Quanstar informs us, right off the bat, that he’s no label’s puppet; he has no heavy investors; no managerial team, yet he has managed to tour the country. On his fourth installment The Underdog, from First Team Music, his flow and timing show us how that feat was possible.
A thoughtful lyricist, Quanstar raps philosophically, topically and all in between. His guest stars were well chosen and complemented his style. Akil, of J5 fame, killed it as usual, on “Heard It All Before,” Ghani Gautama on “Caffeine Hustlaz,” and Rock Most on “Blame,” both did fine jobs, even if the songs they guested on were a bit suspect in their theme (Caffeine Hustlaz is about working at a coffee chain) and Nato Caliph was a welcome addition on “Revolution?”
And while the words were strong and tasteful, the beats left me wanting for something aggressive or catchy enough to match Quanstar’s lyrical prowess. They weren’t bad, just a bit understated and, in the worst cases, bland. It’s a good thing the overall feel more than made up for what it lacked in nerve.
Sandwiched between two very short tracks of baby performances is a song called “Raising The Bar,” which must have been consciously named, as it’s the best song on the album. “Mr. Blue Collar” is another good track along with the creeping “Cleansing” and the previously mentioned “Revolution?”
Quanstar sounds like a man who knows his talents and knows that he’s worked hard to get where he is. He plays the underdog part well, maybe too well. And now that we know what he’s capable of, he’s going to have to adapt: Once people expect great things out of you, you’re no longer the underdog.
-Paul Fisher
http://www.okayplayer.com/reviews/new-reviews-2010/quanstar-2010072711297/
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Interview with Landon Hill for Straight Outta Hip Hop.com
Following is the interview with the very talented artist Quanstar. It was a pleasure talking to him because it is clear that he knows his hip hop history and that he grew up in the culture. Not only that, but he represents for the "common man," which is rare in these days. His new album, The Underdog will be out in two days (July 27th), so make sure you check out the songs ("Caffeine Hustlaz" and "Summertime") placed directly after the interview, go to the website for the album, and enjoy the interview!
First, I want to thank you for taking the time to hold this interview. Before we really jump into things, why don’t you give a brief introduction as to who you are so that people can become more familiar with you?
Well, I’m Quanstar. I’m an emcee first and foremost. I came in the game around 2001. I’m originally from LA, from Compton, CA. I relocated from Compton to Atlanta to go to school at Clark. I was doing hip hop tours from 2001 to 2004 and dropped my first solo album the following year. Since then I’ve just been trying to tour twice a year, building a fan base. The Underdog is thefourth solo project and I’ve been doing all of this independent. I’ve never had a manager, never been signed, been my own PR person, for the most part I’ve been my head booking agent. I just wanted to do everything the right way and not deal with the B.S. most people have to put up with doing a major deal early in their career.
And what is the significance of your name?
My government name is Janale Da' Quan, so growing up my family and friends would always call me “Quan.” And so, you know when people would tag and everything, their signature would usually be their name and they would add “ster” to end of it. So, when I would tag, I would sign it “Quanster”, but one day my friend, she said I shouldstart using “Quanstar” because she said I was always acting like a star, so that’s how it came about.
That’s an interesting twist. And when I was reading you bio,I saw how you were involved in most of the founding hip hop activities; the break dancing, tagging, rhyming. You basically came from all of that.
Yeah, because what people don’t really know was that LA was like hip hop heaven in the early ‘90s. Everybody was rhymin’. It didn’t matter if you were a thug or whatever, you needed to be able to bust. People were always trying to rap, cats were dancin’, and everybody tagged a little something’. I was more into rappin’ and dancin’, though. Taggin’ was number 4 or 5 on pecking order, but that’s just how LA was. The thugs one the block wanted to hear me rap and people were always trying to battle. LA was just different. You had to be endorsed. Like E-40 could do atrack or show with Souls of Mischief. You don’t get that anywhere else but Cali.
Yeah, there seems to be this misconception about the West Coast, and specifically LA that it was just gangsta rap. All they connect it with are groups like N.W.A., but from what you’re saying, it was the same sort of feeling in LA as it was in New York.
Yeah, and even in the case of N.W.A., those cats had to be able to bust! People don’t understand thatpeople in LA grew up on Public Enemy, but they were bumpin’ Spice 1, too. They grew up on all that, so dudes were surprised when they realized everybody in LA could bust harder.
You mention moving from Compton to Atlanta, but you don’t really have a West Coast or a down South sound. Why do you think that is?
