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“A Reflection of Hip-Hop” appeared on Representin’ 4 Life EP by               Adrian H. Molina aka Mo Brown (2007), CHiTT Productions

I’ve been using this acapella piece as a crowd pleaser since 2005.  I spit the rhyme for the first time at an open mic night at Coal Creek Coffee House in Laramie, WY.  I recorded this track in 2006 with Will Ross of CHiTT Productions.  We recorded in my bedroom, turned the room upside down and inside out: makeshift studio, mattresses pushed up against the windows and the walls.  Borrowed mic, laptop setup, homemade pop filter. 

We were very meticulous about the details.  Everything had to be right.  Unplugged the refrigerator and the other appliances in the kitchen even though they were all the way down the hall.  We didn’t want the reverberation of the machines’ lull fuckin’ with our energy or our soundwaves.  We paused when trucks drove by and scrapped the takes when we felt that minor noises outside might cloud the sound quality of the recording.  

CHiTT Productions released this track on Representin’ 4 Life EP (March 2007), beats supplied by “Mannequin Rituals” (Stop the Police State, Save the Mannequins).  The cover read “Adrian H. Molina” aka Mo Brown.  I was flirting with the idea of keeping Mo Brown as my emcee name, but I wasn’t sure so I released the EP with my full-name on it just in case.  Had BIG plans for the EP…  It was soon to reach the ears of tens of thousands of Hip-Hop heads coast-to-coast.  Didn’t happen like that, but that adds to the richness of the story.  You learn that your failures are your successes if you keep going.

The moniker “Mo Brown” had been with me since high school.  I shortened it from Momo Brown, which I decided sounded a bit childish for a 17-year-old rapper.  I eventually scrapped Mo Brown after I realized that how many emcees (male and female) claimed to be Mo Brown.  Adrian H. Molina became Molina Soleil (sometimes you choose your name, sometimes it chooses you), and now it’s somewhere in the middle, but I think I know where it’s going…

I sit back with my cheap glass of red wine and smile at the recording of this track.  So serious… and rightfully so.  It was the beginning of a long-awaited mission…

I have more fun with the piece now.  I’m more playful with the delivery..  I reach into the box of Molina classics and pull it out every now and then.  I’m always in front of new people who have never heard it.  Sometimes I do it for the history, or for a familiar face in the crowd.  You gotta keep things fresh and mix it up, for yourself as much as for your fans and supporters. 

It’s a good moment to be here in Denver, CO, listening to this track and blogging it, marinating on all the things that SOULAJU has done since March of 2009, soaking it all up into my skin… at the same time preparing for a fresh Molina push. 

I was brave enough to call my music a movement from day one.  I knew it was much bigger than me, that I was a filter.  But over the years I’ve realized that it doesn’t move without me.  You gotta be the engine.  If not you, than who?  For yourself, and the community…

Now’s the time, now’s the place, fight, now’s the time, one love for your rights.  Now’s the time, now’s the place, right, now’s the time, one love people unite… 

A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively is a weekly blog in 2010 focusing on 5 years of independent music by Adrian H. Molina, breaking down the history, insight, reflections and relevance one song at a time. 

Twitter @MOLINAspeaks

Circa Dec. 2007, Ed Auditorium, University of Wyoming

“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.

Representin’ (4 Life) by Adrian H. Molina w/ Mannequin Rituals first appeared on Representin’ 4 Life EP in March 2007.  It was re-released on Molina’s first full-length album, Up Before the Sunrise, August 2008. 

My main goal with my first EP was to clearly define my work as an artist, to define what I represented.  I knew that my music would not always carry the same serious tone… because Hip-Hop has always been about having fun… but after almost a decade of writing and performing poems and raps, I wanted everyone to understand how serious I was about creating RELEVANT music. 

Representin’ 4 Life was the first song I wrote and recorded with Mannequin Rituals and CHiTT Productions.  After many years of flowing over other artists’ instrumentals, this was the first beat I could call my own.  The track breaks down my sensibilities as an emcee: substance over blind profitability and consumerism, standing up for social justice, cross-cultural solidarity, a celebration of roots, respect for those who struggle, self-empowerment, and the ability to rise up after getting beat down.

If there is any question, check the selection: I’m representin’… 4 life. 

A.M SOLEIL, RETROSPECTIVELY is a 52-week blog series through which Molina breaks down five years of independent music (2006-2010) one track at a time… the history, the theory, the rhythm, the rhyme. 

Molina on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MOLINAspeaks.

“La Historia del Mexicano” by Adrian H. Molina w/ Mannequin Rituals, CHiTT Productions 2008

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I wrote the first version of La Historia del Mexicano back in 2002 during my days as an undergraduate student activist.  I began performing it as a spoken word piece, then a lyrical acapella piece, then rapping it over other artists’ beats.  Mannequin Rituals put a sound to it in 2008.

La Historia is a story that traces three generations of struggle and triumph.  A tribute to los inmigrantes who risk their lives for their families, the wise elders who keep ancient knowledge alive, the young activistas who carry the flame.

“We the children of the sun, under attack, but I can feel the fire burning, yo we takin’ it back”.  I said it on the title track of my first release Representin’ 4 Life EP.  This statement is relevant today and it will be relevant tomorrow.

