There may or may not be a King Coz X-mas project in the works. This may or may not be footage from one of the sessions. Also starring Damien, Scottie Spitten, Savvi, and Fly Girl T.

The “Weekly Journal” is a new series from D. Rose and DJ Cozmos, that documents the creation of their follow up to the critically-acclaimed “Taster’s Choice”. We’re going to follow their progress every week; it’s an unprecedented look behind the scenes…

D. Rose’s Weekly Journal – Episode 1: “Sandpaper and Champagne” from Ethos Music Group on Vimeo.

This is the star-studded final teaser of “There Can Only Be One”, featuring previews of D. Randle’s and D-ology’s verses, along with a statement by Big Mon and reactions from HISD.

I know that we stretched out this whole teaser thing for a while, but it’ll be well worth the wait. Mark your calendar – MARCH 17, “There Can Only Be One” will officially drop on Rappers I Know!

Today’s peek comes courtesy of yours truly, D. Randle, and one of the greatest lyricists ever to grace a microphone – D-ology of The Niyat. More on D-ology next week when we feature The Niyat during Rappers I Know’s “Get To Know… Week”.

HISD feat. KO – “Summer So Good” from Ethos Music Group on Vimeo.

There’s a movement going on at the bottom of the map. If you haven’t paid attention, then you’ve been missing a modern renaissance taking place in Houston, Texas. If you take a look back over the last few years, most of us have been involved in or connected to some of the most inspiring, influential creations to come across your iPods and computer screens. Remember these names: Kay, The ARE, K-OTIX, Chris “Daddy” Dave, D. Rose, The Foundation, J “8 Months” Lewis, Neon Collars, H.I.S.D., The Niyat, DJ Cozmos, Flow Factory and Lower Life Form. If you run through your favorite downloads from the last few years, they’re on at least half of them. And while we can dwell on our individual accomplishments, there’s something to be said about the strength that we have in numbers. We want you to look at this video with the understanding that it’s the first shot of a united front that hopes to change the landscape of the music that you’re listening to. We’ve challenged ourselves to create some of the most enjoyable music that we’ve listened to in a very long time – and we hope that you’ll enjoy it as much as we do. Embrace it.

 

The good people of The Legendary KO aka K-OTIX have released “The Reckoning”. This is an 8-track project that features some of the most aggressive, hard-hitting music that we’ve done to date. It also features special appearances by D Rose, The Niyat, Michele Thibeaux, Flow Factory, and Lower Life Form. This is basically a snapshot of what we’ve been up to since “48 Seasons” and “The Reason”. It’s also indicative of the format that we’ll probably follow with future releases: shorter projects that are released more frequently. Soon to follow after this one – “The Redemption”. K-OTIX / The Legendary KO “The Reckoning”   

1. Intro / Take A Bow – This song feels like the perfect intro track. In fact, we took the actual intro that we used at one of our shows and incorporated it at the beginning of the song. The irony is, most performers take their bows at the end of a performance, but we know that our shows have to go hard from the beginning. We’re taking that bow before we even get started.  

2. Down – Heat! One of our mottos is that we specialize in bangers. Those of you who have been around long enough remember the old, laid-back, jazzy KO of yesterday. They died a long time ago. Get over it. We try to bring the heat now. Music that challenges your manhood. Makes your girl wanna do push-ups. Puts hair on your chest. That’s what we’re coming with on this one.  

3. The Streets (Produced by Vango) – Vango has some stangers on the holster. I’ll have to admit – he stayed under our radar for a hot minute. Please be warned: this is another banger. There are also rumors of a KO / Vango project in the works. What rumors? Oops… did I say something?  

4. The Science (Featuring D Rose and The Niyat) – You already know how we get down with D Rose; we’ve also been working with them Niyat boys since day uno. This is another sign of things to come – a lot more of these collaborations.  

5. Addiction (Featuring Michele Thibeaux) – Everybody knows Michele. If you don’t, please catch up. Her voice is the silk sheet on a Tempur – Pedic mattress. She’s worked with us a lot in the past, most notably on the groundbreaking “Ethos” project. We used her a little differently this time by utilizing her on the prelude to the song. The bass was played live by Denis of Neon Collars.  

6. On Ya Grind Remix (Featuring Flow Factory) – As the name implies, this is the remix of a track that will appear on Flow Factory’s long-awaited “Language Arts” album. These guys sound good together, and even better with us (wink wink). Can’t wait for their album to drop.  

7. Damn Right (Featuring Lower Life Form) – This one was kind of like cheating, but why mess up a good thing. This is technically a remix for “Let’s Go” from Lower Life Form’s upcoming album. But in the tradition of re-recordings (see-Black Moon, etc) we completely re-imagined this song and still made it hit hard.  

8. It’s Over Now – We end it the same way we began it – with heat. It’s more of a ultimatum than an affirmation. Step up or get stepped on. I wonder if we can get this licensed for an EA Sports game? Hmm…

Download THE RECKONING Here!!!

You can still download THE REASON here!!!!

Enjoy!

This album has been a labor of love for the last year or so, but what a lot of you might not know is that we were working on two albums at one time! Dig in and savor this album, but be warned that the sequel is going to drop in July…

Next week, we’ll go behind the scenes of The Reason with a track-by-track breakdown.

Enjoy!