I don’t know. I don’t really have thoughts regarding any of that. It’s not generically made. It’s just important how I feel. If I hear a dope beat, then I just start writing. I want to say that there’s some big thing behind it, but it’s not. It’s how I feel and the things I go through when I rhyme. It’s probably also my influences. I listened to everybody; Melle Mel, LL, Common, Souls of Mischief, UGK. I was listening to all of this in high school, non-stop. I was a hip hop head!
Those influences really come through in your music. A lot of times people try to mimic a sound or a style and it doesn’t sound organic, but given your history, the fact that you don’t sound like a particular region or person is good. Talk a little bit about your experience like when you were down at Clark?
I went to Clark for a couple of years. Honestly, I didn’t wanna be there. I didn’t want to be in college. I didn’t know why I was there. I just knew I had to get out of Comptonfor a while. Around that time, sh*t was real hectic. It was a couple years after the riots and I knew if I didn’t get out…I saw people get caught up and I saw my friends that were 21 who had no intentions of ever leaving Cali, so I just wanted to get out. School was that way of getting out.
I wrote a blog not too long ago about how school is about education, but even more than that it’s about the experiences and getting out of your comfort zone. I went to school in Michigan and it was just so that I could get away and see different things.
And even after college, I walked around for 2 or 3 years, just fu**ed up. Working these horrible jobs, I wanted something different, something more. I may have never wanted that if I hadn’t gone to college. I might have still been a rapper, I don’t know, but I might have been talking about completely different things or doing completely different things.
I want to transition to the music for a minute. So you have The Underdog coming out. The title seems self-explanatory, but what is the motivation behind it? Why did you feel it was appropriate to drop it now? This is your fourth album in 9 years in the game, right?
Naw, it’s actually the fourth in 5 years. I was originally in a hip hop band called First Team and we dropped a couple albums in 2003 and 2004. The first solo project was in 2005, title Sometimes You Gotta Stand Alone and my second album in 2006. I also did a documentary in 2008 called Do It!: Documentary and I did a soundtrack for that. We’re actually going to re-release the documentary soon, but the message of The Underdog is…When you’ve been doin’ shows and you have connections to all these artists that have been signed…Let me put it this way because I don’t want to sound arrogant. When we came in this game, the things we do and how we did it, nobody really fu**ed with us initially and then we made this thought like “We’re not unsigned, we’re independent.” That was our thought process. Even in ATL, one or two cats were getting signed to majors, one or two cats were getting signed to independents, but me and my crew stayed on our grind. We would take a step, plan things out, tape a step, plan things out. By doing that, we been catching up with a lot of cats. And it’s not a competition or anything, but we have just as many people come to see us at a spot as the rest of these cats. Calling the album, myself, my crew, the underdog, it’s because we did a lot of things against knowledge. We went against what the music books say, what people in the industry say, what the A&Rs say, and we still did it! We didn’t take a traditional route. I don’t do numbers or talk about number of records sold. I don’t care about that. I will say this though. At no point have I had more than $4,000 to market with. I’ve had 6 national tours that I booked, that we put together and they were paid for! Nobody on the tour has to put up any money. All they gotta do is ride. That’s a huge accomplishment in music. Plus, it’s just how I do it. I got kids, and they’re pretty much my constant thought when I rap.
Speaking of your kids, what I really appreciated about your music, and the reason I wanted to have you on the blog, is how honest you are in the music. Specifically, in songs like “Summertime,” you have songs that talk about your wife and your family, which is very rare to hear nowadays. Even when artists are married, they will still make songs flaunting about how many women they are with and whatnot. Why have you chosen not to do that?
Up until about the time I was 23, I fu**ed up a huge portion of my life. After that, I told myself I was gonna do [the music] the right way and speak from my heart. I’m a family man. That’s where it comes from. As much as I tour, I still have a job. I do other things, but a huge portion of my life is at home working. My office is in my home, so I’m always around my family and my kids I don’t party. I don’t really go out unless I’m promoting. I don’t have a dream car. No matter how much money I make, you won’t hear me talking about my dream car. I’m more worried about the mileage on the car. I’ve been on that single life type of stuff. I’ve been there, but I’m a family man. I spend pretty much 89% of my time in Atlanta with my family.
It’s really refreshing to hear somebody really “keep it real.” Another song that caught my attention was “Caffeine Hustlaz.” Did you used to work at a coffee shop or were you just trying represent for all those on their grind?
