As Serenity Approaches–Detailed

Here it is, my sophomore album…long time coming. Titled, “As Serenity Approaches” (I’ll just call it, Serenity, from here on out) it’s now available on iTunes, Bandcamp, CD or COLORED Vinyl!

For those of you who are just following me, my name is Daniel but I go by the moniker Descry. Descry (pronounced des-cry) means to reveal, think of it like a lighthouse guiding ships to shore. Born in Los Angeles county, I’m a DJ/producer affiliated with Shinobeats, Subkrew, TNB, and the Intergalactic Kimchee Squad. I’ve worked mainly with independent hip-hop artists either doing scratch work or crafting beats and have released one official solo project before Serenity called Experiences in Full Duplex featuring the Sol.illaquists of Sound.

Back to the album, Serenity is basically music I wanted to listen to because no one was putting my favorite MC’s on tracks together. The sound is definitely laid back, jazz & funk influenced hip-hop. You could say it’s closely in the vein of what the Native Tongues crew was putting put out in the 90’s with A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and Black Sheep.

My inspirations for this album were from listening to artists like Digable Planets, MF DOOM, J Dilla, Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Man Mantis, Datahowler and the Los Angeles hip-hop scene like Madlib, Exile, DJ Quik, Melman, Nosaj Thing, Mike Gao, Flying Lotus, Daedalus, TOKiMONSTA…basically, the entire Brainfeeder crew…etc. There’re more cats but we’d be here for way too long if I listed everyone of them.

Anyway, onto the album description:

Let it Go

I’ve been a Mission/Crown City rockers fan since 2002 (when I heard ONE at the Basement in Sherman Oaks, CA…waddup Freddie & Roc!), and knew I wanted to work with Raashan and Moe once I got my beats up to an acceptable level.

The date was August 20, 2005. I met Raashan at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA, when the Crown City Rockers were opening for De La Soul (Zion-I, Juice, Brother J and Blood of Abraham played that evening too). I went to that show equipped with a beat CD in my pocket and hoped to get it to Raashan that evening. I didn’t have a strategy on how this was going to occur, but God allowed me to stop him just as he was walking into the venue.

Literally a few days later, I transferred to UC Berkeley for college and was able to connect with Raashan as he resides in the bay area. We clicked in our first meeting and I came home asked to do the scratches for Hello and the beat for If I on his debut solo album, The Push. It was during that process I was able to meet the entire band and ended up becoming good friends with Ethan (Headnodic) and Pete (Woodstock). We’d trade beats, drum samples, equipment, music and movies and it was during that time I really grew a lot as a musician/DJ.

Anyway, Let it Go was recorded after his first solo record, The Push, was wrapped up and was destined for a 12” in Japan as a bonus track. I thought it was perfect in starting the upbeat mood of the album. 

Money Won’t ft. TiRon, Outasight & Theo Martins

This song was finished in 2007, but I held onto it to because it’s my favorite joint on the album and wanted to present it in the sequence of an album.

The first person to deliver a verse was TiRon (who also graciously provided the hook) and I met him through Tunji late 2006 aw they’re in a crew called The Cafeteria Line. Ayomari was actually supposed to have the second verse, but we were never able to meet up due to scheduling. 

My next candidate for the other two verses were The Tones—a group from Tracy, CA signed to Kero One’s Plug Label. I sent the beat to Retro, but felt the frequencies of their voices against the track wasn’t what I was looking for. In my opinion, they’re great rappers but I had put them on a beat that didn’t fit their voices.

Outasight was next in my mind. I was introduced to him through Cook Classics when OU just dropped the mixtape with Mick Boogie. I thought he was so dope! Actually, after I heard it I discussed the possibility of him coming out to LA to rock a show I was throwing featuring U-N-I; however, he wasn’t able to attend the show due to his label situation at the time (this was before the Warner signing). As a result, this verse was a favor and I was greatly appreciative for it.

Theo Martins was my final candidate. Theo was starting to make some noise on the blog circuit and so I tried to contact him via e-mail. After a few days of discussion, he sent back vocals and the verse was great! He ended the track off with incredible swag.

