Making the Album…..an anthology of the minds

So our story opens on a quiet north central Texas suburban location in late 2009; a garage to be more precise.

Humbly tucked away amongst the sounds of summer;  lawnmowers, weed eaters, and the zipping of bicycle chains sat 4 sweating individuals.  A conversation was unfolding that would have a lasting impact on these individuals and others yet unknown. While the mainstream world of today satisfied the masses, it held little promise for those who were truly aware of the insidious nature of the 21^st Century world. Who has the position and guts to speak up though? Jay Z? Little Wayne? Soldier Boy? Laughable at least. These Boule’ lackeys would never turn on their corporate masters whom so generously elevated them to the vapid ranks of so-called “stardom”. In fact aside from the few underground cats with the cojones to say something about the state of hip hop today (Murs, Sage Francis, Smoke, Slug etc..) no one in the unfettered public eye has said word one other than to quote Cuba in Jerry MacGuire: “Show me the money”.

Who is for the Common Man anymore? Everyone seems to say “screw him”, even though they are more closely related to the poor fellow than the slimy TV icons they idolize, or than they themselves would admit. That’s where The Guise comes in.  Well equipped to handle the task at hand, all they need is your ear. They don’t do it for the $$$ and they don’t do it for the Fame; as if there is much of either to be had anymore off of an industry that saw killing Rock N Roll in the 80’s as the same T-Bone steak they see in Hip Hop today. No, they do it for the simple fact that it needs to be done. Hopefully you see the merits in the music. 

Naturally with the negatively charged climate in America, the album is an astoundingly accurate reflecting pool of the average American’s psyche today.   

      

The major body of this work including the seminal tracks Dime X, Bye In-Cell Out, Off With His Cranium, and Chumpchange, were a collective effort produced with equal parts patience and recklessness by the collective group. All but 2 tracks were done exclusively by Bruce Lee.  Additional collaborations and previously written tracks were added which include a Solo version of Art Is on a revamped Iron Cookie Track (Proper MisConduct), and a face melting Bruce Lee rendition of Katharsis’ classic “K.A.T.” from his first solo effort: “The Troubled Times” released late 2006. Last but not least the album features 2 tracks created and produced by Katharsis, and most importantly a heart-felt lament- for- innocence- lost by E-Money to round out “Save The wReck Center”.  

Sounds easy right? Keep in mind each of these guys has a fulltime job and a family to support. Add in schedule conflicts, logistical difficulties, jail time served, and equipment malfunctions, and 8 months seems like a nano second! Long nights of falling asleep in the studio and longer days of mixing the often violent harmonies vying for supremacy in the sound field which were coming out of Bruce’s brain at breakneck speeds......and now you have "Save The wReck Center".