The Early Works (2002-2006)
Fluid Engineerz First Show @ The Pilot Light 2002?
For the most part, Fluid Engineerz was the example I personally experienced with ‘fate’. Each member of the group (science omega, myself, and dynamic) grew up just a few blocks away from each other, and had often crossed paths on our way through life, in general (schools, neighborhood events, etc), but had no idea we’d be in a group together, joined by a mutual love of music. Franke (dynamic) had just gotten back from a stint in California, and returned to knoxville with this ‘VISION’ (he was/is always very visionary), Omar was well on his way to buying his own equipment (o’s extremely self motivated) and I was just gettin’ to the point where I didn’t mind saying my rhymes OUTLOUD (i spent a HUGE ammount of time online, rhymin’ in text n’ audio competitions as RRxKILAKAZ –seems like a lifetime ago…). The experience was just as awesome as it was drag. We had an intelligent sound that just wasn’t popular at the time….which lead to a lot of impatients and frustrations, and ultimately a gradual disbanning of the group altogether. I can remember us being tired of people saying WHO we sounded like instead of what we made them feel or what was distinctive. I can remember a few creative differences; my desire to have a more southern sound — their much vaster knowledge of the west coast and northern styles…hell…the old school period ( I was just dwarf in that area) — not to mention the general frustration a lot of artist (of all genre’s) run into with trying to merge “the business” with the ‘creativity’. In that realm, we were always running to sharks trying to tear the group apart; telling one “you dont need them blah blah” and the other the same story. Fortunately none of us fell for that hook-n-line.
Here’s a vid of the only single we actually pressed up, ‘LOVE 4 THIS’ . It’s a cut from our sophmore album, NEW SCHOOL SUSPENSION 2.
I don’t have videos or recordings from my earliest years with THE FLUID ENGINEERZ, but soon as I do i’ll post it here on this thread.
www.myspace.com/fluidengineerz
The Defining Years:
LOOSE LEAF
There’s really too much to say about this experience of being in LOOSE LEAF. This group was comprised of me (black atticus…… DUH), SEED (Lynn) and J-Bush (of The Theorizt; who was going by the moniker ’Confidential aka Confiddigy’ at the time). So on one end I have my mentor (Seed) and my freakin’ cousin all in one group; I mean comcast would have a hard time trying to match our hi-speed connection. Almost every writing session turned into a recording session, preceding another brainstorm. To this day I will always say that ‘Loose’ was /is the NIRVANA of hip hop; cause we had this universal balance of ‘spirit, lyrics, & flow’ that I would truly have a hard time trying to describe in these words, so for lack of better ones; we worked exponentially well.
For me, Loose was a relief from a lot of collaborations I’d come across in the past years (especially whenever I was recording abroad — HA!! ‘abroad’ like…’other side of tennessee….other side of cherry street…..a few cities past the ‘welcome to tennessee’ signs) — a lot of the time, as an emcee-hip hop snob – you have to wonder if the next guy’s verse is going to hang with yours, or if the sounds mesh well (s/o to kobe kane, manhattan project, and A51 for KILLING any song we ever made) — this was truly a non factor with these three. Seed would write a 1202921048 bars, Bush would switch his flow up, as if he got bored every four count, and I had no problem finding the hooks and expressing whatever I felt.
UNFORTUNATELY, Loose Leaf is currently my ‘Greatest Hip Hop Group that (n)Ever Was’ since the highlight of the initial era was getting our single “Like This” played ONE time on 104.Bore FM (thanks to some serious boycotting and challenging of the DJ’s at the station by Mr. Colby Earles). Other than that, we’re sitting on some recording I can’t wait for the public to hear….. HOWEVER; ‘FREEKOAST’ was born out of the union, or rather, BEFORE the union but solidified as something that MUST exist, for out the sound we were creating came some great collaborations — i.e. Me and Average Thought, collabs with Mr McDermott, and during the decline of Loose, Mike and Bush formed The Theorizt.
What’s next for Loose Leaf? Only time will tell, but whenever that happens, I assure you, it’ll be timeless.
