Download D.O. Greatest hits album for FREE!

D.O. is hitting y’all with his best tunes for free, but that’s not all! He’s also including some Art of Fresh jams to keep you rocking by the Camp fire.

Click here to download the album.

D.O. Greatest Hits Free Download

The Other Side of Tomorrow by The Slakadeliqs (FREE DOWNLOAD)

The Other Side of Tomorrow by Slakah the Beatchild’s alter ego The Slakadeliqs is the result of four years writing, experimenting and exploring different groups of musical influences than most would expect.

Head over to Bandcamp.com to download the album. If you like it… Share the Good Vibrations.

Download Art of Fresh album for FREE

FREE FREE FREE! Now that I’ve got your attention, heres a little something something I KNOW you’ll enjoy! I have a duo I’ve been in for sometime now with long time friend/artist D.O. called The Art of Fresh. It’s a project that was unexpectedly birthed when we started collaborating on tracks back in 2000 (Long before Black Eyed Peas and all the uptempo hiphop/R&B you hear today btw) and just having fun. We were never thinking about “The Industry” or music trends when making this fun uptempo style of music. Our first single was a song called “Get Free”, followed by our second single “Out This World” from our first album “Back to the Earth“. We just recently finished our second album which is called “When the NIght Comes In” and we are happy to inform you that is available for free download! The cool thing about the creation of this album is each song was made in a different part of the world seeing I would bring my equipment with us when we were touring. I can clearly remember making the beat for “Where I Go” as we were driving through Radium Springs in Western Canada in the beautiful Rockies. I remember making the beat for “Alive” in a hotel room in London, England. And probably the most memorable of em all is recording vocals to “Baila” in a crazy beautiful hotel in Kyoto, Japan. (They had a nicely folded, crisply ironed set of PJ’s on your bed awaiting you as you entered, LOL! classy). So I hope you enjoy this album, please share it with anyone you think may like it too. Follow the group on twitter @artoffresh and Facebook

Click here to download

 

New Art of Fresh video “Good Shoes” feat Melanie Durrant

Check out the new Art of Fresh video!

Scotia Trip

I recently got back from spending a week out in Nova Scotia. Now I can’t wait to get back.

I got a chance to make music, rock shows, see friends, and best of all – see family.

There aren’t too many places you can go and do all of that!

The first stop was to see my man Classified. Next thing you know Mic Boyd rolls through.
After working with Class for so long, it wasn’t so much about making sure we recorded something as much as it was about catching up and listening to new beats. We talked about the first time we met up, almost 10 years ago now. Not too many cats still in the game that was doing it ten years ago!

Now Class is going out to do arena shows across the Country. It’s good to see people succeed that deserve to succeed.

As he went through some of his beats, I started typing a list on my blackberry – but then I stopped. Every beat was banging! It got to a point where I liked everything he played – and I’m picky when it comes to beats so this was a good thing.

The next day I was back at the studio but just as an observer. Kayo was in the lab and they were writing a new track for Kayo’s debut. I just wanted to come through and introduce myself. I knew Kayo was from St. Lucia so we connnected talking about the Caribbean.

From there I was back in Halifax, I thought about writing some business emails but decided to pop in the beats CD. Then I got out the rhyme book and proceeded to write a few songs. It felt like deja vu. The last time I was in Scotia – to shoot the Now I Understand video – I had met up with Class and then wrote a few songs in the hotel room right after. The first song was “She Likes You” which became one of my biggest releases, and the next was “It’s On” which I’m about to release in 2012.

After writing my third song, the phone rang – it was the fam.

I met up with my cousins and we went out to the Seahorse to see a dope funk band play – The Mellotones http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1ckPAallT4

On Friday I headed up to New Glasgow to see more family. The highlight being kicking it with my 97 year old Uncle Sonny.

The thing that amazed me was that he kept on saying “October 6th… October 6th…” He was saying my sons birthday. But how does he remember that? For the next couple of hours I was silent as I listened to story after story – many of them I’ve heard before – but it didn’t matter. When you are around older family members you treasure the time because you say “maybe this will be the last time.” The thing is I remember feeling that way almost 20 years ago. After all he was 80 at the time.

The next day I was up early for the drive to Cape Breton. It’s one of those drives that I look forward to – especially when there isn’t snow! It’s not like driving on the 401 where you have to compete with the traffic. It’s a familiar road and beautiful scenery along the way.

I showed up at my grandmothers house around 3. It looked the same as it always has. As a kid, I moved around alot but the one constant was my family. I’d been to this house for 30 years now. Looked a lot bigger when I was a kid though!

Before I went out for the night, I stopped at the neighbour for a beer – or two. They do a lot for my grandma so it was important to stop by and give my thanks. Its a tight knit community where people look out for each other.

Then it was time to head out. I had a show to prepare for.

My man A.G. rolled through to pick me up. He’s a young MC that I met by chance in a hotel elevator in Halifax. Since then we’ve kept in touch and he’s always encouraged me to come out to do a show. We even did a track together recently.

We did up the soundcheck and then I stopped in at a hotel party to connect with my cousins. That’s when I knew we were in for a big night. We spent some time catching up and then A.G. came back to give me a ride to the venue.

It’s always good to walk into a crowd. You know its not going to be “one of those nights” – when the venue is half empty and you have to create the vibe. I could feel the vibe walking in.

When it was time to perform, I already had a packed dance floor. Even though I had family out here, you never know what the response is going to be like. If you are going to have to call people to the floor or if they came to get down. I’m glad this was the latter.

And the spot was live! I did a few Art of Fresh tracks at the end as an encore, but then they wanted to keep going!

We ended up at another bar for an after party before calling it a night.