K-OTIX – The Reason (Download)

 Track Listing:

1. Pimp University (Spontaneity, 1997)
2. Harlots (Spontaneity, 1997)
3. Love Song (Universal, 2001)
4. You / Me (The Black Album, 2002)
5. For The… Part 1 (48 Seasons, 2006)
6. For The… Part 2 (48 Seasons Deluxe, 2007)
7. Clap Ya Hands featuring Kay (The Reason, 2008)
8. Love Me Down produced by DJ Cozmos (Cozmosis, 2008)
9. Can You Feel It featuring Big Mon, Kay, D. Randle, and D Rose – produced by DJ Cozmos (Cozmosis, 2008)

Click on the image to download:

It’s safe to say that we’ve been long-time fans of professional wrestling. Someone joked that each one of our songs made some type of reference to wrestling / beating the crap out of somebody / smashing something across somebody’s foreheads, etc. In truth, we’ve always operated more like a tag team than as a music group. If you look at the great tag teams of wrestling, most notably The Road Warriors, you see a pair of guys who are hell bent on dominating their peers through sheer force of will. That’s always been our thing as well. Without necessarily having to rely on gimmicks and hand-downs to get where we need to go, we’ve been able to achieve a great deal simply by being the absolute strongest at what we do. And yes – we’ve left a few broken bodies in the wake.

The video for “Tag Team” is one of the greatest videos that you will ever see.

12. Paper Champs
Produced by: DJ Cozmos

Because we see ourselves as “tag team champions”, we’re also aware that there will be others who wish to take those titles from us. That’s not going to happen. Many will try; none will succeed.

The video for “Paper Champs” is one of the more… innovative videos that you will ever see.

13. Respect The Name
Produced by: DJ Cozmos

The funny thing about this song is the reference that is made during the opening seconds. Somebody in the crew was supposed to spend some quality with their gal that evening, but was trying to figure out how scheme their way to the club. We all thought it was so funny that we included it in the opening lines of the songs.

OK – at least it was funny to us. At the time. Never mind.

14. Gots Ta Love It
Produced by: Symbolyc One

“Gots Ta Love It” is by far the most controversial song that we’ve done since 7 MCs II. Every once in a while we go into “rant” mode, and this one came years after we promised that we would never do it again. As you can tell, we had a lot of grievances that had built over time. We got a tremendous buzz when we posted the video for it, and still get questions about who /what we were talking about. Off the record, we’ll just say that we’ll never do this again. Be sure to check back soon to see if we hold true to our promise.

15. Forreal Forreal
Produced By: Soul Supreme

As many of you know, Soul Supreme is a very talented producer from Sweden who, at the time, was still riding the success of “Soul & Sense”, which was a remix project for Common. We reached out to him through some mutual friends of ours because we had him in mind for a track that we were working on at the time that dealt with folks who talk a lot about nothing. That song ended up being “Forreal Forreal”. We’d done a demo version of it earlier, but the lyrics and track didn’t fit. This time around, everything fell into place.

The song itself came about because we were growing wearing of people jumping in our ears about what they were going to do / who they were signing to / can we collaborate / we need to do this and get that money / for real / I’m working on some joints with so-and-so / I do the same thing, I’m just trying to put YA’LL on / for real for real…

If you’ve been around long enough, you know what we’re talking about. Listen on and be annoyed like us. For real.
No, for real.

16. Piece Of Mine
Produced By Loptimist

Every (serious) artist has a moment where they forge a song from the darkest depths of their frustration. Successful artists grind that axe as well because a great amount of the torment comes from seeing their success eroded by the wants, needs, and greed of others. This song was written during a point in our lives when we were being pulled in a number of directions… most artists could probably relate.

17. Unemployed N****s (Featuring Starchy Arch)
Produced by: DJ Cozmos

This song really needs no explanation. It’s probably the most heartfelt song on the record. Starchy Arch is a tremendous talent, and his point of view on the song really lent it some identity.

18. Fragile (featuring V Zilla)
Produced by : Moonshine

See the liner notes for “Untitled II”. We weren’t playing then, and we aren’t playing now.

19. Move On Pt III (featuring Kay)
Produced by: Symbolyc One

This is much more than our requisite “Kay” track – it’s the statement song that we’ve wanted to do for quite some time. The first “Move On” that appeared on Ethos was powerful, but it was almost as if our entire message didn’t quite come across. By the time we made it to part 3, all of the pieces came together, especially Kay’s particularly passionate verse about the establishment. We should do more of these on future records.

20. 1st Team All State
Featuring DJ Cipher, Big $ Mic, DJ Cozmos, Mavrek, Rukus, Minus, Kay, D Rose, Symbolyc One, Myone, Leaf, Snap aka Red Cess,
Deology, Starchy Arch, Bavu Blakes, V Zilla, J. Sin, Chip Fu and Damien
Produced By Loptimist

This song is the magnum opus of the album. From the onset of the album, we conceived a single song that would include every lyricist that we were down with. This was one of the first songs that we started on for 48 Seasons, and was the last one to wrap up. Here couldn’t be a better way to wrap the album than with this – kind of a curtain call or an encore that highlights everybody one last time. These are all people that you’ll see us collaborating with in the future – and often.

21. My Turn (featuring Minus)
Produced by Slop Funk Dust

This one was set to appear on the original version of the album, but we didn’t get the mix done in time. Slop is a beast on the boards, and Minus is one of the nicest lyricists that we’ve had the pleasure to work with.

And here’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for:

Join us next week as we continue to bring you new music for 2008!!!