Awesome must listen to even if you don’t like rap

I’ve had Firefly

on my Netflix Instant Queue for a while now, but hadn’t gotten around to watching it. Then my good friend over at Kawaiian Punch blogged about it and it was free so why not? OMG, LOVE IT! I’ve listened to album all the way through and if this is rap then I’m all in. Also watched a couple of episodes of the show last night and enjoyed those as well.

I was impressed with the cover letter cuz it’s all about Indie. :-)

ADAM WAROCK & MIKAL KHILL PRESENT...
THE BROWNCOATS MIXTAPE

Some Backstory...
First I made a mixtape about The West Coast Avengers, then I made one about a bunch of comic titles in conjunction with
Oni Press Books. It was time to move past comics. It was time for a bigger target. It was time to fguratively shoot for the
moon.

When I tossed some ideas out for the next mixtape, the idea for doing a mixtape based on Firefy originally came from a
loose idea to do a “Joss Whedon” mixtape. I just liked the way it sounded, the way the text looked in my head. The only
problem is...I’ve never seen all of Buffy, I haven’t watched Dollhouse. The only thing I’ve ever really watched, and loved
dearly by Mr. Whedon, was Firefy. It took a few seconds for me to just realize, “Oh, hey, duh. A browncoats mixtape.”
Originally, it was going to be a bunch of songs about Firefy and Serenity, made to old Spaghetti Western scores, Ennio
Morricone-type strings and arrangements. It would be a western/hip-hop mash-up. It wasn’t until I hooked up with Mikal
kHill of The ThoughtCriminals, that the obvious answer was in front of us. kHill simply told me, “There’s scores of Firefy
and Serenity, you know. I could just...make beats out of those.” Done.

Here’s what I’ve always loved so much about Firefy. It’s a show that’s ostensibly about outsiders, about people who can’t
accept the world and circumstances the way they are, and do their best to simply survive, rather than try to change
anything. The war was lost, the Alliance exists, and that’s the way it is. Their heroism and character come from small acts.
I know some people may think that’s a pessimistic view, but I think it’s a reachable, and comforting perspective: to think
that amidst the insane challenges that we’re faced with on a day to day basis, we can still do good, we can still be good,
that we can survive with our heads held high. Ironically, as struggling musicians, when you start writing lyrics about “The
Independents” and surviving, hustling, the whole ethos of Firefy became intensely personal to the struggles that we go
through, to make art, to hustle, to survive. This mixtape became a weirdly synergistic and re-energizing experience. It
became way more personal than we ever could’ve thought.

So we hope you enjoy it. We hope you keep shooting for the moon.

They can’t take the sky from us...

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Awesome must listen to even if you don’t like rap — 1 Comment