Latinos are indigenous survivors of 500 years of colonization throughout the Americas.  Most recently, brown people have been targeted by racist laws in Arizona, including SB 1070 and other legislation that bans ethnic studies and goes so far as to say that people without accents cannot teach English classes.

As “America” browns (people of color will be the majority by 2050, if not sooner), conservative white backlash will flourish.

Us who condemn racism, us who affirm human rights and human dignity, we join together to celebrate culture, to celebrate the his/her stories of the people of the Americas.  Indigenous, black, brown, white, Asian, all relations on all continents, we join together to reaffirm a movement for justice.  We never die. 

Up Before the Sunrise.

Follow Molina on twitter @ http://www.twitter.com/MOLINAspeaks

“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.  Our worlds intersected, but we existed in separate realms in the small town of Laramie, Wyoming.

Something told Will to bring his mini-disc recorder to the gig.  It was probably Saul Williams’ name and notoriety.  While running sound, Will recorded my performance.  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 that he sent the track to Dustin in the morning, who ran home over his lunch hour and recorded music to the words.  Will produced a rough mixdown and it was in my inbox the night after my big performance.

I was floored by what I heard.  Completely unexpected.

I had recently written a great deal of spoken word and lyrical material, trying to figure out how I was going to break into the recording world.  And out of nowhere, there it was—a glimpse into what was possible.  In many ways, this track is the official start of my professional career as a recording and performing artist.

Will’s recording of “Young Brown Poet” led to the recordings of the Representin’ 4 Life EP, as well as Up Before the Sunrise.

Being the Young Brown Poet

I began performing “Young Brown Poet” as an acapella piece back in 2003.  At  that time, my writings focused almost exclusively on issues of racial tension and injustice, racial stereotypes, and the role that racism plays in American society.

“Young Brown Poet” is an uncompromising challenge to racial stereotypes on multiple levels.  Yet, it reaffirms an identity of brownness that is inseparable from my work as a poet within U.S. society. 

As an anti-racist educator, members of my community, including several students, challenged me on this.  Why do you call yourself Mo Brown?  Why focus so much on Brownness?  Isn’t “Young Brown Poet” inherently stereotypical?"

Good questions.

My response is that you cannot eradicate racism by being silent about it, and that it is necessary to confront the issue of racism blatantly, honestly, and unapologetically.

I believe this wholeheartedly, but at this stage in my life, I have moved beyond the role of being  the angry brown poet.  If you stay in that zone for too long, you become bitter, increasingly distrustful of people outside your race, and you limit yourself, in terms of your art and your ability to interact and build with other people.

I encourage young people to express their anger about racial injustice and other forms of injustice.  I encourage dialogue.  I push people, personally and professionally, to challenge social isms and schisms, and to be honest about their own isms and schisms. 

Listening to Young Brown Poet now, I feel good about saying that i am much more than my brownness.  I say this as I reaffirm my brown identity, because it is forever part of me, and I will represent for the rights of brown folks, including los inmigrantes, who live in the shadows and do not have a voice.

I say that my brownness will not limit me at a time in which ultra-conservative, right-wing, political news pundits continue their racist attacks on Barrack Obama, while at the same time claiming that we live in a post-racist society because a man of mixed racial background was elected to the presidency.

My identity will not be defined by my anger, even as the Southern Poverty Law Center reports that right-wing extremist groups grew by 244% in the year 2009.

There are continuous sparks of anger and outrage at the racist and discriminatory policies of the U.S. Government and multinational corporations, and at the racist ignorance I sometimes experience in my community of Denver and in my travels across the states.

But anger alone solves nothing.

Anger is a tool that can and should be used to channel chaotic energy into something positive, something sustainable.  Over the past decade, I have worked tirelessly to channel my anger into something meaningful, something useful.

“Young Brown Poet” is ultimately one of my favorite tracks, and it has been useful in many ways.  This poem, along with countless others, was like therapy to me.  People have told me that it is therapy for them.  Educators use it to discuss racism and stereotypes with their students.

It has been written, thus I will always be a Young Brown Poet.  And at the same time, there is much more to say, and so much more to BE…

A.M. Soleil: the morning sun rises.  “A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively” is a 52-week blog series in 2010, reflecting on 5 years of independent music by yours truly ~

Adrian H. Molina

“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 I took an aggressive approach to reclaiming these phrases and making them meaningful. Academics would probably refer to this as “repositioning the subject”.

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.

I’m taking it back to the beginning for weeks 10 and 11, reminiscing on my path as Aju and I prepare for the official release of SOULAJU on 3/23/2010.

I’ve improved my skills tremendously, as have my friends Dustin Neal and Will Ross of CHiTT Productions.  We’re all operating at higher frequencies than we were when we began working together in 2006, as we should be.

Elevation is something to celebrate, but so is the rawness of a moment, the beginning of a movement.   “Hunger Pains”, along with “Representin’ 4 Life” and “Young Brown Poet”, were the beginning of a manifesto that is still developing.

