My song "Hero" now available on Itunes!

My first single off my upcoming Album "Hero" Produced by Sinima beats is now available on Itunes, check it out through this link here:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/hero-feat.-mun-single/id484213631

Released: Nov 25, 2011

℗ 2011 Island Def Jam Digital Distribution

Joey Gunz Interview

I took some time out to do a little interview of a rapper named Joy Gunz, a really great up and coming rapper from PA, check out the interview below:

Rahat: Alright bro why don't you give yourself just a little bit of an intro.

Joey Gunz: Aiight well My name is Joey Gunz, I'm 22. Born in the Bronx, but I'm currently a Lancaster, PA resident. I've been dabbling with music almost my whole life, and I feel as though I have the skill set to take it to the next level, so it's time to go hard.

Rahat: Good shit I'm from the Bronx myself, so how'd you get the name Joey gunz?

Joey Gunz: Well my name is Joey Gonzalez, but when I was younger I had a fascination with G.I. Joe's and guns lol. My uncle Dave used to call me Joe Cool, then it went from that to Joey Gunz.

Rahat: Interesting, how did you get into rap?

Joey Gunz: Growing up, I was raised in a very musical household. From salsa to meringue to reggae. My uncles actually got me into rap by playing me a bunch of records and showing me some old VHS' of DJ battles. I used to love listening to the music, but at first I wanted to be a DJ. From there around maybe at age 7-8 I wanted to start making the beats, but being that the equipment was so expensive and out of my reach I started writing my own little bullshit raps lol.

Rahat: lol So when did your "bullshit raps" make you start thinking you could start making your own songs and record them?

Joey Gunz: It took years from that point honestly. I got older and I used to be really into comic books and writing my own stories. The better my writing skills got, the more confident I got in using it in other aspects. I remember my cousin used to rap and she would give me beat tapes, like OG beat tapes on casettes lol...she encouraged me to write rhymes just because I was that good of a story teller out of all of us.

Rahat: Interesting you bring the story teller part up, would you consider yourself to be more of a rapper or a story teller?

Joey Gunz: I'd say at this point I've sharpened both skills. I used to be more of a story telling kind of guy that was heavy into concepts, but the more I would rap the more I wanted to explore for lack of a better phrase. I had something to prove so I kind of shied away from the story telling aspect and around 8th grade and well into my 11th grade year I was going hard with strictly bars and trying to deliver bangers. It took a while to realize that that kind of music wasn't really for anyone and in an attempt to try and make music for everyone, I started getting back into my stories and trying to bring my imagination back into the mix.

Rahat: Sounds good what kind of concepts do you like writing about the most?

Joey Gunz: I like flipping aspects of my past and trying to expand on them. I come from a broken home, my father was a pretty big drug kingpin, and my mother worked 2 sometimes 3 jobs to make sure we didn't go without. There have been times were there were certain things I wanted to rap about, but couldn't directly do it due to pending legal issues...so it turned into me writing stories using pieces of my life and weaving them together. A lot of the time it just depends on what the beat says to me. I have to have a deeper connection than "oh that beat goes hard," to spark that story telling mode in me.

Rahat: Cool, so as far as your beats go you mentioned earlier you wanted to make beats on your own when you were younger, what about now? Do you make your own beats or do you have producers who you get beats from?

Joey Gunz: I dabble in beat making, but for right now, I use a lot of beats from producers who I've connected with through various forms of social networking as well as forums. I have the skills to put beats together, but being that I'm so critical of my work, I want to sharpen them before I start putting stuff out and using them. I've showed some friends some of my work and they all enjoy it, but then again being that their friends, I'm not sure if it's being straight up, or if it’s just because we're that close. Then again I could be over thinking it. Nevertheless, I would like to learn how to play piano and step up my musical knowledge so I don't have to rely so heavily on sampling, especially since that’s a hindrance business wise. Don't get me wrong, I love samples and they're incredible when done right, but I don't like the idea of someone else knocking on my door and taking that huge of a percentage off top.

Rahat: Lol I know what you mean I don't like having samples in my own music either, do you feel it's easier now to make beats then it was when you first got into music?

Joey Gunz: From the technical aspect, hell yeah. I can slap together a beat pretty quickly. It's just the quality I'm more concerned with. Being that technology is so crazy nowadays that you can do damn near anything, you're faced with more choices. With all those choices come the 'work-flow killers'. I tend to get stuck on sound patches and drums and stuff whenever I sit down to make beats. I have a bunch of rough ideas, but they never sound as hot as they do in my head. I gotta work on that a bit more

Rahat: Gotcha, so what's your process when making a song, I like just listening to a beat over and over before I really start writing but what does your process go when you begin writing?

