A wise man once told me that, “Whatever you focus on will become stronger in your life.” I heard that as a youth, but it’s concise wisdom has stuck with me through my evolution into a man. It is a simple axiom, yet carries profound truth and insight. In this day and age, it is necessary to be aware of such an idea.
What does focus mean to you? It is probably different for everyone that is asked such a question. For me, focus is simply where my attention lies. If I happen to be on twitter all day, I’m pretty much focused on interacting and sharing in the thoughts of a varied population of people. If I am spending my time at the yoga studio, then my focus is on the development of a mind-body connection. You see, where we place the gaze of our mind’s eye will inevitably lead us in that direction.
This understanding is the pillar upon which marketing and advertising are built. These disciplines have realized that by shifting the focus of viewers, that they are able to captivate the imagination. Take a moment and think about how you are focusing your attention.
Are you being mindful of where your third eye resides? Is your reality a conscious selection, or are you passively focused on the whirlwinds of the world around you? These are questions that only you can answer. But, bear in mind, whatever you are focused on will grow stronger in your life. Choose well my friends…
1. 24-7-365- Gang Starr
2. Peace- the Burnerz
3. So Fresh, So Clean- Outkast
4. Victory ft. Nas & John Legend-DJ Khaled
5. Feel Like Making Love-Roy Ayers
6. Knowledge God-Raekwon
7. I’m a Leader-Zion I & the Grouch
8. Come Fly- the Burnerz
9. Afro Connections at Hi 5- De La Soul
10. Jus Sayin-the Burnerz
11. Nautilus-Bob James
12. Golden-Jill Scott
13. Coffy is the Color- Roy Ayers
August 31, 2010–Oakland, CA–The Burnerz are a new duo consisting of Zumbi of the hip-hop group Zion I and the Houston-based Trackmasters producer,The Are. Now, after a year of scratching out rhymes, making beats, mixing, and mastering, The Burnerz—who met on tour in Europe in 2003—just completed one of the most energizing independent hip-hop albums of the year.
The Burnerz recruited The Grouch, OneBeLo, Martin Luther, and C-Holiday for the album. “Instead of going through layers of editing (like we do for Zion I),” explains Zumbi of his approach, “We tried to capture the raw emotion of both lyrics and beats for this album.”
Zumbi has always set a new standard for socially conscious hip-hop and this album is no exception. The track “The Edge” where The Grouch and Zumbi spit rhymes about snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. “It’s about feeling hopeless and fearful, but having just enough strength to turn around and confront one’s demons,” explains Zumbi.
As the charismatic emcee of Bay Area group Zion I, Zumbi has released six critically acclaimed albums along with numerous EPs and mixtapes. Zumbi contributed to the Grammy-Award winning group Linkin Park’s album Reanimation as well as the BassNectar album, and mixtapes for the Roots, K’naan and Q-Tip. Currently, Zion I are touring with reggae sensations Rebelution. Their seventh album Atomic Clock drops Nov 9.
Veteran producer, The Are, hails from Houston, TX but his production style is more drum-heavy east coast in sound than southern. He began his career with the trio K-Otix in the early mid 90s, touring Europe and releasing the 2001 LP, Universal, and contributing two tracks for EMC (Punchline, Masta Ace, Wordsworth, and Stricklin). But, it’s been within the last couple years, that The Are has flourished: After signing with the production team the Trackmasters, he produced singles for Keisha Cole (“Where this Love?”), Lil Kim and Lords of the Underground, as well as many others. His Michael Jackson instrumental remix CD, Dem Damb Jacksons, became an online collectors item in 2007. Finally, he produced the first single off the forthcoming Keisha Cole album.
Fans will have to wait until October 12 to hear The Burnerz, but they promise to leak new singles (not on the record) every week until then.
Real hip hop was definitely in the building when we hit the Wild Buffalo in Bellingham, Washington. The crowd was hype and the energy was tight. One Love Bellingham!
Learn to play “Coastin” on the piano from our last album The Take Over. Try it out and make sure you SUBSCRIBE and shoot us your videos on our Youtube channel.
This is the first single out from the Oakland hip-hop duo Dj Twelvz( dj,Producer) and Nahhdahh(Emcee) from their up coming Lp “Culture Keeperz” featuring Zumbi of Zion I. 100% pure hip-hop!
ZION I kicks off the fall tour in New Mexico for another hype all ages event. Check out the rest of the TOUR DATES to see when we’ll be in your city. It goes down!
If you weren’t there to see Zion I rip the freestyles at Red Rocks in Colorado this summer, don’t trip. We might be hitting up your city real soon on our upcoming fall tour. Check out the TOUR DATESto see when we’ll be in your town. Can’t wait to see you out there family!
Shout out to DJ Winterman for putting together a Baltimore club mix of “Doin My Thang” from our True & Livin album. Good look on the old school soul train clips!
Check out the Official Facebook Events page for the “Give Thanks Tour” featuring Rebelution, ZION I, & Tribal Seeds.
Help Zion IPROMOTE our upcoming shows, so we can get it crackin!
Zion I is touring with Rebelution this Fall 2010! Mark your calendars and join Rebelution, Zion I Crew and Tribal Seeds This Fall for the “Give Thanks Tour”: AZ, TX, FL, MS, GA, MO, IL, MI, PA, NY, VA, MD, CO, MN, NE. For detailed tour dates and pre-sale tickets click here: http://www.zionicrew.com/events
We had a great show in Bellingham, WA last night. It’s always a pleasure when the audience is enthusiastic, it creates a dynamic synergy between performer and observer. It’s like hitting a switch and flipping into high gear, where all involved are elevated by the energy. Shout out to Snax who flipped a piece for the backdrop of the stage. One love family..enjoy.