“Hunger Pains” is like a fossil.  It transports me back to the days of my youth in Rawlins, WY.  It takes me back to the many moments I chose to follow my heart.  Propels me nostalgically back to CHiTT Productions’ makeshift studios in mine and Will’s bedrooms.

I’m constantly telling young people that you gotta push.  It doesn’t matter what your dream is, be it personal or communal, big things start with a vision.  Then you gotta grind and put your passion to the test.

Achieving success, on whatever level you define it, is going to make you sweat.  It’s going to make you bleed.  And you will doubt yourself many times.  But if you refuse to fail, your hunger and pain will manifest into something beautiful.

A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively is a 52-week blog series in 2010, reflecting on 5 years of music by yours truly…

Adrian H. Molina

TWITTER@MOLINAspeaks

“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.

Not that anybody is waiting.  People are awake, in all corners of the world, resisting global dominance by the few, pushing forward with HOPE—an elusive word in an Obama Era of Bush III politics and continued Reaganomics, or Neoliberal economics (as it is known in Latin America), or Neoconservative economics (as it is known in the U.S.), or “unfettered” free market capitalism or globalization, as it is known worldwide.   It’s all the same game: global dominance.

What I’m saying is that it really depends on where you’re at in your head, because this reality really is that schizophrenic.  One day it’s all love, and the next day it’s all fear, and it’s up to you to find the balance therein and stand strong.

“Beyond Sundown” it’s like waking up from a nightmare, over and over and over again, because The Unconceivable layers the air, brick upon brick.  At the end of the day, you look in the mirror and decide which side you’re on, knowing that the question will look and sound different the next day, and the next day after that, and so on and so forth.  But it’s all the same struggle.

Truth, freedom, justice, equality, some sliver of democracy.

And then there is the age-old question: “Would you die for it?”

Today’s question: Would you live for it?

- Adrian H. Molina @MOLINAspeaks

Respect to my people at CHiTT Productions, and to Day Acoli and Helen Changthongthip for their contributions to this track and the Up Before the Sunrise project.

Video by Dustin Neal, Mannequin Rituals

Sticking with the theme of the moon, “Letters to the Moon Pt. 1 (Heart in Motion)” appears on Sacred Paths—a collaboration with Asia Jazz Project.

Sacred Paths is a 9-track album that fuses nu jazz with living word poetry.  It was released on September 20th, 2009—a day that marked both Asia’s and Aju’s 26th birthdays.  The album contains two tracks that are each almost 15 minutes long.  These tracks are more like journeys, or opuses, than they are songs.

You have to create an album to know how much work goes into it, from conceptualizing it to recording it and then all the details that go into getting it ready for release. 

The creative energy behind this project came about very organically.  This album was not planned.

The technical side of things was another story.  There were a lot of roadblocks with respect to the recordings, so the production element required a lot of work.  Luckily my man Will Ross of CHiTT Productions came through on the production end.  He spent a lot of extra time ironing out the details.

The end result was an extremely creative album that cost me more money and stress than any other project.  I don’t see myself making money back anytime soon, but that is often the story for independent artists.

I think this album sometimes confuses people, because they’re unsure how to categorize it.  It’s jazz, but it’s “different”.  It’s “poetry” but is it spoken word?  It reminds people of the beat generation stuff, but it’s not that either.  It’s spiritual but not religious, and “not-quite new-agey”, but there’s something futuristic about it.

It’s abstract.  It’s green.  It’s a challenging project, very meditative, definitely not fit for commercial consumption. 

Music lovers who have spent time with it tell me it’s one of the most artistic albums they’ve heard in years.  This balances out the lack of interest from people who i assume will care but don’t. 

“If it touches even one person you are successful.” I believe this.  Inspiration is the flame that keeps people believing in things like love, possibility, justice, freedom.   Keeping that flame burning is what revolution is really about. 

I feel good having put this project out into the world.  It’s a jewel that may have it’s day, but maybe not.  I’m fine either way. 

These Letters to the Moon, Parts 1-3, speak to the many layers of love that are possible, the most important being the realization that one can be in love with existence, with breath, with a moment in time, wherever that may be.

A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively is a 52-week blog series in 2010, reflecting on 5 years of music by yours truly…

- Molina Soleil

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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.

“Kite Runner” is one of many stories of how I became an emcee.  Big things come in 2010.  Bigger stages, brighter lights, larger crowds, more opportunities to entertain.  I’m ready for these challenges.  I’m coming with more swagger and a bigger smile on my face.  But I gotta remember where I come from, what made me, and who I represent.

This week’s track is dedicated to Martin, Malcolm, Chavez, Gonzalez, Peltier, countless rebels unnamed, all my people who fight for what they believe in.  This track is for Haiti.  For the forgotten.  Dedicated to all the artists who push themselves to create relevant material.  This is for my folks at CHiTT Productions, for my son and all the kids, for my partner Aju, the homey Josh and my man DJ Icewater.  Thank you for your support.

Adrian H. Molina

Paper Chase: Hip-Hop for My America

By Geoffrey Dobbins, November 26, 2009

Read the article:  http://www.wiretapmag.org/arts/44697/ 

Purchase the cd: http://papersthemovie.com/myamerica.html