I worked for a coffee corporation. I can’t say their name, but I worked for them for 8 years. Don’t get me wrong, as far as companies go, it was a great company, if you wanna work for someone. My thing has always been music. I let everybody there know that, and they accepted it. But, when you don’t wanna do anything but music, after 7,8 years it wears on you. And let me tell you this, coffee customers are some of the worst customers on the planet. They always complain about the drink, they think they know how to make the drink, when they don’t. Really, 95% of them don’t even know how to pronounce the name. This one particular time, this dude tried to bullsh*t his way into getting a free drink. He came talking about it was the wrong drink, he had his girl there, made a whole scene. We eventually had to give him a new drink, but I was so stressed off and pissed off already that after we served him, I took a break and went out and wrote that song. Working for the company, it wasn’t all bad, but it was the most stressful job I’ve ever had.
On the song “Bank,” you not only state, but repeat that half of your first million dollars is going to charity. What issues are you most concerned and passionate about?
Let me say this, the world is not racial. The powers that be make it seem racial. The world is about economics…funds. What they do is put all these poor people together, against each other, and they don’t focus on what the issue is. They put them at a tea party and they say “This black president is fu**in’ your sh*t up.” So, the poor white people are talking about taxes, when taxes is lower than it’s been in years and years. They point out health care, but most people are on Medicaid. A lot of people don’t see that. One of the founders of the Tea Party was a millionaire saying “Think about me, don’t think about yourself.” If you’re white and you’re poor, you got a lot more in common with people in Compton than you do with somebody that’s wealthy. I’ve performed in Charleston, West Virginia. I got more in common with people there than somewhere that has a lot of money. It’s all about money. So what I want to do is teach people what credit is really about. Educating people on investing for the future, how money flows, how the FDIC goes, how the bank really runs. Talk about that 1% you get back on your account from the bank don’t mean sh*t because the bank is getting 12% from your money. The other thing I’m really passionate about is helping families. I’m gonna help families that work hard, that do everything they need to do, and take them through a one year course. I’m gonna pick a family from ATL, from Compton, from Oakland, from these different areas and get them a house. We’ll show them how to mix it up, show them what they need to do to maintain it. That’s what I want to be involved in.
It’s good to see somebody who really wants to be involved and raise awareness. The key to changing anything is awareness. Given that you’ve been independent this long now and you have been able to do all these things on your own, are you just not even considering being signed?
It’s not that I would take a label deal or anything. I’ve been approached, been offered vehicles and everything, but it’s not about that. I want creative control of my project. I want to own my masters and publishing. I have a book coming soon. I have documentary. I want freedom to do all these things. If those can be guaranteed contractually, then we can do that. It’s probably not gonna happen. For me to be signed should mean my situation is being increased. It’s the same situation just on a bigger scale.
That’s where a lot of people get screwed is signing away their masters and publishing. That’s probably stressed more than anything else.
Yeah, that’s where you really make the money. That’s why the labels want to keep it.
I love asking this next question, and so I’m interested to hear your response. If you were introducing somebody to hip hop for the first time, what album would you give them and why?
That’s a good one…I’ll probably end up giving them “The Message” the song. It’s the greatest song to me, for a number of reasons. The sample can still run today. I have favorite albums and favorite groups, but everybody started at that point. I would have said Resurrection from Common or Black Star, but all that came from “The Message.” I bet if you were to ask all these guys, “The Message” is in their top 5.
That’s true. That’s definitely where the social and political commentary of hip hop started.
But it’s even more than that. It was anything other than party music. The way you ride the bass and melody like you do. All that came from that song. Hip Hop was reinvented in that song. It wasn’t just the lyrics, but how it was done and arranged. That’s probably the most powerful song in hip hop history.
If nothing else, what should people take away from this interview?
Just that I love hip hop and I love my kids. And I have a good album because of it. Check out the website at quanstarmusic.com. I also have a national tour that I’ve been putting together for years now called the Bring Your A Game Tour. They can go to www.bringyouragametour.com for more information. Shout out to my folks, Ghani Gautama, Evaready RAW, and Dlabrie, and my DJ, Metronome. He produced “Caffeine Hustlaz.” Shout out Juicy the Emissary, Lexzyne Production for the songs they did on the album. I actually met them on Twitter. I loveTwitter. It really allows you to connect and network with people.
Where can they pick the album up?
