First, I would like to offer my sincerest condolences to the homie ScholarMan on the recent passing of his father. Scholar is one of the realest people I know, and I’m sure a lot of that can be attributed to his pops. In honor of him, Scholar dropped this FREE EP on Father’s Day – filled with tracks that are fatherhood inspired. The “Fatherhood Dreamlovers Mix” EP was created with samples borrowed from The Dreamlovers, a favorite doo wop group of ScholarMan’s pops. The EP features artists Anonamas and Silent War. Click below to download ScholarMan’s “Fatherhood Dreamlovers Mix” EP for FREE:

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I been waiting for this to drop officially since I was lucky enough to get a special sneak peak of it last week. “Indomitable Will” is the most recent in a countless list of dope FREE albums from ScholarMan and Soganic Music. “Indomitable Will” features rhymes from K-Mynez, TrueBless, Kats, SoloCypher, Lolo Life’, Chima Anya and BEveready, as well as production by Lagbara, Jonesy, X3M, Labmatik, Ardel Limbo and Overlor and Reign. Click below to download to ScholarMan’s “Indomitable Will” for FREE:

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This is a brand new video for ScholarMan’s Hopes & Dreams, a track from his new album “Free Spirit of a Troubled Soul.” Video was directed by Marques Green of QueFilms featuring Karmia Berry and Lagbara.

I’ve been anticipating this FREE mixtape since ScholarMan told me it was dropping a couple weeks back. “Hiroshima Fusion” is an EP that fuses the jazzy and soulful music of 70s rock band Hiroshima with ScholarMan’s brand of hip-hop. “Hiroshima Fusion” is the first of many Soganic Music free projects to expect in 2010, and features K-Mynez, Kahli Abdu, Teisha Marie and Verronica Styles. Click below to download ScholarMan’s “Hiroshima Fusion” for FREE:

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ScholarMan “Free Spirit of a Troubled Soul” Album Review
“Free Spirit of a Troubled Soul” is probably the perfect title for this album. ScholarMan has created a happy, feel-good, relaxing, soulful hip-hop record. While most of the albums I’ve been bumping recently have been ones I listen to on the train to work, shit that helps get me amped up for the hustle, this is the one I listen to every night when I come home to unwind from often busy and stress-filled days. It’s got a real peaceful vibe that helps me relax, and we all need that type of hip-hop from time to time.

Retrospection
One thing I noticed about this album lyrically was that ScholarMan drops a handful of retrospective verses surveying past events and experiences. And I guess that his ability to look back on this positively is one of the things makes “Free Spirit of a Troubled Soul” a feel-good album. One good example is in Just Me, where Scholar drops the following verse about his beginnings as a hip-hop artist:

Remove the line in the sand/
Climb to advance/
Execute plans/
Maintain your stance/
Not easily swayed, sometimes I’ll cold stubborn/
Other times Superbad McLovin/
Penny for your thoughts/
Lyrics of all sorts/
I remember the first on e of the records I bought/
The small Casio cassette deck I used to record with/
‘Cause studio time, yeah I couldn’t afford it/
Recorded in my room over hip-hop tunes/
Mic hanging from the ceiling, from the streets hear the boom/
Boom bap, boom bap/
I reminisce back/
The Earth spin like wax/
I’m writing on my Maxwell tapes, my first demo/
Dreaming of the camera and lights, and yes the limos/
Now my music’s more mature for the things I endure/
Reach realistic goals is the things I look for/

Storytelling
ScholarMan is one of those emcees that was just blessed with a good rap voice. His voice, his flow, his cadence, his rhyme patterns – all just sound very natural over his soulful production. So when he tells stories in his tracks, it makes them very easy to follow and comprehend. Tracks like Hood Stories Vol. 4 and Remember When, which could be my two favorite tracks on the album, tell good stories. For an example, check out former HHL quotable of the week Hood Stories Vol. 4.