Joey Gunz: Pretty much the same honestly. I'll play a beat for about an hour or more. Sometimes I like to sit in the dark with my headphones on and just vibe. Other times I'll listen to beats on the way to and from work and freestyle in the car and try to use lines that I remember and build off them. It all depends on how I'm feeling that day. I used to just force myself to write daily when I was younger, but now certain moods dictate how and when I'll write.

Rahat: How much of what you write goes into the final song?

Joey Gunz: Sometimes all of it, sometimes I end up trashing a good amount of bars before I get the finished product. I tend to write line by line though. If I'm not feeling the bar I'm on, I'll delete and start over...If I like it, I'll keep it and just build. I try not to use filler lines

Rahat: Have you ever read back on something you wrote earlier and went "what the fuck was I thinking?"

Joey Gunz: LMAO all the time bro. I still have random really old songs from when I was like 15 and I must've been smoking some good, cuz I was really really delusional. Not really bar wise, but mainly content wise, like wtf.

Rahat: lol Good shit I'm actually listening to your SoundCloud right now any songs on there that you feel really proud of lyric-wise?

Joey Gunz: I would have to say Practice one, simply because that was a push style wise as well as lyrically. I got kind of comfortable in the past about how I wrote things, and that kind of broke the mold as far as how I would write.

Rahat: Yea I noticed that song seemed to be a little different from the others. I'm actually really liking that Lil Wayne impression you did

Joey Gunz: Hahah aw man thanks lol. I was sick and playing around with that auto-tune VST and that’s what came out of it haha.

Rahat: lol So are you working on any big projects, album/mixtape anything like that

Joey Gunz: Yeah actually I have a few on my plate at the moment. OBM Vol. 1 will be the Mixtape that’s closest to being done. I'm trying to follow that with a concept tape from the point of view of my father from rise to fall. Then I have an ongoing beat tape I'm working on that's just a side project right now until I can get to where I wanna be musically. Hope to sell some of those and probably keep some for myself.

Rahat: Good stuff how do you think you'll be distributing them? or too early to tell right now?

Joey Gunz: Yeah still kind of early...I had plans of pressing up a bunch and putting them on bandcamp as more of a "pay what you want" type of thing as well as hitting the streets out here and handing them off...I gotta see where I'm at financially though when I get to that point

 Rahat: Sounds good bro looking forward to hearing it. Anything else you want to let everyone know?

Joey Gunz: Just to keep an eye out
 www.soundcloud.com/joey-gunz-obm
 www.twiiter.com/joeygunzobm
 joeygunzobm.bandcamp.com

 I'm going extra hard with every song and if people are tired of the manufactured cookie cutter crap that’s being force fed to them, keep a close eye on me because I promise to keep it as real as possible.

Rahat: Alright bro thanks alot!

For those of you who want to check out Joey Gunz you can do so on the links mentioned above, also tune into the Underground Online Music player at the top of this page, we got Joey Gunz “Practice Freestyle” on rotation. Hope you enjoyed and check back for future interviews with more underground artists!

Artists Submit your songs!

Just updated the blog with my online Radio Station. It isn't much now but with your help it can grow into something huge! I'm looking for artists to submit their single for rotation on here, if you would like to do that then send me an mp3 of your song to rahat.music@gmail.com

I ask if you do send me an mp3 if you can also send me an mp3 of you introducing yourself and the station and just giving a shout out I would truly appreciate it. Something along the lines of:

"What up this is (your name) and your tuned into Rahat's (pronounced Ra-hot) Underground Online Radio Station. You can check out my music at (insert your website name here)."

Be creative you don't need to use that as a script.

Pics from the Studio

A few pictures from the session taken by my fiance. Check em out and hit up Ebony Lounge for all your recording needs!

New Lupe Fiasco Mixtape

Happy thanksgiving guys I'll give you an update on the parade a little later. For now you guys should all check out a new mixtape just released by Lupe Fiasco. I'm in the process of listening to it myself and while I'm not too fond of the production Lupe does do his thing on them. Check it out here:

http://www.datpiff.com/Lupe-Fiasco-Friend-Of-The-People-I-Fight-Evil-mixtape.287406.html

Let me know what you guys think of it too.