On my final day I took it easy in the afternoon… ran a few errands for my grandma, stopped by some family, and shot scenes for a video with A.G. I had planned to connect with my cousins in the evening, but after a week of non stop action, it was good chilling on the couch kicking it with my grandma.

As I got on the plane for the flight back, I was a little tired, but refreshed. It was a great week and even more, I felt like the mission was accomplished.

Now time to plan the next trip… I’m serious… I’m checking flights right now!

CORE DJ Retreat – New Orleans – Wrap Up

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to represent The Come Up Show at the CORE DJ Retreat in New Orleans. I have been to their events in Atlanta and Las Vegas, so I had an idea of what to expect. It’s a chance to network with DJ’s, Artists, Labels and other folk in the industry – and its always a good time – after all you know the music is going to be on point! When I found out the event was going to be in one of my favorite cities in the world – New Orleans – I knew I had to go.

We arrived on Thursday night and after checking out Bourbon St we made our way to the opening party at Voila in the French Quarter. It was a great way to kick off the weekend. The place was packed and the DJ’s were spinning hot tracks. We took it easy because we knew there was a big day ahead of us on Friday.

The good thing about the Retreat is that it isn’t only based on showcases and club nights. My favorite part of the retreat is the panels. This one didn’t disappoint.

The highlight of the panel was the inclusion of New Orlean’s legend Mannie Fresh who shared insights that only a veteran of the biz could do. He talked about the importance of learning the business – not just relying on your talent – and working with professionals – don’t do “homeboy business.” Veteran record executive Troy Marshall kicked game on everything from how to build your team to how to build a buzz by getting your music played in strip clubs.

In the evening there was a couple of events including a Roscoe Dash listening party where the open bar had everyone grooving and networking followed by party at a club outside of the French Quarter. It was nice to venture outside of the Quarter to check out the other part of New Orleans that a tourist wouldn’t get to see. There were appearances from Juvenile to Charlie Baltimore to Lil’ Scrappy.

The Saturday kicked off early with the CORE DJ’s giving back to the community through an Outreach program. They had a New Artist showcase in the afternoon and it was good to see a Canadian rock the mic – J Star from Vancouver.

The night wrapped up at the Casino with a crazy party that brought out R. Kelly.

Unfortunately we weren’t able to stick around for the final day on Sunday but after three days non-stop events we were exhausted when we hit the airport, but excited for the next Core DJ Retreat!

Check out official footage from the Core DJ retreat…

Soundcheck

Was chillin in London last night… went out to see my man Sese perform.

When I arrived at the spot, the first person I saw was my man DJ Everfresh.

It had been a few years since I’d seen him. The thing about Everfresh is that he is always hype. Its great. You can’t help but feel hype by hanging out with him.

We were talking about the show we did back in the day in Lethbridge, Alberta. It had been my first time in the ‘Bridge. I’ve been back several times since, but this time we were out there with about 12 of us. My man G had made this show happen and we were excited to put it down.

I had a good time on the trip, but my memory of the show was how I didn’t get to perform. I was supposed to be the ‘headliner’ and go on last but for a variety of reasons – show starting late, sets running long, etc I didn’t get a chance to go on.

As he was introducing me to people last night Everfresh brought up the soundcheck. “You should have seen this guy at the soundcheck!” he kept saying. I had forgot about it. The soundcheck is usually when you are just testing out the mics. But the thing was we did a soundcheck in the middle of the student common area. There were people walking by and we would draw them in. I would kick freestyles, Everfresh would spin tracks, and the rest of the crew would perform tracks and get people hype for the show.

Even though it was six years ago, I love how the soundcheck stuck out as big part of that day. Just goes to show that you always got to bring it when you have an opportunity on the mic… It’s not always at the show that you make the fans – but before the show is just as important.

New D.O. video “She Likes You”

I just released “She Likes You” – the first single from my upcoming album “Heavy In The Game”

The song is produced by Juno award winning producer Classified and the video is directed by Much Music Award winning director Cazhmere. The video is currently playing in heavy rotation on Muchvibe and was recently seen on Rapcity.

Check it out here.

“Small Town” Breaking Down Stay Driven Album pt 9

“From a small town always had big dreams…”

Rappers always talk about how they come the hood… even if they really aren’t. It’s not often that you hear a rapper talk about coming from a small town.

Growing up we never considered “Sarnia” to be a small town, sure it wasn’t a big city, but it wasn’t that small. When I moved to Toronto I was surprised people had never heard of Sarnia… “wow that place is far!” they would say.

I don’t think that growing up in a bigger city would have helped my rap career… I would never have met my man Slakah the Beatchild who did the beat on this track and is half of Art of Fresh. I would never have met Diz Dallas who produced half of the beats on my last CD.

“Small Town” also features my man Andrew Austin – also from Sarnia – on the hook.

We’re going to be releasing a video for it, but in the meantime check it out here…

Small Town feat Slakah the Beatchild and Andrew Austin by iamdo

“Rhyming With Poiz” Breaking Down Stay Driven Album pt 8

I love the road… It’s cool to be in the studio recording songs, but my favorite part is performing live…

I’ve toured the country a few times and alot of the time I’ve been joined by my man Poizunus.

Poizunus is a world renowned beatboxer. He won Scribble Jam and placed third in the world in Germany a few years back.

He’s great to bring on the road because his beatboxing always commands everyones attention as he rocks the crowd.

Another key part of our performance is freestyling…

It’s something that doesn’t usually translate well to a recording, but I thought it would make for a cool interlude if I called on my man Poizunus to help me out.

He provided the backdrop and I got a chance to bust a few rhymes on top…

Rhymin With Poiz (Freestyle Interlude) feat Poizunus by iamdo

Follow Poizunus on Twitter at

http://www.twitter.com/Poizunus