“Without Papers” is a follow-up to “Sin Papeles” , which was released on Shine Flow EP with DJ Icewater, June 2009.  “Without Papers” is a lighter and more hopeful version of the same concept, made specifically for “Papers” the movie.

Papers is now available for the first time on DVD for personal use. 

As the music supervisor for the film, I needed a theme song.  I was given the green light to create some original music to pitch.  DJ Icewater worked on the instrumentation with his man G Koop. 

The film Papers explores the challenges that undocumented youth face in pursuing higher education.  But the film takes on  broader issues with respect to American society, American history, and what it means to live in “America”.   As artists, we had three  and a half minutes to sum up musically not just the themes, but also the energy transmitted on screen.

My verse is a plea for recognition and a demand for visibility.     I put myself in the shoes of a young person sin papeles.  I’m an American citizen.  I was born here, so this is not my story.  But it is my father’s story y la historia de mi familia.  This is the story of many friends and many young people I work with. 

On “Without Papers” I’m focused on the young person struggling for survival, staying strong, demand a space for themselves in this society.  As on “Sin Papeles” it’s Aju’s verse that expands the dialogue.  Aju tells the immigrant’s story, spanning all races, cultures, and continents. 

The national discussion on immigration right is toxic, unapologetically racist and hypocritical.  The Americas have always been native land, always will be.  Latinos are of Mestizaje blood, mixed descent… but brown folks are indigenous to the American southwest.  There is no way around this fact. 

Many descendants of immigrants (European and otherwise) have  conveniently forgotten their own families’ histories, their journeys, their struggles. 

“Without Papers” is a heartfelt reminder that we are all part of the human family. 

Aju’s closing hook was taken from “Sin Papeles” to provide direct continuity  between the two tracks.  The closing city shout out includes only American cities and towns, whereas the “Sin Papeles” outro carried more of a world vibe with international city drops.  “Without Papers” is a timeless American story.

Closing shouts out to El Grupo Juvenil, the homeys Juan Carlos, Joes Luis, and Cesar, and the whole Papers crew.  You all have taken me on a winding and meaningful ride these past two years.  It’s clearly far from over.  Adelante. 

A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively is a 52-week blog series in 2010 breaking down 5 years of independent music by Molina, one song at a time. 

Thirty-eight weeks into 2010.  This A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively project is only one blog a week, but putting down something meaningful each week in addition all the new stuff I’m working on definitely keeps me on my toes.  The fall equinox already has me reflecting on 2010 like its December 31st. 

SOULAJU will perform our last show of 2010 at the Boulder Theater on Oct. 1st.  Bill includes us, The Reminders, and Les Nubians.  People still needing tix can pick those up here: http://bouldertheater.com/event_detail.php?id=1319.  We have a few video shoots coming up and some big youth advocacy events/projects in October, then SOULAJU goes on hiatus until February 2011. 

During this hiatus, I’ll be getting back into my solo element.  DJ Icewater will be putting out a 45’ single that features my vocals.  I have some long-awaited collabs lined up with Denver and Albuquerque emcees and producers. 

This necessary shift takes me back to the October 2008. 

“Solo tour in fall 08, I saw the same in every city, Minneapolis, Chicago, NYC down to Philly / back out west through Omaha and Denver, caught a plane to Austin, Portland city to Seattle, Albuquerque to the Bay / cats be pushin major weight like you would think they slangin’ Yay / but they got t-shirts with Obama face cuz homeys sellin’ “change”.

Even the skeptics were hyped on this notion of “change” – a concept that is clearly played out.  Change is ever-constant, life is always in flux.  Change alone is not progress, just rhetoric.  As election 2010 heats up, it’s just another reminder that both parties run on a “change” platform every election year.  And the reality…

“In this service-based economy it wouldn’t matter B, if everyone had B.A.’s or bs or Ph.D’s / we’d still have homeless and poverty, that’s the fuckin’ setup, so we scrap and kill each other over shit that we can’t get…”

I was in Portland when I wrote this, becoming friends with a young vato loco by the name of Cesar.  He was known as Droopy in the streets but now that’s he’s come up and got his life together his homeys call him Smiley.  The last verse is dedicated to him and El Grupo Juvenil – a crew of undocumented youth activists who grew up calling the U.S. home, now pushing for the DREAM ACT so that they have some options in this society. 

This first version of The People was released on Shine Flow EP  w/ DJ Icewater (2009).  The second version, same beat, was released on the SOULAJU album this March.  Same subject matter but different vibes.  The new version is more polished.  I like the grit and flow of the original. 

A link to The People II: http://www.soulaju.com/a-m-soleil-retrospectively-week-5-the-people-ii/ 

Molina

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 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

Molina

Video edited by Adrian H. Molina.  Filmed by 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 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 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” elements are Intention, Imagination, and Work Ethic (i.e. endless hours troubleshooting).  There are endless details I could continue to tweak, but at some point you gotta be done (an important lesson).

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

FREE DOWNLOAD 

Share 

Switchin’ up the vibe and pulse.  Recent weekly Retrospectives 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 DJ sent the beat, but as I marinated on the possibilities, 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…”  BUT I will…

Get yours how you get it and give back.

- Molina

Despite his young age and youthful appearance, 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.

FREE DOWNLOAD    Share 

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…

Updated sometime in 2011

Love comes and goes but it always remains the same, true to its essence: Love.  We’re always looking, wanting, hoping, wishing, praying… for that one true love.  Some of us find it, some of us do not.  For some of us, there isn’t meant to be just one.  Some people come into our lives to help us prepare for the one. 

It’s a tricky game, not supposed to be a game, but so often a game, even when no one is getting played.  The game of life.  Love is.

Love is… a beautiful song, to be remembered always….

A music video was supposed to come out of this.  I spent a lot of time, energy, and money trying to make this happen.  DJ Icewater flew out to Denver from NYC.  We went through the whole shoot… dope ass footage… but months passed and shit fell through on the editing end.  A disaster.  A mess of egos and bad business.  Unintended complications on the part of some. Toxic intentions on the part of others.  Ultimately not meant to be.

There was never supposed to be a visual.  But the song lives on. 

This was one of the people’s favorites.  “Love Is, Molina that’s the jam!” I was often told back in the Soulaju days.

Love is… what you make it. 

Molina

A.M. Soleil, Retrospectively

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.

I’m 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”. 

Dee-Jay – the heart and soul of Hip-Hop culture.

Enjoy.

Share 

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

“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. 

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.

Molina – www.molinaspeaks.com

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

Share 

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)

Share   FREE DOWNLOAD 

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, 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. 

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. 

Celebrate the small victories and remember to do it for you.  Fuck trying to prove anything to anybody. The haters breathe, they lurk wherever success breathes.  Fuck ‘em.

Shine YOUR light and share it with your people.

Molina

www.molinaspeaks.com