-Yvad performs in nyc

so im chillin one morning at the crib
with my wife
teao and pooja
youknow jus kickin it
as my phone rings
and the display says
larry macdonald..
im like okay..
and im startin to think
did i for get something?..
cause i know he had said that he'd be willing to do some more work
on something we did prior to that



that's how i know him
always down to work..true musician god knows..
so as im thinkin like that
the phone still is ringin..
i pick it up
and theres larry
talkin in his calm matter fact manner
he tells me that he called me to see if i could make it for a gig
of an artist coming to town soon..
im like yes..ofcourse
he says he will have to confirm if the artst is still coming
and if so he willlet me know the details and give me a rehearsel date
im like cool..
by now
i got sweaty palms and im doin a happy dance around the room
i feel so honored to even be considered for a call by this man
he tells me the gig is confirmed
and we have a rehearsel in brooklyn the day before
he tells me the gig is at a spot called tillman's
on west 26 street
beautiful spot
beautiful vibes man..
definitely checkitout

please click on his name to find out more about him
yvad
please click on diane podolak his manager for updates



aaight so we do the rehearsel
the vibes is nice
the love is there
and im feeling good about where im at
never had a doubt about where they were youknow
so we rollin back thru brooklyn over eastern parkway
and im just listenin
lovin it
and learnin youknow..



p.s.
this is yvad with his beautiful mother
miss carol berry
who got her own soundsystem every thursday in brooklyn
please click on her name and check the link
beautiful picture by the way

so is this one


so day of the show is here
youknow i get there early to make footage
and it feel like a nice late fall early wimter day man..
and from the moment i got there
the vibes was jus nice
and that feelin never let up
thru out the night..
you could easily feel god's presence
it was a beautiful show
the people and musicians made it that way together
and its main ingredient was love..



there go yo mens holdin it down for the fam..
so much love was shared that night
i feel truly grateful for it
god bless..
i wanna give thanx to soo many people
but i dont know em all by name
so what imma do is give thanx to god
and pray to him that my gratitude will be felt
for all those intended..

one special shout offcourse
is to mr larry mac..
for calling me
and giving me the opportunity to be down..
thank you larr..
One love..

-gregg says yes.. daydreams

aaight so
i did this ep with my dawgg mr. baris akardere
aka sotu the traveller
or if you want
soul tu the traveller
cause he's that nice
f'real my man got one of the smooves sounds aroun'
an' already an impressive and extensive track record
of songs and collabo's
for having just jumped on the scene
and still being at the tender age of
somewhere in his early twennies..

daydreamin'..



the way we met was thru a mutual acquaintance
(dont worry i spell checked it
im not naturally that nice with the spelling.. :)
one who i was writin with at the time
so we hit it off
him being a producer and musician
youknow
i read him a lil something that i had written youknow
something along with a beat in the back ground
nothin' crazy
and he was like yo i dig it
so thats how it came about to do a song
since the one poem was kinda extensive
baris came up with the idea of sprerading it out into three seperate pieces
like visual artists back in the day sometimes would make like one piece
and divide it in three
thats how it came to be
i loved that idea

we first recorded like a draft take at baris' house in Haarlem
and the went to his man 'Double AA's house AA is slang for hAArlem,
dig?!

so i think we recorded the three songs in one day and we bugged out some at the end of the session
for baris to use later wherever suitable youknow..
it was nice though man
looking out over beautiful Haarlem at night
in the presence of some real kool peoples man
yo its one of my fondest memories yet..
soon after we mixed and mastered the joints and pops did his thing at a different studio in the area
big ups to the double A posse yo..



and youknow we did that for fun
had tasha a dutch singer friend rock on it
had my pops on trumpet add to the cipher
had marc zwazi
ultra nice bass player for dope dutch groups
postmen and trackaddicts feature on it
and thijs v/d klugt on it on guitar
(to this day i still havent met him
my man's dope though..)
yo thijs if you readin this..
whatsup man
good looking on that solo on the track yo
you did the thing man..
thank you
so youknow thats how it came together

pops rocked on the second joint called 'bridges n raps'
a blessing..
the title definately Nasir influenced
sotu called me and was like we need titles for these thre songs
i was like yo jus call it 'jazz thing I, II and III'
he was like yo we cant do that
im like aaight
and thought of these three titles like almost on the spot
some say i sound like the great Nas,
well if i made his money and got his props cool..
but im not Nas
im Gregg
i mean its a great compliment
its also superficial

what IS funny though is the fact that his pops is from the south and is a trumpet player and that they get along and do work together
its a beautiful thing

the picture was takin in maastricht at a show we did there with Audiopharmacy
shout to maastricht nr.1 rap group Flexxfitt



who opened for us that day..