Paved Paths ft. Danny Brown, Von Pea, MED & ADaD  

Paved Paths was originally supposed to be a track for Raashan Ahmad on his album,The Push. It was a spoken word track that didn’t make the cut, but I thought the beat was too dope to waste.

The first cat I approached was Von Pea, and I gave him creative control on what he wanted to rap about. I trusted him, and have been a fan since I first heard him on the first Foreign Exchange album. His bars were what really set off the track.

After Pea, I sat on the track for a few months deciding who to get next. It wasn’t until I was at Amoeba (Los Angeles) one day with my wife in…2008 (I think). MED came through the hip-hop section looking for a copy of Dilla’s The Shining for his record collection and I thought it would be kind of ill to have MED alongside Von Pea. I really enjoyed MED’s albums and he killed his verse on the Madvillain CD (something I still listen to at least once/twice a month). He recently moved the SFV at the time, so that made it easy for me to meet up with him and get the track laced as I was staying in Porter Ranch.

 After listening to the reference track with Pea and MED, I immediately thought of ADaD. I knew of ADaD through Insight, but we weren’t too close at the time. I shot it over to see what he thought, and he was immediately down. So down in fact that he replied to me a few hours later with a verse attached. I was blown away, dude just destroyed the beat and rhymed something ridiculous. I love the line, “I struggle in the rubble just to get a proper hold up from the chip up on my shoulder that somehow became a boulder.” Devastating.

At that point, I had three verses but no hook. I had no idea what to do. I wrote up what I wanted the chorus to be at my office desk, but didn’t really envision anyone rapping it. That was until the Hybrid dropped. Danny Brown’s voice was so dope and he really impressed me with a track called New Era. I hit him when he was in LA working with Blu and Mainframe and they knocked it out in a few days. 

True Greatness ft. Tunji  

Tunji and I met through a mutual east coast homie, Don Cerino. They did a track together called Rumors with Incise on the beat and that absolutely floored me. After that I had to get him on my album. The result was this track. No hook, just rhymes. Dopeness.

Elusive Beauty ft. Othello and Clara C

I finished this track originally with Swam for Experiences in Full Duplex, but something always bothered me about the production. It didn’t sound finished as I was mixing it down so I scrapped it.

As I was going through beats on the second go around, I still liked the main flute and chorus riffs, but decided to add synths and cello to spice it up a bit and that brought a little bit of life to the track. The issue that was still outstanding were the drums. I hated how they sounded and they just didn’t sound like a real drummer at all. Luckily, since my younger brother was a drummer I got him to re-do the drum tracks for me and that really helped inject soul into the track as a whole.

My idea for the track was to get Othello, and he was pretty quick recording it at his own studio. I didn’t know what he was going to be rapping about, but when I got it back I felt that it vibed with the somber nature of the track.  

Originally, I was going to leave the chorus alone and just let the sample go, but while I was in the studio with Clara C working on Wake Up in Neverland, I asked if she’d like to jump on the track. She smiled and was excited to get on and that really completed this song.

Χριστός (The Annointed One) ft. Lightheaded (Othello, Ohmega Watts & Braille)

I love Lightheaded as a hip-hop group. It’s dope that they share the same sentiment and our values are on the same page regarding music and our faith. It was an honor to get all of these guys as I hold them in high regard.  

Celebrate ft. One Be Lo, Dumbfoundead, Oddisee, Substantial, Donwill (Tanya Morgan), Roc Marciano, Y-O & Trek Life

This track was always envisioned to be my huge posse cut. Originally slated for Cobe Obeah’s Song of the Stars tape, I selfishly kept it to create the monster that is this song. So many people were recruited for this track like Nieve, Gio Basicali, Tier 2, MC Futuristic, Zumbi of Zion-I, Deacon the Villain, and Opio from Hieroglyphics/Souls of Mischief, but I kept it nice and simple without boring people with an 8 minute posse cut.