Vocab Slick
Santa Rosa, California, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2002 | SELF
Music
Press
Bay Area, California rapper and Distant Relatives member Vocab Slick presents the music video for “Somethin’ Slick”, the Brycon-produced new single from his Somethin’ Slick EP. The “Somethin’ Slick” single features a guest appearance from fellow Bay Area artist Kye The Guy. The music video – created to appear to be an 8-bit video game – was put together by Unjust of Hiero Imperium from scratch using a combination of Photoshop and after-effects. Besides Brycon, the EP features production from Hg Beats, Yoyo Ox and Bobby Ozuna as well as guest appearances from Joe Mousepad and Slick’s partner in Distant Relatives, the late Maynee, who passed away during the making ofSomethin’ Slick, as did Slick’s mother and uncle. “The project came about after a conversation I had with Maynee,” says Slick. “We were talking about how we have been really humble with our approach to music thus far, and we came to the conclusion that it’s okay to be cocky, without being an a**hole. So I began making these songs with a real braggadocious and confident approach and it felt good.” Explaining his creative process for this video, Unjust says “I would downsize the imagery, then change the color mode to indexed color, then re-enlarge it. Once in after effects, I would apply a combination of filters including mosaic and contrast as well as others to give the footage a pixelated grainy look. I also overlayed a blended layer of digital noise i created just to further the effect of being glitchy and arcadey. But the most time consuming was re-creating the actual gameplay of a few of my favorite games – T&C surf, Zaxxon, and Ninja Gaiden. I made high resolution screenshots of the gameplay, recording me actually playing these games. Then I masked the main character of the games out frame by frame using the cloning tool, and tweening. After the main character was masked out, I overlayed Vocab’s character over, again frame by frame.” Regarding the loss of Maynee, Slick says “I feel it’s my duty and privilege to continue the work we both started. I’ve turned the pain inwards and focused that on working harder then ever before.” Somethin’ Slick is out now on iTunes.
Read more at http://pittsburghmusicmagazine.com/2014/05/27/vocab-slick-somethin-slick-f-kye-the-guy-bay-area-ca-8-bit-video-recreated-from-scratch-by-unjust-of-hiero-imperium/#LfzIEKhsh56ePBKX.99 - Pittsburgh Music Magazine
Bay Area, California rapper and Distant Relatives member Vocab Slick presents the music video for “Colorful Vocab”, the Hg-produced single from his Somethin’ Slick EP. This clip comes on the heels of Vocab’s video for the EP’s title track (watch) featuring a guest appearance from fellow Bay Area artist Kye The Guy. The EP features production from Brycon, Yoyo Ox and Bobby Ozuna as well as guest appearances from Joe Mousepad and Slick’s partner in Distant Relatives, the late Maynee, who passed away during the making of Somethin’ Slick, as did Slick’s mother and uncle. Vocab describes “Colorful Vocab” as “a raw, back-to-basics-style song. I didn’t even really want to do a chorus for the song – just wanted the raw beat and lyrics and that’s it, but I sent it to DJ Tony Tone anyways to see what he would do with the joint, and I’m glad I did.” Somethin’ Slick is out now on iTunes. - Sacramento Hip Hop
Bay Area, California rapper and Distant Relatives member Vocab Slick presents the music video for “Love And The Breaks”, the new J. Ibarra-produced single from Issues & Episodes, his new album featuring Opio of Souls Of Mischief, Kye The Guy, Martin Luther and Starski. Directed by Casual of Hieroglyphics, this clip comes on the heels of visuals for “Colorful Vocab” (watch), and “Somethin’ Slick” (watch), both from his previous EP Somethin’ Slick. Issues & Episodes is out now on iTunes. “When I sat down to write, the first thing I thought of was writing some type of love song about a girl or whatever,” Vocab says of the new single. “As I started writing I decided to abandoned that, and talk about how I embrace both the love and the hate I receive as an artist, and how using that can strengthen my progression to continue to move forward.” Vocab describes Issues & Episodes as “something that I needed to make for myself. I’ve had a rough couple years and the album is really just me working through my own Issues and flexing a little at the same time.”
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www.DistantRelatives.net
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www.TheJuxtones.com - Amalgam Digital
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
Vocab Slick started rhyming as a teenager in the North Bay area in the late 90s, but like many young Americans, he fell into a life of hustling and drugs, invetiabely leading to some jail stints for the young emcee.
Facing serious consequences, Vocab—then known as Vocabulary Slick—pulled it together, cleaned himself up and began putting that energy into his music, releasing the Lyrically Conscious LP in 2003.
In 2003, Vocab and childhood friend Emotionall formed the group Distant Relatives. Later joined by emcee Maynee, the group went on to release For The Passion in 2006. Not long after their inaugural release, Emotionall was detained and surprisingly deported to Mexico. Finding themselves at a crossroad, V.S. and Maynee decided to press forward with their vision for Distant Relatives, continuing on their path to create “truth music.” The two emcees teamed with the talented DJ Ricky Switch—an Irishman freshly calling SF home—and in 2007 released the LP The Ethx of Distant Relatives, produced entirely by Fremont-based producer Ethx.
In 2010, Vocab Slick released Dark Day, showcasing his ability to make powerful solo music.
In 2011, Distant Relatives returned with This Changes Everything, earning underground praise and coverage on blogs and college radio around the country and overseas. The LP—produced entirely by Rick Vargas—featured The Grouch & Eligh and Zumbi of Zion I.
After taking some personal time following both the death of his mother and the birth of his daughter in the Summer of 2013, the sudden passing of his best friend and rap partner Maynee in January of 2014 galvanized Vocab to get back in the studio to create and record more and more music.
“I took that pain and poured it into my music.”
Vocab released the Somethin’ Slick EP on April 2nd, and his Issues And Episodes LP drops in June with a third project already in the works.
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