“Poet Gettin’ His” by Molina of SOULAJU w/ DJ Icewater
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.
History:
![777118321_CfZ3V-L-2[1]](http://www.soulaju.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/777118321_CfZ3VL21.jpg "777118321_CfZ3V-L-2[1]")
I’ve been a Hip-Hop head for 18 years, over 2/3 of my young life. I’ve been emceeing for 13 years and utilizing Hip-Hop as a tool for education, consciousness raising, and social justice activism for 9 years. I have released six independent music projects and am the music supervisor for a film about immigrant youth that has screened in almost all 50 states. I have paid some dues.
My hard work has bred some success … but not without some controversy.
“Dreamer” by Molina Soleil & Aju (SOULAJU) w/ DJ Icewater
Writing and recording this track transported me back to the Up Before the Sunrise days. Experimental rhyme structures and spoken reflections lending context to the poetics.
The odyssey of the DREAMER is riddled with layers of parallel dreams and realities. Imagine two worlds, equivalent in their truths, folded in to mirror one another. The true math lies in the eyes of the dreamer.
There is light and there is dark. There is good and there is evil. There is life and there is death. These are simple matters. It is in the gray area that dream interpretation begins.
Recognizing the power of the Dream, one’s mark is everlasting. All things are connected. All thoughts, words, and ideas manifest, touch, alter, and affect the eternal balance.
Your reality is your perception. Reflection is perpetually open to interpretation.
Play with the day, float away with the blue…
A.M. SOLEIL, RETROSPECTIVELY is a 52-week blog series in 2010, reflecting on 5 years of independent music by yours truly by Molina.
Twitter: @MOLINAspeaks
Sometimes I sit on a cloud and think… Me inside of you… you inside me…
A simple but retrospective track, tracing roots, paying homage, showing respect to some of the people, and thus all of the people, who made me who I am.
The art of storytelling boils down to the ability to capture a feeling, to pull in a listener and make them feel you. To transport them into your world, weaving them seamlessly back into their own world, then back again, in and out, continuously, beyond the story itself.
Molina Soleil & Aju (SOULAJU) w/ DJ Icewater 2010
REMIX: The original version of Wrong Ways appeared on Shine Flow EP during the summer of 2009. That was an Aju story—a journey through cultural 
transformation and personal affirmation.
The Soleil Mix is a tale of personal struggle—something everyone can relate to. Some of us have it rougher than others and circumstances transform us in unexpected ways.
The release of the SOULAJU album is an arrival. I’ve been creating music professionally since 2006. There are a few other ideas in the works for 2010, which will close a 5-year loop. From that point forward, I am uncertain what will come. But this is the apex of this moment.
Beyond the music we have arrived at a dramatic fork in the road as as a species. Sometimes feels like we’re on a ticking time bomb. 2012 hype is heavy and ever-present as the minutes tick. We’re moving towards an irreparable fracture in the order of things. This coming point of impact becomes more clear in 2010.
As life speeds up and ideas collide, we begin to understand time and space differently.
Move forward without fear.
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 Molina.
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.
“Da Indies”, Shine Flow EP — Molina Soleil & Aju w/ DJ Icewater (2009)
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.
“Like Magic”, Soulaju — Molina Soleil & Aju w/ DJ Icewater (2010)
Download this MP3 – (Right Click)
This is the first single off the forthcoming album Soulaju. This is one of the first tracks Aju and I recorded together in Oakland, CA back in December 2008.
On “Like Magic” we aimed for that ethereal sense of sensual energy that stops time. This multilingual track is one of three on Soulaju that explore themes of love, sexuality, arousal, sensuality.
I have largely stayed away from these themes because most of what passes for “sexy” in American popular culture is overdone and misogynistic.
The music we were given by DJ Icewater pushed me to be a better storyteller; to be adaptive, to be daring, to have fun with the music; to blend my experiences and what I have seen with what I can only imagine…
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