Bridges an' raps..



the third song would be called 'global corner conversation'
basically just talkin bout how i came up and my perspective on two of the worlds i came up in and am still part of



after that we did the live show, the ep release as part of the opening for the label that put the record out, we did two shows which as part of the amsterdam dance event in amsterdam holland
this a pic from the first show
in this pic im good
dont get it twisted though
i was nervous as shit before the show..
like for two days at least :)
it was my first marque-date
god seen me thru though youknow..




the crowd was dope and i have to give my man Robin a shout out for really gettin everyone to come that day
i told him about it a month earlier when i met him on tour with Audiopharmacy
i mean EVERYONE was there
except for maybe my parents in law
and my main man Sibren who was on vacation in Brazil ithink
but i know he was there in spirit

it was nice and it was fun and i think it was the first time me and my pops got together on stage, nice
i remember right before the show
as we were getting introduced
standing under the lights
turning to my pops and saying
your moms is here right?!

youknow how they say when two or more believers are gathered togethered god is there in the midst of them
i believe god was there
and i also believe miss Josephine Green was there
right there from heaven watching over her son and grandson doing their thing together and
hopefully enjoying the showing..

we have since then rocked in Maastricht as part of an Audiopharmacy tour and in N.Y. at the Nyorican poetry cafe
this is a pic taken at Bitterzoet in Amsterdam at the release
yours truly seems to in deep relaxation muzin' on the vibes of both tash and pops..
nice flic..

and this is a review of the daydreams ep from one of holland's
frontline hip hop writers and journalists Saul van Stapele




the piece translated in english.. for you mono-linguals :)


"Forget your worries: close your eyes and sway your hips.

For 21 year old Haarlem-based Dutch producer Sotu the Traveller and his musical compagnons, daydreaming is a serious business. They create their warm, relaxed music not for the everyday rush, but with their heads up in the clouds. Listen how NY rapper Gregg Green unfolds these jazzed up daydreams on the first 3 tracks of this EP with his laidback ’spoken word’ and whispering singing and forget your worries by closing your eyes and slowly swaying your hips. Green’s Afrocentric raps are completed by the soul of Dutch vocaliste Tasha and the relaxed moquette of consonances composed by the producer who forms the centre of this EP.

Sotu the Traveller makes jazzy hiphop in tradition of the Native Tongue-movement from New York that (except for a small textual referance) doesn´t remind of Dutch hiphop for one sec. We travel from skyscrapers with money-hungry recordlabels to dark, smokey jazzclubs where around midnight improvisation sets in. With warm basslines, a drizzling trumpet, a velvet guitarsolo, cracking vinyl and chrystal clear pianotunes, Sotu the Traveller makes loving hiphop-soul music, breathing and full of live, inviting you to snap shut your agenda, close your eyes and wobble along on a jazzy dreamtrip." - Saul van Stapele/ NRC Handelsblad


And the love is felt from Alex van der Hulst writer for a magazine translated is called "Ear" aka "Oor"

-what i did with my summer..

many people
especially the ones in europe ask me
yo what happened
we ain seen you this time around
either tourin with the pharm audiopharmacy that is
or just visiting peoples
or doing gigs for dolo
well i wanna say thanx for the love
im feelin it
and what i did with my summer?
well, let me share it..

the objective for these sessions was
to have have live musicians jam out and have all instruments recorded seperately
so that we could use em later to use em however we wanted to
youknow like producers take samples
now takin em from the samples
we ourselves makin'
so yeah
without any typa vocals or overdubs
these are the raw uncut beginning stages
of what will be known as

THE INNERCITY SOUL SESSIONS
recorded live at
CITY COLLEGE HARLEM NYC

or something like that :)
its gonna be dope
so please
stay tuned

the first video is that of my man freddy with his pops and fam comin thru to bless the situation with positive vibrationz
peace to cyrus and fred's mom an' lil sis
also in the mixx..
my pops on trumpet
my main dude paul on keys an i was doing this thing in harlem city college
by grace of my dogg artem the engineer
checkitout..

here goes part 1 yo



we had another jam
here it goes..

jam 2 part 1




jam 2 part 2



and another one..




NOW YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE..

nuff respect to the legendary larry mcdonald
master percussionist
while you at
please check his bio and new first ever solo album

'DRUMQUESTRA'

and here he is
rockin' with us..
shout to big.T
isaac and mitch as well..
aaight
spun the recardin' noww.. :)




PART 2: ARTEM IN HIS NATURAL ELEMENT



my dads all about the money yo
straight up.. :)
funny dude man, funny dude..
youknow he love kfc..



checkitout yo
got some more
'what i did my summer'
segments for y'all
please stay tuned..

-freddy and the family halloween nyc

whats good y'all
hope you had a nice halloween
as i shared with you
we had freddy fuego's album release party gig
in harlem on halloween
at the shrine

comining up:freddy's album cover..
wait for it...
BAM!!



dope right?!
props to fred's cousin..
my man's definately nice widit..
to say the least
love the concept..
this was a side note
back to the story..

and i would say
it was a success
many people showed
and that made our collective efforts all the more worthwhile
i wanna give a shout to fred and the family
proud of you fred..
you made it happen man
glad to have been a part of it
shout to all the beautiful musicians and family down for the cause fo sho'
god bless..

-Yo MaN.. AuDiOpHaRmAcY In NyC..

OcT.22@SoUtHpAw BrOoKlYn


IF Y'ALL DON'T ALREADY KNOW...

i just wanna hip y'all to one of the most eclectic hiphop-worldbeat groups in the country
coincidentally also one of the crews that i have had the pleasure to record and tour with :)
please check out their site

audiopharmacy.com

and all the individual artistic offsprings..
here is a taste y'all..



oh..
and here's something else..





oh..
and one more thing




NOW YOU KNOW..

please enjoy my peoples

...and if you feel like you wanna support
and have a good time
listening to some good music
and maybe hang out with the crew..

feel free to come thru yo
peace