America, the beautiful, was born out of necessity. In many ways, our country represents a new age experiment in diversity. As exemplified in the old School House Rock skit, we are born out of a melting pot of cultures. The natives of America still live and breath throughout our culture, though we struggle to recognize their influence. The old country is represented through the vast array of Europeans here: Italians, Germans, Dutch, Spanish, Greek, etc. Africa is alive and well in it’s ancestors who were brought to these shores by force, and in turn have shaped culture by our very essence and being. Both Asia and Latin America course through the veins of the US, having been present since our inception. We are all apart of the story of America. Thus, the 14th amendment seeks to recognize that anyone born in this country has a right to contribute a chapter in it’s history.
Yet, today we see that there is a growing backlash against the very tenants that we are based upon. It seems that smalls minds from coast to coast are mounting on attack on liberty. The “birther” movement seeks to oust the President from his seat, because they claim that he was not “born” on American soil. The battle around immigration has also been a hotbed for protest against what the 14th amendment calls for as equity. These people have obviously forgotten what America was, and is built upon. Without all of the diverse gifts from around the world, we could not have come this far. Quite possibly, we would not even exists without the blood, sweat, and tears of the global community living within our borders. To push back against the 14th Amendment, is to denounce the essence of what America is. Out of ignorance and fear, some seek to wipe away our history and create a new monoculture. I am sorry people. It won’t work. That just isn’t the American way.
1. Party Mix-Vinroc
2. One Thing-Amerie
3. Beautiful-Snoop Dogg
4. Juicy-Biggie
5. Party Mix 2-Vinroc
6. Drop it Like Its Hot-Snoop Dogg
7. Southern Hospitality-Ludachris
8. Lean Back-Fat Joe
9. Party Mix 3-Vinroc
10. Like Glue-Sean Paul
11. Shake-50 Cent
12. Love Like-Busta Rhymes
13. Brand New-Beenie Man
14. Got It Twisted-Mobb Deep
15. King of the Dancehall-Beenie Man
16. Ohh-Ciara ft. Ludachris
17. Move Ya Body-Nina Sky
This was a good night! It’s always a blessing seeing good folks, shooting the breeze, and enjoying some dope dancing. I had the privilege of being one of the judges for the dance battle you get to see bits and pieces of. Shouts out to all the artists who came out and got down. Respect!
Come vibe with us backstage as we bring our live hip hop show back home to they Bay at the Fox Theater in Oakland. Check us out opening for Black Star: Mos Def & Talib Kweli and see how it all went down…
Filming / Editing Credits: Spencer Fortin
Assistant Editor: Alex Mallonee
The collaboration is a unique aspect of hip hop. This tradition is directly descended from the jazz roots that are a part of the gumbo that came together to form our culture. The technique of joining different groupings of musicians to expand into new directions is necessary to the evolution of the music. These pairings have been used to mentor musicians, as well as create new styles, and genres. It is thus, an essential aspect of the perpetuation of music which represents the feelings of the people.
Thus, Zion I & the Grouch decided to link up for our first album in 2006, entitled Heroes in the City of Dope. I learned a lot in the process, as I am used to writing albums by myself for the most part, outside of editing ideas. Yet, working with the Grouch is much more of a collective effort in terms of forming concepts around songs. It is always inspiring to get a fresh perspective or idea that I would not normally think of on my own. The collaboration is a creative push, a challenge to go further and see what level of beauty can be achieved.
On today’s show, we get to chop it up with all the homeys on a more intimate note about technology, the future of music, and staying centered in a world gone wild. AmpLive holds down the tables, blessing up with choice selections, and the Grouch and I chop up game about life. Tune in..tune up..and evolve.
1. Silly Puddy Remix ft Coldplay-Zion I ft the Grouch
2. 1940- Submarines (Amplive Remix)
3. Better Man- Chali2na
4. Hot Right Now- AmpLive ft. Zumbi, Grouch, Fashawn, Eligh
5. Get Up-Dilla ft. Common
6. U Neva Knew- Heiroglyphics
7. Passin By Me- Pharcyde Remix
8. Last of a Dying Breed- Aesop Rock
9. One Love (Remix)-Nas
10. Childhood Drama-Goapele
What up family…We’ve been incredibly busy over the last couple of weeks and are excited to announce that we have some new music ready for you! In addition to the Zion I album which we’ve been meditating on, we’re also almost done with the new Zion I & the Grouch project. Thus, we would like to present to you the first single off the new album from Z&G entitled “Leader” and backed by “One” (which has landed in the new film Step Up 3D)! We are excited to be bringing you this new music. The studio is feeling like home these days, as we’ve been living there for the past couple months. Watch us talk about the singles in the video above and preview the tracks in the below widget. let us know how you’re feeling the new jams. Hit us up at facebook.com/zioniandthegrouch and leave a comment about the song, or if you’re on twitter hit us up at: twitter.com/zioni, twitter.com/zumbi808, twitter.com/amplive, or twitter.com/therealgrouch. Give thanks y’all, enjoy!
Zion I & The Grouch have a song entitled, “One” featured in the upcoming movie “Step Up 3D” which is in theaters now!
Official single available now on Topspin and on iTunes Tuesday, August 10 along with another brand new song. “Leaders”. Zion I & The Grouch are currently in the studio recording for their follow-up album to 2006′s successful “Heroes in the City of Dope”.
