Waiting sucks when there’s no incentive. Nobody told me: “wait 12 years to release your first album, it’ll be worth it because Odd Nosdam is gonna master it.” If someone had told me that I would have told them that it’s cruel to make shit up and fuck with someone who is clearly having an existential dilemma in art. Back in 2000 when I first started making my own beats and recording my own raps Anticon, and cLOUDDEAD in particular, were milestones in my sonic landscape. I used to put out these hastily thrown together CD-Rs that, while containing entirely brilliant moments, weren’t really sufficient enough statements to be considered albums. I sent every one to Anticon. When they came on tour to Florida I used to burn them CDs — not of my music, but of cool shit I was listening to at the moment because I figured if they were on the road they would need some new tunes. I caught Them and Sole at a festival in France once, and immediately rushed over afterwards to smoke weed with them. I once ate Sole’s wife’s leftover nachos while getting a ride in a van that one of the goons from Grand Buffet was driving. These dudes were everything I wanted to be in music.

Of course I grew out of the phase where I idolized them, but they forever shaped the way I understand making music. When I first started out I bought an SP-202 because I knew that’s what Nosdam was using originally. I’d go on to study Classical Hindustani, American Minimalism, and John Cage in great detail, and a generalized survey of world music to a lesser degree. I took a lot of time to explore what I would consider to be the majority of the archived possibilities in sound known to a common citizen of the United States of America. In 2005 I decided that I would stop recording raps because I felt I had nothing to offer. I wasn’t gonna make mainstream Nelly-sounding stuff and I didn’t wanna sound like Anticon. This incredibly expansive in-between hybridization that has developed in the last few years was missing from 2005. So, I wound up exploring instrumental music, action-based composition, and field-recording. I was still kicking freestyles at every chance, but my recorded output shifted dramatically, and had very little to do with hip hop. There was nowhere left for me to go, so I left to explore the vast expanses of musical possibility.

Of course, I eventually found myself back making hip hop. I tried running from it, but I couldn’t. And even in 2009 it was obvious that the tides were turning, and people were ready for a different kind of hip hop. The space that I fit into now, it didn’t exist until now. So, it’s not like this record took 12 years to make. I mean it did, but I haven’t been working on these songs on here for 12 years. I only worked on the songs themselves for about 2 months tops. Probably 6 weeks, but those 6 weeks couldn’t have taken place even 2 years ago. I think this is the kind of rap environment I’ve been waiting for. So, yeah it took a long time, but that’s mostly irrelevant.

And obviously, having Dave’s stamp of approval is a big deal. The last hand to touch this record–and really the only outside hand–was Dave’s. Who better to stitch up my sound then a dude whose sound helped to define mine? I’m not gonna say a word about these cheesy typical rapper stories of “chase your dreams,” because that would imply that I didn’t have what I had. And I did. It was just a matter of being patient more so than effective. Check it out at my Bandcamp. And peep the badges; Dope Drums cause my drums dope; Real Talk cause my raps real; and Rad Reef is the label.

- Zachg