The album comes out on July 27th and for now it’s gonna be on the website. I had a little glitch with my distributors, so it’ll be at all digital stores a few weeks after it comes out. It’s a strictly digital release, so they can just goto the website now and it’ll be at all digital stores soon after that.
Well, I appreciate your time. Good luck with the album and everything else.
I appreciate the interview and having a chance to speak to your crowd.
http://www.straightouttahiphop.com
First, I want to thank you for taking the time to hold this interview. Before we really jump into things, why don’t you give a brief introduction as to who you are so that people can become more familiar with you?
Well, I’m Quanstar. I’m an emcee first and foremost. I came in the game around 2001. I’m originally from LA, from Compton, CA. I relocated from Compton to Atlanta to go to school at Clark. I was doing hip hop tours from 2001 to 2004 and dropped my first solo album the following year. Since then I’ve just been trying to tour twice a year, building a fan base. The Underdog is thefourth solo project and I’ve been doing all of this independent. I’ve never had a manager, never been signed, been my own PR person, for the most part I’ve been my head booking agent. I just wanted to do everything the right way and not deal with the B.S. most people have to put up with doing a major deal early in their career.
And what is the significance of your name?
My government name is Janale Da' Quan, so growing up my family and friends would always call me “Quan.” And so, you know when people would tag and everything, their signature would usually be their name and they would add “ster” to end of it. So, when I would tag, I would sign it “Quanster”, but one day my friend, she said I shouldstart using “Quanstar” because she said I was always acting like a star, so that’s how it came about.
That’s an interesting twist. And when I was reading you bio,I saw how you were involved in most of the founding hip hop activities; the break dancing, tagging, rhyming. You basically came from all of that.
Yeah, because what people don’t really know was that LA was like hip hop heaven in the early ‘90s. Everybody was rhymin’. It didn’t matter if you were a thug or whatever, you needed to be able to bust. People were always trying to rap, cats were dancin’, and everybody tagged a little something’. I was more into rappin’ and dancin’, though. Taggin’ was number 4 or 5 on pecking order, but that’s just how LA was. The thugs one the block wanted to hear me rap and people were always trying to battle. LA was just different. You had to be endorsed. Like E-40 could do atrack or show with Souls of Mischief. You don’t get that anywhere else but Cali.
Yeah, there seems to be this misconception about the West Coast, and specifically LA that it was just gangsta rap. All they connect it with are groups like N.W.A., but from what you’re saying, it was the same sort of feeling in LA as it was in New York.
Yeah, and even in the case of N.W.A., those cats had to be able to bust! People don’t understand thatpeople in LA grew up on Public Enemy, but they were bumpin’ Spice 1, too. They grew up on all that, so dudes were surprised when they realized everybody in LA could bust harder.
You mention moving from Compton to Atlanta, but you don’t really have a West Coast or a down South sound. Why do you think that is?
I don’t know. I don’t really have thoughts regarding any of that. It’s not generically made. It’s just important how I feel. If I hear a dope beat, then I just start writing. I want to say that there’s some big thing behind it, but it’s not. It’s how I feel and the things I go through when I rhyme. It’s probably also my influences. I listened to everybody; Melle Mel, LL, Common, Souls of Mischief, UGK. I was listening to all of this in high school, non-stop. I was a hip hop head!
Those influences really come through in your music. A lot of times people try to mimic a sound or a style and it doesn’t sound organic, but given your history, the fact that you don’t sound like a particular region or person is good. Talk a little bit about your experience like when you were down at Clark?
I went to Clark for a couple of years. Honestly, I didn’t wanna be there. I didn’t want to be in college. I didn’t know why I was there. I just knew I had to get out of Comptonfor a while. Around that time, sh*t was real hectic. It was a couple years after the riots and I knew if I didn’t get out…I saw people get caught up and I saw my friends that were 21 who had no intentions of ever leaving Cali, so I just wanted to get out. School was that way of getting out.
I wrote a blog not too long ago about how school is about education, but even more than that it’s about the experiences and getting out of your comfort zone. I went to school in Michigan and it was just so that I could get away and see different things.
And even after college, I walked around for 2 or 3 years, just fu**ed up. Working these horrible jobs, I wanted something different, something more. I may have never wanted that if I hadn’t gone to college. I might have still been a rapper, I don’t know, but I might have been talking about completely different things or doing completely different things.
I want to transition to the music for a minute. So you have The Underdog coming out. The title seems self-explanatory, but what is the motivation behind it? Why did you feel it was appropriate to drop it now? This is your fourth album in 9 years in the game, right?
