Original Completion Date: 23 September 2020

I told myself when I returned from deployment that I'd buy myself a MacBook and music equipment (mic, speakers, MIDI keyboard) for a makeshift studio in my small, Bristol apartment. An old friend gave me an iPad and I had been making music on GarageBand for the past year. But I decided to buy Logic Pro X when I got my laptop. My first beat on it had to be . I'd been itching to get back to Jazzmine (saxophone) and Sinclaire (clarinet). Both of them had to make the beat somehow. When I finished the beat, I told Jazzy we bout to go crazy. And we did. 
So, with this new equipment being a gift to myself, I decided to give the instrumental my initials. Duval, Charlotte, & Raleigh are places I hold near and dear to my heart (aside from Georgia). And with my birthday a couple days away, fitting that the first instrumental I share with the world is a title with my initials. No samples, just vibes.

Duval, Charlotte, & Raleigh

229 Forever
Completion Date: 6 July 2021
📷 : Anita Guevara

I'm furniture shopping when I stumble across this grand piano. I found some chords I liked, and the melody reminded me of "Ego" by Beyonce. The organ reminded me of "Rubber Band Man" by Clifford Harris. The whistle, cymbal crash, and brass section reminded me of marching band. The solo section reminded me of being in jazz band. The Glockenspiel playing the doorbell sound was the bell at Sallas-Mahone, my first elementary school. And I would occasionally stick that melody into any solo I had in jazz band (if the key signature allowed it), both high school and college.

I say this to say: all of my musical influences are because I'm from the 229. Whether my song sounds orchestral, jazzy, brassy, or melodic with a nice percussion section, it's because of where I'm from. I may not be a trap producer, but I'll give you some melody, harmony, and a nasty solo section if there's space. So, "229 Forever" was an appropriate title for a song that made me feel nostalgic.

Also, I rave about Trey Tuck any time I talk about music because he made me fall in love with music again when I was so close to giving it all up until we met. That's his voice at the end. We were listening to a beat we made and I'm playing the sax for like 4 minutes straight, all improv. That was his genuine reaction: "I would buy the album. If it was jazz (and saxophone) all over the beat like that, I'd buy that shit. What the fuck?! That shit is crazy!" It immediately made me think of when Dr. Dre yelled "Damn that shit was dope!" at the end of Straight Outta Compton. And I laughed because I knew he wasn't just gassing me up.

So always love with Trey and the rest of the Werkoholics/Truss Productions plus the 229 Forever.

229 Forever

Disclaimer: No souls were lost in the making of this remix.

Rain - Sunday Service Choir x Make It Rain - Travis Porter 

Using Serato Stems

229 Forever

Damian Reynolds

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Anita Guevara

Trey Tuck

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