Total Lack of Sanitation?

In context of the making of “Bodega Sunshine” much was attributed to the desire to record something meaningful and memorable. One’s focus as a recording artist in my view is to produce something meaningful and quite personally, I am a hip-hop artist rather fatigued of meaningless bars being expressed by other MCs.

Having said this, every hip-hop artist has his/her own mandate; each carries within them certain principles while others actually do not have any whatsoever. If one gives a beat to Common, the product would be drastically different from that of the very same beat being given to Rick Ross. Indeed, beauty is in diversity however, there is no beauty in a man flaunting his lower-self to the world when there are so many people in the world without basic necessities all the while child soldiers are murdering one another for the very bling he/she flosses around his/her neck.

Weyes and I have known eachother for a while and actually not just brothers in faith but also very close family friends. I feel that knowing the MC you collaborate with is quintessential. When you know that other artist you work with, the compatibility is there, the chemistry is there and seeing one another on the same page is likely to be present. “Bodega Sunshine” was produced by Weyes (aka John Wholetrain). He sent the beat my way and I expressed what I heard, I was not intent on writing cliche bars on a wu-tang note/tangeant. The result speaks for itself.

The recording was done at none other than DJ Conn-Shawnery’s studio, studio Conn-Soul, located in the heart of the Plateau Mont-Royal. Working with Conn has always been a pleasure and Weyes had actually met him for the very first time. The cover-art was done in conjunction with Weyes and is rather simplistic and not complicated…a simplistic rendition of a silhouetted bodega, nothing more. In essence, keeping things simple was the way to go, the complexity may be in the rhyme scheme of the lyrics as Weyes (aka John Wholetrain) and I naturally got witty on the bars, rendering the metre and pentametre quite creative, the narrative was a pleasure to follow even when we were recording the track in the studio.

bodega sunshine dont cost a dime
sesame snaps, peaches, mint, lime
lose yourself like you lose yourself in a rhyme

mopping floors, hard working families on their grind
sweeping grime
wages lower than thyme

14 hours at the store from cutting meat to stacking bins
store filled with kids
scrap metals and tins
big jeeps and rims

at the corner
exchange laundromat quarters
all races, no borders
delivery boy packing grocers
produce orders

desperate want to shoplift or rob the place
yo nevermind race we all make mistakes…

eggos, pop-tarts, corn flakes, good faith
is all it takes
slow down, slam the breaks

when life moves to fast
lack grocery cash and the
belly start to crash
so a brother slam on the mask
point the gat,
grab the cash
start to dash…

watch this wallet unload
eggplants at 5 bones
heavy interest on government loans
headphones
playing J Dilla’s “Love Jones”
Romance genetically modified fruit clones
my dome

weary of outcomes of the unknown,
awoke this morning with an urge
no poet can word
how absurd is this world
when you dont know the girl
and start to swirl at 33 and a third

when will we ever learn to earn
money ain’t to burn
like calories?

low-income salary,
sold a canvas at the gallery
want to rob like Mallory
inflict some assault and battery
Hungry…

stepped out the condo with a punch bottle
too broke for lotto
walked in the bodega for an avocado
maybe 2 tomatoes
healthy bravado,
that be the model

(Hook)