Naw, it’s actually the fourth in 5 years. I was originally in a hip hop band called First Team and we dropped a couple albums in 2003 and 2004. The first solo project was in 2005, title Sometimes You Gotta Stand Alone and my second album in 2006. I also did a documentary in 2008 called Do It!: Documentary and I did a soundtrack for that. We’re actually going to re-release the documentary soon, but the message of The Underdog is…When you’ve been doin’ shows and you have connections to all these artists that have been signed…Let me put it this way because I don’t want to sound arrogant. When we came in this game, the things we do and how we did it, nobody really fu**ed with us initially and then we made this thought like “We’re not unsigned, we’re independent.” That was our thought process. Even in ATL, one or two cats were getting signed to majors, one or two cats were getting signed to independents, but me and my crew stayed on our grind. We would take a step, plan things out, tape a step, plan things out. By doing that, we been catching up with a lot of cats. And it’s not a competition or anything, but we have just as many people come to see us at a spot as the rest of these cats. Calling the album, myself, my crew, the underdog, it’s because we did a lot of things against knowledge. We went against what the music books say, what people in the industry say, what the A&Rs say, and we still did it! We didn’t take a traditional route. I don’t do numbers or talk about number of records sold. I don’t care about that. I will say this though. At no point have I had more than $4,000 to market with. I’ve had 6 national tours that I booked, that we put together and they were paid for! Nobody on the tour has to put up any money. All they gotta do is ride. That’s a huge accomplishment in music. Plus, it’s just how I do it. I got kids, and they’re pretty much my constant thought when I rap.
Speaking of your kids, what I really appreciated about your music, and the reason I wanted to have you on the blog, is how honest you are in the music. Specifically, in songs like “Summertime,” you have songs that talk about your wife and your family, which is very rare to hear nowadays. Even when artists are married, they will still make songs flaunting about how many women they are with and whatnot. Why have you chosen not to do that?
Up until about the time I was 23, I fu**ed up a huge portion of my life. After that, I told myself I was gonna do [the music] the right way and speak from my heart. I’m a family man. That’s where it comes from. As much as I tour, I still have a job. I do other things, but a huge portion of my life is at home working. My office is in my home, so I’m always around my family and my kids I don’t party. I don’t really go out unless I’m promoting. I don’t have a dream car. No matter how much money I make, you won’t hear me talking about my dream car. I’m more worried about the mileage on the car. I’ve been on that single life type of stuff. I’ve been there, but I’m a family man. I spend pretty much 89% of my time in Atlanta with my family.
It’s really refreshing to hear somebody really “keep it real.” Another song that caught my attention was “Caffeine Hustlaz.” Did you used to work at a coffee shop or were you just trying represent for all those on their grind?
I worked for a coffee corporation. I can’t say their name, but I worked for them for 8 years. Don’t get me wrong, as far as companies go, it was a great company, if you wanna work for someone. My thing has always been music. I let everybody there know that, and they accepted it. But, when you don’t wanna do anything but music, after 7,8 years it wears on you. And let me tell you this, coffee customers are some of the worst customers on the planet. They always complain about the drink, they think they know how to make the drink, when they don’t. Really, 95% of them don’t even know how to pronounce the name. This one particular time, this dude tried to bullsh*t his way into getting a free drink. He came talking about it was the wrong drink, he had his girl there, made a whole scene. We eventually had to give him a new drink, but I was so stressed off and pissed off already that after we served him, I took a break and went out and wrote that song. Working for the company, it wasn’t all bad, but it was the most stressful job I’ve ever had.
On the song “Bank,” you not only state, but repeat that half of your first million dollars is going to charity. What issues are you most concerned and passionate about?
Let me say this, the world is not racial. The powers that be make it seem racial. The world is about economics…funds. What they do is put all these poor people together, against each other, and they don’t focus on what the issue is. They put them at a tea party and they say “This black president is fu**in’ your sh*t up.” So, the poor white people are talking about taxes, when taxes is lower than it’s been in years and years. They point out health care, but most people are on Medicaid. A lot of people don’t see that. One of the founders of the Tea Party was a millionaire saying “Think about me, don’t think about yourself.” If you’re white and you’re poor, you got a lot more in common with people in Compton than you do with somebody that’s wealthy. I’ve performed in Charleston, West Virginia. I got more in common with people there than somewhere that has a lot of money. It’s all about money. So what I want to do is teach people what credit is really about. Educating people on investing for the future, how money flows, how the FDIC goes, how the bank really runs. Talk about that 1% you get back on your account from the bank don’t mean sh*t because the bank is getting 12% from your money. The other thing I’m really passionate about is helping families. I’m gonna help families that work hard, that do everything they need to do, and take them through a one year course. I’m gonna pick a family from ATL, from Compton, from Oakland, from these different areas and get them a house. We’ll show them how to mix it up, show them what they need to do to maintain it. That’s what I want to be involved in.
It’s good to see somebody who really wants to be involved and raise awareness. The key to changing anything is awareness. Given that you’ve been independent this long now and you have been able to do all these things on your own, are you just not even considering being signed?
It’s not that I would take a label deal or anything. I’ve been approached, been offered vehicles and everything, but it’s not about that. I want creative control of my project. I want to own my masters and publishing. I have a book coming soon. I have documentary. I want freedom to do all these things. If those can be guaranteed contractually, then we can do that. It’s probably not gonna happen. For me to be signed should mean my situation is being increased. It’s the same situation just on a bigger scale.
That’s where a lot of people get screwed is signing away their masters and publishing. That’s probably stressed more than anything else.
Yeah, that’s where you really make the money. That’s why the labels want to keep it.
I love asking this next question, and so I’m interested to hear your response. If you were introducing somebody to hip hop for the first time, what album would you give them and why?
That’s a good one…I’ll probably end up giving them “The Message” the song. It’s the greatest song to me, for a number of reasons. The sample can still run today. I have favorite albums and favorite groups, but everybody started at that point. I would have said Resurrection from Common or Black Star, but all that came from “The Message.” I bet if you were to ask all these guys, “The Message” is in their top 5.
That’s true. That’s definitely where the social and political commentary of hip hop started.
But it’s even more than that. It was anything other than party music. The way you ride the bass and melody like you do. All that came from that song. Hip Hop was reinvented in that song. It wasn’t just the lyrics, but how it was done and arranged. That’s probably the most powerful song in hip hop history.
If nothing else, what should people take away from this interview?
Just that I love hip hop and I love my kids. And I have a good album because of it. Check out the website at quanstarmusic.com. I also have a national tour that I’ve been putting together for years now called the Bring Your A Game Tour. They can go to www.bringyouragametour.com for more information. Shout out to my folks, Ghani Gautama, Evaready RAW, and Dlabrie, and my DJ, Metronome. He produced “Caffeine Hustlaz.” Shout out Juicy the Emissary, Lexzyne Production for the songs they did on the album. I actually met them on Twitter. I loveTwitter. It really allows you to connect and network with people.
Where can they pick the album up?
The album comes out on July 27th and for now it’s gonna be on the website. I had a little glitch with my distributors, so it’ll be at all digital stores a few weeks after it comes out. It’s a strictly digital release, so they can just goto the website now and it’ll be at all digital stores soon after that.
Well, I appreciate your time. Good luck with the album and everything else.
I appreciate the interview and having a chance to speak to your crowd.
http://www.straightouttahiphop.com
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
"The Underdog" review by Nikki T. Duvall Owner/Executive Marketing Consultant Movacci (mo vah see) and founder of SocioSync™
"The Underdog" review by Nikki T. Duvall owner/executive marketing consultant Movacci (mo vah see) and founder of SOCIOSYNC.
Overall, on a scale from 1 to 10. Using in this case, a scale based upon artists, not currently signed to a major record label. I'd give the album "The Underdog" by Quanstar, a strong 8, and here's why:
The album overall, has a very main-stream edge to it, meaning it has a professional, and very nicely engineered and mastered sound, a good lyrical flow and at the same time, dynamic enough for a couple of the tracks to do well on radio, others to do well in concert, and yet others to do well in a video. Very comparable to much of the music that's out today, that's selling really well.
The style and sound of the Album, to me, is mostly East Coast, in the sense that it has an “Uptown” type-of-a-sound, which includes strong percussion and horns mixed into the music bed of many of the tracks.
At the same time, there are a few tracks on the album, that to me, do come across to sound very similar in nature. This I say, from the perspective of how, if you were to scan through an album quickly … forwarding from track to track … in a record store … trying to quickly hear, what’s on the CD; in order to quickly decide; whether to make a purchase (or not). Even with this in mind, I say that, out of the 15 tracks on the album, at least 8 of them really do stand-out; and are very solid.
