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, 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

This is the second version of The People.  It is the second single off the forthcoming album SOULAJU, set for release March 23rd, 2010. 

The first version of The People appeared on Shine Flow EP w/ DJ Icewater, released June 9th, 2009.  I wrote the original in October 2008 in Portland, OR, where I was emceeing Graham St. Productions’ first major fundraiser for Papers the movie.   I was two months into the Up Before the Sunrise tour.  After the Papers benefit, I hopped on the plane and headed to the Bay Area to volunteer for Youth Speaks’ Living Word festival. 

At the end of my stay in the Bay, I recorded “People (Molina Mix)” and “Shine Flow” with Icewater in Oakland, CA and did an interview with Hard Knock Radio.  I added (Molina Mix) to the title of People because Icewater is a mixtape DJ, so I figured other emcees would be flowing over the same beat.

This second version, The People II, was written and recorded in December of 2009 for SOULAJU.  It was a last-minute decision at the time, being that the album was originally set for January release.  The words came to me one evening when Aju and I were catching up on Democracy Now episodes.  It was time for an update.

To some people, this may seem unoriginal—the same artist using the same beat twice to tell a similar story.  To me, this hella fresh.  As an emcee, an instrumental is a blank canvas.  Give 20 emcees the same beat and you’ll get 20 different stories.  Give me the same beat with the same hook two different years and I’ll give you two different stories that are similar in vein, but different enough to provide new insight and keep your attention.  Hip-Hop is all about re-creating and re-using, building upon what has already been done, personally, musically, culturally.

Enjoy the new mix and keep motivating and originating in 2010. 

Molina – www.molinaspeaks.com

Listen to the original: “People (Molina Mix)” w/ DJ Icewater: