Video edited by Adrian H. Molina.  Filmed in Molina and Amy J. Iwasaki in Bahia, Brazil (Aug 2010).

“Timeless” by SOULAJU w/ DJ Icewater, released on the debut full-length album SOULAJU, March 23rd, 2010. 

A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively is a 52-week blog series in 2010, tracing back five years of independent music by Molina. 

Time in Brazil

Aju and I had an opportunity to spend 3 weeks in Brazil this summer.  Aju danced at Escola de Danca for two weeks with American and Brazillian dancers, studying Brazilian cultural traditions, Afro-Brazilian dance, Candomblé rites and the Orixás. 

For me, the trip was a break from the pounding of time that I feel in my life, my work, my existence here in the states.  My only goal was to shoot some video footage for a possible DIY (do-it-yourself) music video.  Otherwise, I was on my own time.  No laptop, no cell phone, no schedule, no to-do lists. 

Aju’s dance program was in Salvador de Bahia.  We rented a cheap but comfortable one-bedroom apartment near the ocean and bussed to the city center (Pelourinho) every day.  I wandered around alot, just watching people and letting ideas float in and out of my head.  I took some capoeira and drumming classes, read “The Famished Road” by Ben Okri, wrote stories for my sun, but mostly wandered through the world and my mind. 

One of the things that I loved most about Bahia (north-eastern state of Brazil) was the comparative lack of cell phones.  After a few days in Bahia, spotting foreigners is easy: electronic gadgets, preoccupation with time, baggage…

I picked only a handful of days to walk around with a camera.   Bahia is over-photographed and many locals are weary of cameras.  Brazil is extremely wealthy, but that wealth is not shared.  The memory of slavery and the lived reality of historical exploitation are very much alive, despite the myth that Brazil is a racial utopia.  Frustration with tourists is evident in areas in/near the Pelourinho (Salvador’s city center), which translates to something like “whipping post”, because that’s exactly what it was. 

I tried to be as respectful and non-invasive with my flip cam as possible.  There are a lot of things I wanted to record but didn’t.  In shooting the video, I sought to capture the beauty of Bahia.  There is always “ugly”, no matter where you go, but it was the beauty that struck me most. 

Most of the video was recorded with a flip cam.  After it froze up on me, we used Aju’s outdated photo camera.  I used an old laptop and Windows Movie Maker to edit the video.  The “professional” element is the intention, the imagination behind it, the work ethic (i.e. endless hours troubleshooting).  There are endless details I could continue to tweak, but at some point you gotta call it “good.”

Timeless

Hip-Hop meets Bossa Nova, poetry meets bilingual reflections.  “Timeless” captures the essence of SOULAJU’s fusion.  Aju is a lover of languages, cultures, and foreign lands.  I’ve always been that old soul Hip-Hop head that can’t get enough of the rhymes.  We both stay hungry for fresh ideas and new challenges.  DJ Icewater continually fed that hunger in 08 and 09 with his creative energy. 

This was one of the last beats DJ Icewater sent us for the SOULAJU album.  Aju was working at a Brazilian Jazz bar in New York City at the time and thinking about how to make a trip to Brazil a reality.  The unexpected Bossa Nova influence came right on time. 

I couldn’t take the beat off repeat in my headphones but I wasn’t sure what to do with it.   I wrote rap verses and laid those down first.  After sitting on this track for a few months, it was clear that the rap wasn’t working.  Rap flows didn’t match the vibe of the beat nor the “Timeless” theme.  It doesn’t matter if the words are on point, that’s only part of the equation. 

I put my mind to work on the issue of time…  In your late 20s you begin to understand the relationship between time and life cycles.  For the first time in your young life, you understand with more than your mind that someday “this life” will end.  Time becomes less of a question and at the same time much more of a riddle that can never be answered, only appreciated. 

