will Ross was running sound for ASTEC—the University of Wyoming’s student government sponsored production team.

I knew of Will, having run into him continuously at UW events, but we had never really had a meaningful conversation. 

While running sound, Will recorded my performance on his mini-disc recorder.  Young Brown Poet lit him up, and the next day he emailed the vocal track to Dustin Neal, his fellow band-mate and co-founder of CHiTT Productions.

Out of nowhere, I got an email from Will, telling me to check out a rough mix of Dustin’s vision of Young Brown Poet.  Will explained how he had sent the track to Dustin in the morning, who ran home over his lunch hour and recorded music to the words.  Will mixed it down.

I was floored by what I heard.  Completely unexpected.

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“Hunger Pains” by Adrian H. Molina w/ Mannequin Rituals, featuring Helen Chanthongthip, CHiTT Productions (2008)

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Hunger Pains first appeared on Representin’ 4 Life EP back in 2007.   Representin’ 4 Life was all about flippin’ the script on empty mainstream rhetoric like “keep it real”, “represent”, “stay true”, etc.

I was hungry to put my stamp on the definition of “true Hip-Hop”, something I now feel is unnecessary.  There isn’t one "true” form of anything.

In any case that was my mentality at the time and I took an aggressive approach to reclaiming these phrases and making them meaningful.

There were seven tracks on my first EP: three songs and four acapella pieces.  Each track was about defining what I stand for and represent as a poet and emcee. 

The three songs on the EP were “Representin’ 4 Life”, “Hunger Pains” and “Young Brown Poet”.  All three were re-released on Up Before the Sunrise in 2008.

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“Beyond Sundown” by Adrian H. Molina w/ Mannequin Rituals, featuring Day Acoli & Helen Changthongthip, CHiTT Productions (2008) 

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Mass deception, coups d’etats left and right, shared confusion, no way to tell what’s real and what’s fake—a collective inability to ascertain truth from lies because the spin doctors are that good.

Polar ice caps melting, mass global poverty ignored, apocalyptic natural disasters, conspiracies linking what was once natural to what is now claimed to be man-made.  Seemingly no empirical way to make sense of it all, so the masses don’t even try.  They just wait for 2012.

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“Kite Runner”, Up Before the Sunrise—Adrian H. Molina w/ Mannequin Rituals, CHITT Productions (2008)

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As MLK Day 2010 comes to a close, I am reminded of my responsibility as an emcee.  I walk in many shoes and wear many hats.  I use my music to entertain, to educate, to inspire, to provoke thought, to create controversy.  These lines often intersect and sometimes they become blurry.  I don’t expect everyone to support everything I do.  At the end of the day, I am accountable first and foremost to myself.

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“Representin’ Intro”, Representin’ 4 Life EP w/ Mannequin Rituals, CHiTT Productions (2007)

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Circle back to one of many beginnings.  It was 2007 when I released Representin’ 4 Life EP. This intro was the first track the world heard from Adrian H. Molina aka Mo Brown

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I’ve never been more actively involved in the creation of Hip-Hop, but I’ve never identified less with the “dominant” paradigm in rap music.

I’m not alone.  Listeners of Hip-Hop are growing tired of the violence, misogyny and hyper-masculine antics in commercialized rap music.  Byron Hurt’s Beyond Beats & Rhymes is one prime example of this discussion.

What I want to focus on is intelligence within Hip-Hop, ‘cause we are geniuses.

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