Making of Hero

Whats up guys, just put  a new video up on youtube. It's basically me doing one of my vocal takes for my single "Hero" produced by Sinima Beats. Its not the one that made it to the final cut of the song but I hope you guys enjoy it. Going to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade tomorrow, I'll let you guys know how it was if you miss it.

Vote for me!

Just submitted two of my songs "Hero" ft Mun produced by Sinima beats as well as "War" produced by EmotionL beats to Coast2Coast Magazine and mixtape. Hero is for a feature on the back cover of the magazine and War is for a feature on the new mixtape from Coast2Coast produced by N.O.R.E.

Vote for "Hero" here:

http://coast2coastmixtapes.com/audiodetail.aspx?audioid=93039

and Vote for "War" here:

http://coast2coastmixtapes.com/audiodetail.aspx?audioid=93038

Thanks guys in advanced for the support, hopefully you'll be seeing me getting some success on both of those!

New Stuff on the blog

Just letting you guys know if you haven't noticed already; I've put up a music player and a submission box for a mailing list here. As of now it's just got my music on it but I hope to also feature other artists music on it later on as well. Once I get the logistics of that set up I'm going to replace the current music player with a new one seeing as how this is coming directly from my Reverbnation account. Any suggestions on other types of music players I can use would be very helpful!

Right now the songs on the player are "War" produced by EmotionL Productions, "Hero" ft. Mun produced by Sinima beats, and "Forgotten" produced by DJ SOS. Hope you enjoy them!

If you guys like you can join the mailing list as well, and I'd like it very much if you did as well! I'm going to be sending updates through my mailing list from time to time and those on it will get to hear new music before anyone else and get some free downloads and possibly other goodies as well! So sign up to be kept in the loop!

"A Seraph's Gift" First Single

Finished up the the first single off of "A Seraph's Gift"! You can check it out by clicking here. The song is called "Hero" and features my fiancée Mun on the chorus. Hope you guys enjoy it, we worked really hard on it. Will be working on a video for it real soon with A. Juli Productions, who also directed my first video "Here we Go." 

Besides this song there is also a new version of the song "Forgotten" which will also find a place one the new album. Currently have four out of the ten songs done for the album, will keep you posted as I progress and when it's finally finished. Stay tuned for a release date real soon!

Recording and Promoting

I mentioned in my first post that I'm working on a new album. I've got all the lyrics ready and I'm going in next Thursday, November 17th to start on the recording process. I've done a couple E.P.'s before but never really had much of a marketing plan to get them publicized beyond my friends and (at the time) my high school. This time I'm learning from my previous mistakes, I'm going to be submitting my music to several college radio stations. I'm mainly targeting CUNY stations but will also be going for NYU, Fordham, and Stony Brook Radio stations.
Besides the radio stations I'm going to be submitting and getting advertising in local papers hopefully. If you live near Riverdale, hopefully you'll be seeing me soon in the Riverdale Press, I plan on submitting my stuff over there. If anybody has suggestions on local papers that might consider reviewing local artist send me an email at:
rahat.music@gmail.com
If you specifically want to review my music for your own blog or online publication email me there as well, would appreciate any support you guys can give me. I'll be updating my status on the record along the way and will be posting some videos up on my Youtube page from the sessions. Got to give a shout out to my man Tronik Beats who's helped out a great deal on the album and has three tracks on there produced by him. He's the executive producer on the album and has been part of the project from the beginning. Check out a song I did with him on my previous release here:

Click here to check out his website for some quality beats.
Anyway, stay tuned for updates!

Immortal Technique The Martyr

Check out Immortal Technique's latest release: The Martyr

One of the best lyricists in the underground his new album does not dissapoint. My favorite tracks on this one would be "Goonies Never Die" and "Natural Beauty". Check it out I left a download link below this is a solid release, but what more can you expect from Tech?

Click Here to Download

First Blog Post Ever

Well, I just made a blog. Great introduction isn't it? For those of you wondering who I am well you probably don't really care either way but my names Rahat and this is my blog. (Chea!) I'm a rapper and I'll be putting some stuff about my music up here from time to time. As a matter of fact here's the video from the single on my last release The Ressurection EP:

Awesome isn't it? The song's called Here We Go Produced by Sinima Beats. It's available on Itunes as a single and the entire ep is also available at rahat.bandcamp.com

Check that out if you get a chance. I'm working on a new release right now which I have entitled

"A Seraph's Gift" 

More on that later!

Enjoy!