Aju’s chorus (In Portuguese):

Muitos dias vão nascer
Muitas noites vão acontecer
Incontáveis memórias, se criarão se criarão
E uma canção será cantada por toda eternidade
Uma canção sobre você
Uma canção com som de verdade

In English:

Many days will rise and many nights befall
Countless memories will be created
And a song will be sung throughout eternity
A song about you
A song that rings true

Dedications:

The women of DIDA Banda Feminina
Viver Brasil
Escola de Dança da Fundação Cultural do Estado da Bahia (FUNCEB), Salvador, Brazil

Like what you hear?  Purchase SOULAJU (15 tracks, name your price) here:

“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

SOULAJU hosted a youth DJ workshop at the end of January 2010.  The workshop was one of five community-oriented events we hosted in celebration of the coming SOULAJU album release.

As SOULAJU unveils new album tracks one-by-one,  I am focusing more and more on the visual aspect of the music.  In recent months I edited footage from our Youth Jam / Youth Climate Justice Workshop and made a music video for “In Sight”. 

With “Dee-Jay” I wanted to tell a broader story about the power of the Dee-Jay, who is the heart and soul of Hip-Hop culture.  In 1986, Rakim declared that his DJ “Eric B. Is President”.  Looking forward to 2020 the sound selector still reigns supreme. 

Download “Dee-Jay RMX” and other SOULAJU tracks by clicking the bandcamp icon below.  DJs down to remix “Dee-Jay” email us at soulaju@gmail.com.

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

“Dee-Jay, say you give the people what they want / take head of the culture, give the people what they need / Indeed, we the children of the break beat sound / push back, let the truth rise from the underground”

“Dee-jay, say you give the people what they like / word sun then shine, give the people space to fly / Indeed, you da key, get the people on dey feet / let em shake loose, breathe, make sure they dance free” 

Is what the people “want” what they “need”?  Is there a difference?  Would there be a difference in demand if people were truly offered more of what they need?  Or is it all good just the way it is?

This track is an ode to the Dee-Jay and an ode to Hip-Hop culture… not rap music, but the culture, the history, the vibe you feel when you connect with artists, activists, and Hip-Hop heads who genuinely respect the culture. 

SOULAJU is looking for DJs to remix this track in various styles.  The first remix is a DJ Icewater mix on the recently released SOULAJU album.  We added Aju vocals on the chorus and my third verse, plus Icewater cooked up a sweet beat breakdown on Aju’s verse.  Slight changes but they definitely switch up the vibe.   This original version of Dee-Jay appeared on Shine Flow EP, released exactly one year ago today. 

A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively is a 52 week blog series in which I reflect on 5 years of independent music, one song at a time.

Adrian H. Molina

FREE DOWNLOAD OF “IN SIGHT” by SOULAJU w/ DJ Icewater. 

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Icewater sent the beat track in February of 2009.  Aju was living in Bedstuy, Brooklyn NY.  I was living on the northside in Denver at the time, traveling back and forth between Denver, New York City, and Oakland to work on the Shine Flow EP and SOULAJU album projects.

This song wrote itself the moment I heard the beat.  I saw all the places that I was moving between, all the faces of the artists and activistas I was chopping it up with coast to coast.  I saw a massive celebration in my head, shades of all colors marching in the streets with their friends and families, smiling, chanting, drums beating, people feelin’ good, building a healthier and more peaceful world against all odds.

Generations Y and Z haven’t been given much to believe in.  Perpetual War, 30 solid years of Reaganomics carried out through the presidencies of Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and now Obama, disintegrating social systems, pollution and environmental destruction, political abandonment of the many so a few can live like kings.

Yet a more promising tomorrow remains in sight, thanks largely to young people who are organizing, writing, dancing, creating, and providing insight into problems they did not create… but are willing to take on.

Though there are common threads, this is not the 60s and those times are not coming back, but there is  a new sound, a new movement, a fresh energy, style and vibe that carries the spirit of [r]evolution forward. 