The following is my review, of each of the individual songs on the album. I've placed an asterisk (*) by each track, using a 5 star system:
---------------------------------
**** Track 1 "The Intro" - actually catches you right away. It has a real cool, Summertime, "hanging with my people and them", at the BBQ, Family Reunion, House Party (or where-ever), Neo Soul swing, mixed with a Jazz Band set; type of a feel to it.
*** Track 2 "Underdog" - puts you in the mind of something that you may actually hear from an artist like Jay Z. This song is a, "how I came-up in the game", type of song. The vocalist harmonizing on the chorus of the song, makes you especially want to kick-back, and listen to this song even more.
***** Track 3 "Mr. Blue Collar" - is one of the songs, that makes you think back-to, back-in-the-days, of Super Fly and Foxy Brown. This song has got that type of, "I'm Fly, I'm Here … and On The Set”, type of sound. You can easily imagine rolling through the city, in an old school Delta 88. Drop-top. At night. Fresh and clean to this one.
*** Track 4 "Relax" - is also a laid-back, yet really smooth track.
**** Track 5 "Heard It All Before" - is one of those songs where you might just be kick-backed in your favorite chair, sipping on something, and meditating on the world, and the day to day ... all while visualizing, just how exactly, you're going to make your come-up. This song has a smooth sound, that has that just right chemistry of music, within the music.
*** Track 6 "Caffeine Hustlaz" - this song is one that you could imagine being performed, as a part of a live-set, in a quaint night club, that might also serve as a location for poetry readers, and other, live, loud and abstract -- but yet -- creative artists.
**** Track 7 "Blame Featuring Rock Most" - is almost nursery rhyme (in a good way) in terms of how easily the lyrics flow together, in order to tell the story. This song, is another one of the songs, on the album that you can lay-back-to, thinking … while putting the world in perspective. I really appreciate the “Jazz/Ragtime” Sound, inserted into the music bed of this song.
*** Track 8 "Cleansing" - you can hear the Jazz elements, real strong, in the music-bed of this song. Especially by way of the drums. Lyrically the song is also very catchy; especially the chorus, also known as “the hook”.
***** Track 9 "Bank Featuring Juicy The Emissary" - this song kind-of forces you to focus in and think about, right where you are … with your own hustle … and how you should really consider stepping things up just a tad-bit. The music track is aggressive enough to make you bounce your head while listening. And the feature by Emissary, is definitely right on time.
***** Track 10 "Revolution" - is a very passionate song about the struggle ... the struggle that we all face … the view points and the opinions that we all tend to develop ... as we see the day to day, take place, and happen around us. The Lyrics and Music are very much a good compliment, and right on time in this song. I'd give this song more than 5 stars, but, I've limited myself to a 5-star rating system.
**** Track 11 "American Dreams" - is a good solo representation of Quanstar's lyrical skills. His ability to deliver, in almost perfect syncopation, with the beat of the music track, are demonstrated very well through this song. This is another song to ride-to, late at night, with the top-down on the ride.
Track 12 “Jr. Doing Ice Ice Baby” --- Interlude ---
**** Track 13 "Raise The Bar" - is a song with a very Smooth Jazz Sound, and is understandably a very heart-felt track. You can hear the sincerity in the lyrics as Quanstar lyrically dedicates this song to his child.
Track 14 “Jernal Ho Ho Ho --- Interlude ---
*** Track 15 "Summertime" - is another track with purpose. Another one of those that has a Summertime type of feel to it.
Overall, on a scale from 1 to 10. Using in this case, a scale based upon artists, not currently signed to a major record label. I'd give the album "The Underdog" by Quanstar, a strong 8, and here's why:
The album overall, has a very main-stream edge to it, meaning it has a professional, and very nicely engineered and mastered sound, a good lyrical flow and at the same time, dynamic enough for a couple of the tracks to do well on radio, others to do well in concert, and yet others to do well in a video. Very comparable to much of the music that's out today, that's selling really well.
The style and sound of the Album, to me, is mostly East Coast, in the sense that it has an “Uptown” type-of-a-sound, which includes strong percussion and horns mixed into the music bed of many of the tracks.
At the same time, there are a few tracks on the album, that to me, do come across to sound very similar in nature. This I say, from the perspective of how, if you were to scan through an album quickly … forwarding from track to track … in a record store … trying to quickly hear, what’s on the CD; in order to quickly decide; whether to make a purchase (or not). Even with this in mind, I say that, out of the 15 tracks on the album, at least 8 of them really do stand-out; and are very solid.
