After realizing that we had a lot of (free) music out there for ’09, we decided to group some of the tracks together for this ep – for those who might have missed them when they were originally released.
This EP features myself, K-Mynez & Lagbara and special guests Jonesy, Kahli Abdu, SoloCypher, X3m & LabMatik. We also through a couple bonus tracks as well.
DJ Trew of Groundlift Magazine took the time to check out the Andre Kostelanetz EP. Peep what he said:
“In the spirit of Ground Lift, we’re bringing to the surface an undiscovered talent worth checking for. MC/Producer Scholarman hails from my home state of Maryland, and seeing how I’m revisiting my roots with our upcoming Wale concert, I figured let’s take it one further… Scholarman recently dropped an EP. Big deal right? Who hasn’t. But what brought this EP to my attention how he used all Andre Kostelanetz samples in his production. If you’ve ever gone thrift store digging, you’re no doubt acquainted with Kostelanetz’ work. Typically this is something many people pass over but Scholarman took a chance and created a solid, thematically coherent EP. Makes me wonder how much heat I’ve missed out on over the years!”
Check out the quick one-one-one I had with the Washington City Paper in regards to my recent EP “A Meeting With Andre Kostelanetz.” The Washington City Paper is one of the best sources for whats good in the Washington DC area for music and more!
Standout Track: No. 4 “Not Give Up,” which layers ScholarMan’s dense grind-minded lyrics over a lush orchestral string sample. The track exemplifies the seamless marriage of classical music and classic hip-hop that takes place on ScholarMan’s tribute to the easy listening Russian conductor/arranger, who died in 1980.
Musical Motivation: Last year, an odd sleeveless record mysteriously appeared in one of the Bowie, Md.–based MC’s crates. “I put it on, put the needle down, and was cleaning, eating, doing other things, but I kept hearing good sample chops,” he says. Struck by the music, ScholarMan did some research and discovered the recording was of an orchestra performing Kostelanetz’s classical pop. He decided an all-Kostelanetz project was a good move from both an artistic and business standpoint. “A lot of my fanbase is in Russia,” he says. “When people show me love, I show them love back.”
Press Pause: When first mapping out “Not Give Up,” ScholarMan thought the track needed something more than just his lyrics and Kostelanetz’s music. He eventually decided to layer in a sample and started hunting for hip-hop snippets in keeping with the track’s theme of perseverance. He ended up choosing a Ghostface Killah line (“I will not give up!”)from the “Run” remix, but it wasn’t the first thing that popped into his head. “My initial thought was of Puffy, of him saying ‘Can’t stop, won’t stop,’ or ‘take that,’ but I was definitely not using that,” he says.
Look for my new EP coming the end of February called “A Meeting With Andre Kostelanetz.” I took a record by the late-great Russian composer and created several beats that me and my talented affiliates did our thing on.
Guest appearances by K-Mynez, Kats, Domer and Random.
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