It’s funny to think so long ago when I started rhyming in 1987 who my influences were at that time.  Of course you had Run-DMC, LL Cool J and Kurtis Blow.  Eventually, my list grew to Kool G. Rap, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane, Ice-T, and Scarface.  But it wasn’t till a little later, when I was in college, when I was influenced by another musician.

I remember being home for a college break and my sister had a cassette tape of Bill Withers Greatest Hits.  It was pale with a plate and a rose on the cover.  Very non-descript.  At that time, I had been enhancing my rhymes and developing a bit of a deeper sense of the poetry behind the rhymes.  My vocals were still monotone compared to today and could’ve used some attitude but I was still in a writing phase and just getting to be known as a rapper in college.  No one really knew I could spit back then until I discovered others who could.

Well, I popped in this cassette because it had the song, “Lovely Day” on it and I remember hearing Vanessa Williams’ version and loving it so I wanted to see if the original had anything on it.  And damn!  Did it?!!  This Bill dude could flow!  His voice was all smooth and had an emotional touch to it that had you bobbing your head and actually FEELING what he had to say.  I never really got emotion out of music before but listening to “Lovely Day” had me open.  So,  noticed some other songs he had on this cassette:

“Ain’t No Sunshine”, “Just the Two of Us”, “Lean On Me”, …  I was saying to myself “Damn!”  This guy had all of these classic songs and I never even knew his name!  Then I saw a song on there called “Grandma’s Hands”.  I popped that in and played it.  From the first strums, you recognize the sample from Blackstreet’s “No Diggedy” but once Bill lets that ride and says the first two words, “Grandma’s Hands”, he did something I was immediately influenced.  See, I remember hearing this song as a kid sitting in the front seat of my dad’s station wagon back in the day.  I was probably around 10 years old and we were headed to the barbershop in Montclair.  From the first words, my dad hums and turns it up a bit.

That moment was etched in my head the second I heard the song again probably a decade later.  NOW I knew who it was!  But that wasn’t it…Bill did something in his music that I strive to do in mine:  Bill Withers can pick an instance in time and write a song about it.  Not so much a storyline…he picks an instant and elaborates on it involving emotion and feeling with a soulful sound.  Think about it in this context:

Bill Withers: “Ain’t No Sunshine when she’s gone / Only darkness everyday”
Zodiac Translation: “She went to the store and Bill misses her already”

Bill Withers: “Lean On Me if you’re not strong / And I’ll be your friend, I’ll help you carry on”
Zodiac Translation: “You’re struggling right now and I’ll help you”

Bill Withers: “Grandma’s hands clapped in church on Sunday morning”
Zodiac Translation: “Dude made an entire soulful song about his grandmother’s hands!!!”

Bill Withers: “Who is he and what is he to you?”
Zodiac Translation: “Ok…I see that stare in your eye and his too..what’s up?”

It goes on… “Sweet Wanomi” is a song about a woman relaxing in his arms.  The whole song!!  “Lovely Day”…it’s a lovely day!  Today’s artists don’t choose a moment in time and just sing/rhyme about it.  What Bill does is incredible.  It’s as if someone took a photo and Bill would stare at the photo and make a 3 minute song about it.

Since that cassette tape, I’ve attempted to create songs that merge that type of feeling in it.  It’s harder as a rapper than it is as a blue’s singer because I have a minimum 32 bars and hook mixed in but that emotional part of it and to connect with an audience based on an instance is still a goal I use in certain songs.

“10 Seconds” feat. Manchild
“Second Universe”
“The Calm After The Storm” feat. Manchild
“Don’t Put Me In The Ground”
“Alone”
“Increase & Release”
…and more…

So, peace to Bill Withers: one of my influences.

This song which will be featured on Zetacide Vol. 4 in the future was created from scratch, as were 95% of the Zetacide songs.  The inspiration of this particular track is interesting, though.  A Facebook friend from Melbourne, Australia actually was the cause of this song.  It begins like this:

A very attractive woman from Down Under by the name of Kamini decided to do something crazy…she signed up for a boxing match against an opponent whom she suspected may kick her ass!  Something in her got the idea to start training hard enough to take on this woman for this event.  After reading her updates on Facebook and seeing how serious she was, I was intrigued to the point where I wondered to myself:  What would Kamini’s theme music sound like?  And then it began…

I thought of Kamini in a Rocky Balboa type of setting with a robe on entering the ring and something kind of intimidating.  Yeah, it sounds crazy, but my mind is very visual so I began with a slower BPM as opposed to a faster one and started with the Rocky-inspired horns first.  That’s where it got crazy and I began adding the bassline to it so it had a depth. The Buhm-buhm-buhm of the horns along with the switching of the bass needed something extra so I added another level of higher horns to the track.  It began to take shape.

Thinking of this very pretty woman stomping down to the ring to beat this opponent’s ass was cracking me up but it brought in the switch up and added the singing voices to it as if she was raising above the rest.  No joke!  When it was time to add the lyrics, I took that intimidation level higher and thought of the under-dog; the guy you didn’t think could rise above it.  That’s where the title came from:  Sleeping Giants Are Destroying The Place.

If it weren’t for Kamini fighting in this match (which didn’t happen unfortunately due to a cancellation), who knows what the song that week would’ve been.