This is one of two tracks SOULAJU released with DJ Ceiba for “My America”, a benefit compilation for Papers the movie, released July 4th, 2009. The other SOULAJU/CEIBA collaboration is “Believe It”.
Sending love out to Brotha Sean aka DJ Ceiba, who recently became a father. Ceiba is a Harlem-based drummer, DJ, and producer. He puts together jarring, head-nodding beats, fusing Reggae, Latin, and Hip-Hop influences. Ceiba flirts with some samples but relies mostly on his own musicianship.
A Mile High City mover, shaker and tastemaker recently blogged about SOULAJU.
The General is a makeup artist, designer, event emcee, blogger, and in her own words “a bunch of other shit. Ask about me.”
On SOULAJU:
“It’s the kinda shit that makes you wanna just lay back and close your eyes so you can feel every word. It’s like dark smokey vintage lounge sexy meets earthy nature sexy meets 3am urban sexy meets revolution sexy. If that makes any sense at all. But yeah, its that good.” READ MORE.
SOULAJU spent some time in Trinidad, CO in May and June working with a group of young people connected to a criminal justice “Diversion” program. Good kids, smart and conscious of their surroundings, who got in some minor trouble and luckily evaded more serious problems like juvenile incarceration. These youth meet weekly and have to satisfy a number of requirements to complete the diversion program, including weekly meetings and community service. We had worked with Tony Diego, the diversion program director, on other youth programs through an organization called OYE (Organized Youth for Empowerment). He had an idea for a youth video project with flip cams. We had limited time and funding was also limited, but this is what we came up with after a few trips down to Trinidad: a documentary about youth culture in Trinidad, Colorado:
“Trinidad Undaground”
Our main goals in working with these young people were to empower them to tell their own stories and engage in a process of creating their own media. Before we put cameras in their hands we ran some workshops with them, talking about their experiences, identity, their dreams, life beyond Trinidad, getting them writing their thoughts on paper. The following video is a “making of” look at our work with this group of youth.
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.
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’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.
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.
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.
Soulaju is making some noise in the Mile High City and around Colorado. Within the past several months, SOULAJU has been written up in Colorado Music Buzz, 5280 Magazine, and now the Denver Post online edition: Reverb. Molina & Aju were also recently featured in the indie art series Colorado Stand Up.
COLORADO STAND UP
The “Colorado Stand Up” Project is, in two words, Colorado Hip-Hop. The design will focus on the Hip-Hop Community in Colorado and feature those who have put in blood, sweat, and tears to make the scene what it is today.
Write-up by Eryc Eyl for the Denver Post. Eryc is a veteran music journalist, critic and Colorado native who has been neck-deep in local music for many years.
“Molina Soleil and Aju released their first full-length album earlier this year. Produced in collaboration with Oakland-based DJ Icewater, the self-titled, 15-track collection bursts with head-bobbing beats, rhymes that flow like melted butter and melodic hooks that stick like maple syrup.
Its soulful jams and socially conscious lyrics recall Marvin Gaye and Gil Scott-Heron as much as the Roots and the Fugees. Strikingly professional and just plain good, ‘Soulaju’ would be a highlight for more mature artists, but is all the more remarkable as the duo’s debut album. In a way, though, it’s been years in the making…”
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.
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 the 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 Soleil.
Mo-lee-na So-lay & Ah-joo = SOUL-AH-JOO: an independent, community-oriented, multilingual male/female music duo. SOULAJU fuses progressive Hip-Hop and Neo-Soul w/ world music influences. SOULAJU engages youth around issues of self empowerment, cultural identity, the power of the living word, access to education and the arts, gender justice, comprehensive immigration reform, and environmental justice.
“In Sight” Music Video
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Sending love out to Brotha Sean aka DJ Ceiba, who recently became a father. Ceiba is a Harlem-based drummer, DJ, and producer. He puts together jarring, head-nodding beats, fusing Reggae, Latin, and Hip-Hop influences. Ceiba flirts with some samples but relies mostly on his own musicianship. 
![777118321_CfZ3V-L-2[1]](http://www.soulaju.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/777118321_CfZ3VL21.jpg "777118321_CfZ3V-L-2[1]")
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.
