Kublakai (Seattle, WA) – “Daybreak” (Official Video)

I’ve been making hip hop in Seattle for the last 8 years. When I started, I was playing shows and making music with some names that are now nationally and internationally known. Names like Macklemore and Ryan Lewis, Grieves, Blue Scholars, Grynch, Sol and many more. I went on national tours with other indie hip hop acts One Be Lo, Blackalicious and Louis Logic. I even briefly signed to Josh Martinez’s Canadian hip hop label, Camobear Records as well as a Japanese rap label called Goontrax via my group, The Let Go. Some very good times were had.

But times change, I made some shitty decisions – drank way too much – made some enemies – you know how it goes – I was one of the ones with potential that drank it away and people forgot about. No one’s fault but my own, really.

In June of 2011, my Mom got diagnosed with Terminal breast cancer and I decided to begin coping engaging in an ugly little drinking fiasco in Vegas that ended up almost getting me in trouble with airport security on the way home. Not good. It was time for something to change.

On September 1st, I stopped drinking, decided to put the touring life to bed and re-enroll in school. I still made music, although far less frequently. I just needed to reprioritize. Friends, family and an alternative life path that did not lead to all the poor choices I had made in the past was necessary. I wanted to see my Mom through to the end of her life and make better connections with the people I had ignored during those touring, partying and drinking years.

Over the next year and a half, my Moms health deteriorated, that became my focus. I halted all music and just focused on family and school. After she passed, nothing was the same. The fire for writing and making new music dimly lit, if at all. I didn’t know if I wanted to return to music but it was, truly, all I really ever knew how to do well.

I decided to look to my catalog for inspiration, remix and remaster some of my old favorites. It was catharsis. As I began that process, I thought, why don’t people make music videos to old songs? Why can’t I? So I set out to make music videos to some of my favorite songs. Why do we have to have this ultra fast-forward vision where a rapper drops a miillion mixtapes a month just to stay hot? I wanted to reflect and see what came of it.

The result is a new album which revisits 17 old Kublakai songs and 5 new songs that I made over the course of the last 3 years – “The Only Dance There Is” being a sort of homage to my Mom who finally passed away in March of 2013.

The album is KUBI ZOO. Kubi (coo-bee) was a nickname given to me by a childhood friend and another Seattle artist on the rise – Sol. Zoo is my silly interpretation of the different dimensions of what it means to be human. We all have multidimensional aspects to our personality and we use different sides when it best suits us. It is my way of not taking it too seriously and remembering I am not one type of person so I shouldn’t make one type of song. And don’t front, they’re fucking cute.

KUBI ZOO is the amalgamation of my life and career up until now.

DAYBREAK is the video to accompany it’s release.