…Soleil got that fusion surging through my veins / I’m callin’ all the young balla playas to the sermon / PLEASE let me tell ya’ll what I see / we The Dream they never intended us to be / we the spark, the bling, the shine on they screen / even splash a little color on they white house scene / ain’t a thing cuz it’s still the same problems / but we da solution, constant evolution / only one conclusion: time to show and prove, sun / now we got momentum, do it how we do…

- Molina Soleil, Twitter @MOLINAspeaks

A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively is a 52-week blog series in 2010, focusing on 5 years of independent music by your man Molina. 

Shine Flow – title track off Shine Flow EP by Molina Soleil & Aju w/ DJ Icewater (2009)

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This was the first track I recorded with DJ Icewater in October 2008.  I was a few months into my Up Before the Sunrise tour.  I decided to head to the Bay Area and do some volunteer work for Youth Speaks during their Living Word Festival. 

I called my friend Jeff Chang and told him that I’d be in town.  Could he hook me up with any producers?

Within a few days Icewater and I connected and he sent me some beats.  This instrumental was one of the first.  It fit like a glove with the lyrics I penned a week earlier on a flight from Seattle to Portland, where I emceed Graham St. Productions’ first major benefit event for Papers the movie.  

I was feeling high.  I was making moves and making things happen.  A little money was coming in and I was proving to myself that I could succeed and be heard on a national level.  I had just performed in Rapid City, Minneapolis, Chicago, Philly and Albuquerque, and at Cafe Cultura and Cafe Nuba in Denver.  I had been contracted to do work with youth in New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.  I was contributing to a major film project that would shine light on the lives of young people pushing for immigration reform.  I now had an opportunity to record music with a well-respected DJ on the west coast.

It was time to celebrate. 

I put the first version of Shine Flow on MySpace mid-October 2008, shortly after it debuted on Hard Knock Radio.  The first version didn’t have Aju’s vocals.  Her and I began making music together late in December 2009.  You are listening to the final version of the track, released June 9th, 2009. 

Shine Flow is a story of success that documents shifts and new beginnings.  This is a piece of my story, but it’s a reflection of everyone grinding hard to live their dreams.  Don’t forget to celebrate the small victories.  Most of all, don’t forget to do it for you.  Fuck trying to prove anything to the anybody. If someone is dissin’ you, their likely suffering from their own insecurities. 

Shine YOUR light and share it with your people.

Follow Molina of SOULAJU on twitter: http://www.twitter.com/MOLINAspeaks

The arrival of SOULAJU: Soul flows like water.  The long awaited album is finally complete.  15 solid tracks available for $5 mp3 download.

This story has many beginnings.  This moment is a culmination of past reflections.  The focus is on the Present, in these times, as we shape what will be.

SOULAJU is a fusion of lives, stories, styles, and cultures; this fusion is personal and universal.  Each track stands on its own, but the true jewel lies in the journey of the album, start to finish.

In the words of photographer Ric Urrutia, “Soulaju is creative, conscious, energetic, sexy, intellectual, and overall: bad ass.”

The reviews, the hype, and the celebrations will come in waves.  The album will soon be distributed by Itunes, Amazon.com, and other major distributors.  For now, as independent, community-based artists, we are excited to share this release with our friends, our supporters, and your networks and communities.

Thank you for your support.  Please help us spread the word.

Official SOULAJU album release: 15 tracks, $5 download: http://soulaju.bandcamp.com/album/soulaju

In celebration of International Women’s Day, March 8^th, I would like to share a song with my fellow WeMoons that orbit this extremely complex yet extremely beautiful home, our planet Earth, and also to the men that support and nurture humanity’s  most sacred resource: the life givers.

WeMoon is a trance floetics dedication to the divine feminine powers embodied by all mothers, daughters, sisters, grandmothers, granddaughters, cousins, aunties, nieces and roots. It is a song to all the women that have fought, danced, worked, sang, organized, loved, and planted seeds of all forms for the rights of women, for the rights of all humans, for the rights of our animal-relations, for the rights of the environment — for justice, respect, equality and for the joy of living.

