I did my first rap video ever.I shot the clip in Paris with my homey Sax.

Let me know what you think. I’ll be back in a minute.

I’ll tell you more about the video in a minute

Lots to do!

-iCON

As the bridge of brick called underground hiphop keeps crumbling, every year around this time artists like myself that are trying to find a foothold take this time to reflect. I spend a lot of my day emailing and calling promoters only to have them not respond and there are certain points in my day when I say “the hell with this” and go do something else more productive. Right now it’s got me reminiscing on what got me here.

First of all where is here? I’m not even sure. I read some reviews and write ups about me and people use descriptions like “Philadelphia legend” or “underground staple” and then I go elsewhere and read things that are much less flattering.

I honestly can’t answer that one for you but I can tell you I’ve lived a lot of my dreams getting to this point. I’ve also taken a lot of risks and thought outside of the box to get myself here. One of my most talked about but never disclosed risks was the Greyhound Ameripass scandal.

From discoverypass.com:

“See the USA and Canada by Greyhound. Travel both countries with a name you can trust. It’s one of the most economical ways you’ll ever find to discover the sights and attractions on both sides of the U.S./Canada border. With attractively affordable pricing, Greyhound’s North America Discovery Passes encourage you to travel far and wide. And with unlimited travel and unlimited stopovers, there is no need to restrict the distance you travel or the length of time you stay in one place.”

Sounds like their pitching to overseas heads that don’t know how awful the “Devil’s Chariot” actually is.

Towards the end of 2004 my homey Ceschi told me he had a hook up for the Greyhound Ameripass and he was using it to go to North Carolina to visit his girl all the time and I think he even took a bus to Los Angeles (Sidebar: Dos and Verbs wanted to put money up for me to go all the way there and all the way back to Philly without stopping or showering) so I was like hell yeah let’s hit up your connect and get that done.

Ceschi being one of my best friends was like yeah sure I got you and he emailed me a Word document. I was thinking we’d go to the bus station and someone would hook me up. Nope! He showed me how to edit, print, cut and laminate this document. It was literally just a white piece of paper with some printing in a font similar to Courier New. Ceschi cut it on a paper cutter in my house. It wasn’t even a perfect rectangle more like an unexaggerated rhombus. He laminated it on one of those small travel laminators. There was nothing on the back of the paper. Needless to say I was very leery…thinking to myself “there is NO WAY this is gonna work.” He told me to put it in a check book holder and put my license in the other side and kinda just flip it open like a police badge.

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I was in the dentist chair last week and there was this poster on the wall with all these quotes and the one that caught my eye was “Don’t wait for leaders, do it yourself person to person.” I smiled to myself because it’s exactly what I personify, it’s exactly what the Third Renaissance is about, and it’s exactly what separates people like me from people sit around and complain and….wait…for leaders.

Today is a new day. If it’s up to me it’s an improvement over yesterday and preparation for tomorrow. And guess what, it’s up to me. Since January 1st I’ve recorded around thirty songs. I can’t tell you exactly because I was too busy writing to sit back and count exactly what I’ve done. I won’t be surprised when I wrap up both the record I’m doing with Blastah (the Season of our Discontent) and the new record with Chum (Cool Aide) at the end of the month.

But right now I’m here to talk about the Reintroduction online mixtape….

The Reintroduction is just that. A reintroduction to the emcee that is iCON the Mic King.

Many people found out about me over the years for the wrong reasons. For so long I’d been caught up in proving I’m the best emcee with the illest lyrics. I still am that but after being that for eight years I’m not all that concerned with it anymore. You either know or you don’t. What I am concerned with now is making good music.

The Reintroduction is a showcase of a lot of the good music I’ve made over the last few years and a couple sneak peeks at things to come. It’s something to give the people that listened to the 19 year old iCON the Mic King (with the extra high voice and off-kilter flow) another chance to not get left behind as me progress into the Third Renaissance. The mixtape is also a good starting point for those of you who have never heard me at all before.

Chum the Skrilla Guerilla handles the mixing job here and does a damn good job. We braved a snow storm to get this one in in the clutch. Good lookin out for the carrots fam. hahhaa! Shouts to Fishr Pryce as well who put in an effort that just didn’t end up working out.

The Reintroduction is available in a multitude of ways for FREE. My main goal is that as many people hear it as possible.

iCON the Mic King podcast – http://iconthemicking.mypodcast.com

AMALGAMDIGITAL.COM – http://www.amalgamdigital.com/artist-details.aspx?id=261
Individual tracks are also available via Amalgam Digital.

215HIPHOP.COM – http://215hiphop.com/jukebox/iCON the Mic King – Reintroduction.mp3
MEGAUPLOAD – http://www.megaupload.com/?d=H9OEF2FO
SENDSPACE – http://www.sendspace.com/file/10qukd
ZSHARE – http://www.zshare.net/download/75764325063ce5

(I will update these links as they become no longer valid)

Reintroduction Podcast Mixtape
Mixed by Chum the Skrilla Guerilla

Chum Intro
Mic Check freeverse
Law and Order ft. Killah Priest (prod. Styalz Fuego!!!)
Scavengers of HipHop (prod. DJ Forge)
Dinosaur’s Anthem (prod. M-Phazes)
Marked by Melody (prod. Chum the Skrilla Guerilla)

I Can’t Wait (prod. Eyecue)
Sometimes (prod. T.E.c.K!)
Vice Grip (prod. Fifth Elephant)
Poverty ft. Blue Raspberry (prod. Styalz Fuego!!!)
My Best Move (prod. T.E.c.K!)
Card Puller (prod. T.E.c.K!)
Modern Day Slave (prod. Chum the Skrilla Guerilla)
Black Arts (prod. Tony Tank)
Master of the Universe (prod. Chum the Skrilla Guerilla)

Love is Love (prod. Styalz Fuego!!!)
Permanent (prod. Blastah Beatz)
Man of the Year (prod. Chum the Skrilla Guerilla)

However as Has-Lo remarked in my new bio, I am not a movement. No man is. I spent 5 hours sending out emails to any hiphop site that I thought would listen to me. Hit up every blog that ever mentioned my name, but if I’m going to build any steam it’s going to take your help. If you have a blog, write a review, post a link to download. Email the link to some friends, burn some copies and give them out. The most important part of the Reintroduction is that everyone hears it.

Have you guys heard about the Tonedeff-Gibson situation? If not here’s the Cliff Notes. Tone won a Lollapalooza contest in ’06. January ’08 he still hadn’t received his prize. After all that time of playing nicely, he posted a blog about the mishaps, it went viral. Two days later he received a big check from Gibson. That is the power of the internet, that is the power that you have as consumers to change the tides!!!

As hiphop fans it is up to us to make our voices heard. Right now I’m trying to make my voice heard. Holler back if you’re with me!

One more thing.

The mixtape is free but if you enjoy it and feel as though it is something you can get replay value from, Chum and I would appreciate a donation for our efforts so we can fund upcoming efforts. But wait! There are incentives to donations…

$1 – Eternal gratitude and good karma
$2 – Same as above + get added to the exclusive mailing list for free quaterly mixtape podcasts and leaks for the year of 2008
$5 – Same as above + free entry with a guest to any one iCON the Mic King show in 2008.

So If you feel compelled:

Click here to donate!

Obviously it’s entirely up to you if you put any money on the free music you just heard but if you don’t and you ejoy the music I would appreciate it if you would spread the word. Ultimately that is much more important to me than being paid.

peace

-iCON
I.B. I-FLY