The following is my review, of each of the individual songs on the album. I've placed an asterisk (*) by each track, using a 5 star system:
---------------------------------
**** Track 1 "The Intro" - actually catches you right away. It has a real cool, Summertime, "hanging with my people and them", at the BBQ, Family Reunion, House Party (or where-ever), Neo Soul swing, mixed with a Jazz Band set; type of a feel to it.
*** Track 2 "Underdog" - puts you in the mind of something that you may actually hear from an artist like Jay Z. This song is a, "how I came-up in the game", type of song. The vocalist harmonizing on the chorus of the song, makes you especially want to kick-back, and listen to this song even more.
***** Track 3 "Mr. Blue Collar" - is one of the songs, that makes you think back-to, back-in-the-days, of Super Fly and Foxy Brown. This song has got that type of, "I'm Fly, I'm Here … and On The Set”, type of sound. You can easily imagine rolling through the city, in an old school Delta 88. Drop-top. At night. Fresh and clean to this one.
*** Track 4 "Relax" - is also a laid-back, yet really smooth track.
**** Track 5 "Heard It All Before" - is one of those songs where you might just be kick-backed in your favorite chair, sipping on something, and meditating on the world, and the day to day ... all while visualizing, just how exactly, you're going to make your come-up. This song has a smooth sound, that has that just right chemistry of music, within the music.
*** Track 6 "Caffeine Hustlaz" - this song is one that you could imagine being performed, as a part of a live-set, in a quaint night club, that might also serve as a location for poetry readers, and other, live, loud and abstract -- but yet -- creative artists.
**** Track 7 "Blame Featuring Rock Most" - is almost nursery rhyme (in a good way) in terms of how easily the lyrics flow together, in order to tell the story. This song, is another one of the songs, on the album that you can lay-back-to, thinking … while putting the world in perspective. I really appreciate the “Jazz/Ragtime” Sound, inserted into the music bed of this song.
*** Track 8 "Cleansing" - you can hear the Jazz elements, real strong, in the music-bed of this song. Especially by way of the drums. Lyrically the song is also very catchy; especially the chorus, also known as “the hook”.
***** Track 9 "Bank Featuring Juicy The Emissary" - this song kind-of forces you to focus in and think about, right where you are … with your own hustle … and how you should really consider stepping things up just a tad-bit. The music track is aggressive enough to make you bounce your head while listening. And the feature by Emissary, is definitely right on time.
***** Track 10 "Revolution" - is a very passionate song about the struggle ... the struggle that we all face … the view points and the opinions that we all tend to develop ... as we see the day to day, take place, and happen around us. The Lyrics and Music are very much a good compliment, and right on time in this song. I'd give this song more than 5 stars, but, I've limited myself to a 5-star rating system.
**** Track 11 "American Dreams" - is a good solo representation of Quanstar's lyrical skills. His ability to deliver, in almost perfect syncopation, with the beat of the music track, are demonstrated very well through this song. This is another song to ride-to, late at night, with the top-down on the ride.
Track 12 “Jr. Doing Ice Ice Baby” --- Interlude ---
**** Track 13 "Raise The Bar" - is a song with a very Smooth Jazz Sound, and is understandably a very heart-felt track. You can hear the sincerity in the lyrics as Quanstar lyrically dedicates this song to his child.
Track 14 “Jernal Ho Ho Ho --- Interlude ---
*** Track 15 "Summertime" - is another track with purpose. Another one of those that has a Summertime type of feel to it.
Monday, July 12, 2010
How "The Underdog" came out on top by Melle Mels
The story of balancing a lifelong dream and the responsibilities of a family, “The Underdog” is the refreshing break away from mainstream we get from the Atlanta based artist Quanstar. The Compton native uses his fourth solo album to reject the calculated formula of flashy cars, women and money set in a hot spot night club running rampant in the current industry. He instead takes his experience and becomes something everyone can relate to, Mr. Blue Collar. And while one reality is never a more worthy experience than another, Quanstar brings integrity to his craft by embracing everyday life and layering it atop a melodic mix of feel good tracks. From Cleansing the past, wanting to Raise the Bar for his children, to remaining honest about the socioeconomic strife in chasing American Dreams, there is no exaggerations. No sugarcoating. No scripts. No giving up. Just one man’s journey from no other point of view than his own; for this “The Underdog” comes out on top.
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