ESSENCE (BOLD & BEAUTIFUL)
By the late 90’s I had got my weight up considerably as a producer and was working with a lot of up and coming artists. I was still doing some parties and mixtapes here and there but my main goal was to make it as a producer. My MPC 2000 would stay turned on for months. My partner in crime on the beats Kev a.k.a. Bugged Out would spend days at my crib locked in on tracks.
After a while I had compiled a good amount of songs I did with numerous groups/artists. It was time for people to start hearing the music we were making. Kev came up with the idea to put out a project with some of the people we were working with and call it “The Dangerous Minded Clik”. It would not necessarily be a group but a collective of people we were building with. I liked the idea and decided to put out a maxi-single with 3 songs.
I picked 3 of the better songs in the stash. They were “For My Niggaz” by Mr. Phace , “Shorty How U Like That?” by Lod Boy and “Essence (Bold & Beautiful) by N.S.E.C. With these 3 songs I tried to cover all bases. “For My Niggaz” was the street song, “Shorty How U Like That” was the “jiggy” club joint and “Essence” was something smooth for the ladies but the fellas could get with it too. I went to VP records in Queens to get the lacquer master made by Paul Shields to try to get the biggest and best sound I could for my budget. I got my man Pito aka Drew to draw the eye catching label art. I found a record pressing plant in Brooklyn and everyone made contributions to the cause and we did our first pressing.
I hit the streets and put them in as many record stores as I could including the legendary Beat Street in downtown Brooklyn, Upstairs Records and Rock & Soul Records in Manhattan. I hit off as many magazines and DJs with promo copies as I could. I even took out some ads in some small magazines. As time would go on the project proved to be a success and helped pave the way for things to come in the future.
The record received favorable reviews in many publications including RER magazine in France that even included “Essence (Bold & Beautiful)” on a promo cd that came with every copy of that month’s issue and it was mentioned by DJ Rhude of XXL magazine in his column in the well known “Murder Inc” issue with Jay-Z, Ja-Rule and DMX on the cover. 2 songs from the single were also selected to be included on “D-Originators”, a compilation album in France that also included Pete Rock, Pharoahe Monch, Group Home and others.
It did good sales in most places, especially Rock & Soul Records, and has gone on to become somewhat of a collectors item. One day I googled the record out of the blue only to find copies selling for up to $100 from collectors all over the world on E Bay and Discogs. It’s been posted by several YouTube channels with rather high view counts and comments of many who purchased the actual vinyl record when it dropped. Although vinyl would be pretty much phased out in the years to come this experience as an independent record label helped when it came time to work my other projects from the perspective of an actual label doing business and the things that come with it. Look out for the other songs from this single and the full album that followed in the future.
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In a hood near you…