The title “WeMoon” was inspired by (did you guess it? Yes,) the beautifully intuitive We’Moon Lunar calendars published by Mother Tongue Ink. It was fresh to discover the semantical twist they took on in redefining the word(s) used to describe we’moons, or “women.”

Instead of defining ourselves in relation to men (i.e. women, females), this “we’moon” describes our innate relationship that we have to the moon, whose gravity moves the tides of the planet, cycles the blood and fluids of our bodies, creates change, gives birth, renews life. Language is culture, and therefore it is vital that we are conscious of the life we breathe into reality through our words.

Be your breath, be girl, just be.

We are mirrors of our exterior universe. This song mirrors the wisdom and inspiration that flows within the cosmology of the divine feminine and celebrates the common pulse that all womyn share in relationship to the natural sources of cosmic flow – the moon, the sun, the stars, the planets, planet earth, and of course, we cannot forget our divine gravitational pulls and dances with each other. If this song were a dance, it would be a womyn’s circle of capoeira, playing on a beach, under a full moon around a huge fire of wisdom, singing to the stars.

Waves of vision – turn it up – talk now walk I brave the line – let’s turn them up: our dreams, our voices, our flows.

This song celebrates both the diversity and oneness of all womyn, and the harmony and balance that is innate in our very essence, our very beings. Axé. Ometeotl. Ying-yang. Context and perception – push/pull, light/shadows. All and nothing. One.

By existing in an inharmonious world dominated by patriarchy, hyper-masculinity, fear and violence, the uniting rhythms and joy of life are stolen from womyn all too often. What power and wisdom is so great that we are systematically taught to be stagnated by judgment, belittled by oppression and uprooted by indoctrination?

I agree with the statement made by Mari Matsuda in her book Where is Your Body that: “Among patriarchy’s many crimes is the crime that keeps us from going out alone on an evening stroll to look at the stars. This is a real loss of personal freedom. This is a feminist issue.”

The spirit rooted in the word and title we’moon is one that symbolizes resistance and celebration, both one and the same. It is the antithesis of misogyny and self-perpetuating institutionalized dominance and violence that is all too often propagated in mainstream media.

WeMoon is a celebration song aimed to make you dance – in your heart, in your mind, in your body. Let us continue to breathe into existence our living dreams. WeMoons united.

“International Women’s Day Marked Around the World” on Democracy Now!

                                                                                                                                                 “Eve Ensler: Security and insecurity” on TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design): Ideas worth spreading

Download this MP3 – (Right Click) 

“I strut, I flow, my style I’m all mine / I shine my truth / I chop, mash up time / you work, you grind, you climb with no interlude / your push, your pull, you rise high, it’s all you…”

…the first words heard from my first collaboration with Aju and DJ Icewater.  It was a big shift in style and presentation from the more gritty Up Before the Sunrise album.

What I am most proud of in my young artistic career is that everything I have put out has been .  I have put myself on the line as an artist, willing to be creative, to fuse, to collaborate, and take risks.

“This that indie fly sang, we don’t wait, no label / if suit pick it up ain’t a damn thing change / Fuck big money I’m a do my thang / don’t need corporate to legitimate me…”

As a young independent artist, you make up the rules as you go.  There’s no playbook.  Everything is grassroots.  You are often your own hype machine and your own fundraiser.  You gotta hustle as your own manager, booking agent, accountant, executive producer, publicist, etc.

If you’re really down for the arts and the community, you have to find time in the midst of all this to support other artists, to support the activist scene, to volunteer your time and give back.

Last week, Aju and I made a decision 25th-hour to push the SOULAJU album back after organizing a month-long series of events in Denver to promote the album.  Analyzing it from every angle, it simply wasn’t time… So we had to trust our instincts and be confident in our decision.

Bottom line: you gotta do you and you gotta trust yourselfand do it well.  Be independent in your thoughts and don’t fall in line with the sheep.  Spend your money locally, rep for those who don’t have representation, and do with style.

- Molina Soleil

Follow Molina on Twitter @MolinaSpeaks