Introspection
When listening to this album, I got the sense that “Free Spirit of a Troubled Soul” was ScholarMan’s response to some hard times in his life. While the album maintains the vibe of positivity and hope despite potential hardships, Scholar devotes a handful of verses to observing and examining his own mental and emotional states. One good example is the following verse from Love Potion:

Sometimes I feel like I’m living in the arctic/
My destination mark it, focus stay on target/
Switch lanes to gain and bring change/
My thoughts rearranged to cope with this pain/
I talk with my pops ‘cause wisdom he has lots/
And life’s a gamble, we all got a slot/
At times we take risk to bring joy and bliss/
Like that precious new kiss from that sweet new miss/
Or from that new child/
Watch her grow for a while/
I lead by example so mimic my style/
Repeat my words, truth that is unheard/
Something new for the kids to learn/
Nothing absurd but it’s there/
Something real that they can all engage in/
It’s so amazing to journey through these phases/

Motivational
Above all, ScholarMan’s “Free Spirit of a Troubled Soul,” like all his past records, is a motivational album. Tracks like Just Me, Set Above, Nowhere to Run and Love Potion all contain positive vibes and motivational rhymes. One good example is the following verse from Nowhere to Run:

Sometimes to move forward take two steps back/
A game plan you attack/
Gotta stay on the map/
Underneath the radar/
Show ‘em what you made of/
True faith determination is the state of/
My state of mind/
PG my county line/
Paint pictures for the blind/
Through the use of the rhyme/
Regardless the time/
I spit it for broken clocks/
Can’t stand back and watch/
Good deeds to help the block/
I’m not content with the game so I’ma speak it/
My thoughts are the link and the truth to those who seek it/
And elevate my mind with something new/
New place to travel to/
You’re welcome to come too/
New lives passing through/
New recruits for the crew/
Hard times we subdue/
The past we hold true/

Overall
ScholarMan has never disappointed me. Through five albums and more free mixtapes than I can count, all of which were among my favorites of the time they dropped, Scholar is easily among my favorite underground hip-hop artists. I definitely recommend picking up a copy of “Free Spirit of a Troubled Soul.” My favorite tracks include Just Me, I Love Hip-Hop Music, Babydoll, Hood Stories Vol. 4, Hopes & Dreams and Remember When. Peace.

Album Track Listing:

1. Just Me
2. So Explosive
3. I Love Hip-Hop Music (feat. K-Mynez)
4. Set Above
5. Reap, Sow
6. Babydoll
7. Hold Me Back
8. Hood Stories Vol. 4
9. No Where To Run (feat. K-Mynez)
10. Hopes & Dreams
11. Love Potion
12. Remember When (feat. Teisha Marie)

This week’s underground hip-hop track of the week is ScholarMan’s Hood Stories Vol. 4, from his new album “Free Spirit Of A Troubled Soul” – which I been bumping nonstop since finally getting around to listening to it last week. ScholarMan has included a Hood Stories track in each of his last four albums, and each contains relevant lyrics and interesting storytelling. Vol. 4 is about a Iraq war veteran with post traumatic stress syndrome. Click below to listen to Hood Stories Vol. 4:

[See post to listen to audio]

And be sure to follow along with the lyrics after the break.

Daryl’s back from the war/
Bullet wounds he’s sore/
The things that he saw/
He don’t wanna see them no more/
Fresh off the plane/
He hoping to gain some sanity/
His country tricked him/
Said he fought for humanity/
Now you can guess/
He got post traumatic stress/
Hard for him to breath/
Lost a lung through his chest/
Plus he drinks now/
Slowly killing his liver/
Bad dreams just to wake up to a shiver/
His daughter scared of him/
And his shorty worried/
Can he maintain with the strife he carried?/
Before he left/
He was far from a mess/
Church every week/
Yes his fam had got the best/
Now he can hardly hold a job ‘cause he curking out/
Seeing things, weird words that he blurting out/
So that means bills are stacked, and they stacked more/
He wish he was dead/
What he come back for?/
All he thinking bout is ‘Damn, I’m a veteran/
Iraq two tours/
I deserve better than/
Uncle Sam owes me/
I’m gonna take it/
Guarantee I’m gonna make it/
Rob this motherfucker naked’/
Now what his plan was?/
To hit an ATM/
When they came to empty them/
Playing pretty grim/
He scoped it out, an armored truck every Friday morning/
Two different guards every week is what you find up on them/
Six a.m., daylight savings so it’s kind of dark/
He got his man to help/
So new wealth they can embark/
They parked at the gas station right across the street/
Load the bullets in the heat/
Make the money speak/
Here comes the truck/
Pulling up, just a minute til/
He holding the steel/
Giddy on how rich he feel/
And he ain’t even got a dollar in his pocket yet/
The first guard gets out/
Hammer he cocks it back/
He put the piece to his neck/
‘We need this money now!’/
The other guard, ‘Lay down/
Put your face to the ground’/
Ski mask for the task/
Prevent a good look/
But there’s a third guard/
He didn’t get a good look/
Next thing you know/
A barrel placed out the door/
One shot, two shot, then come three and four/
Daryl got hit in the back/
His man got his leg/
Daryl thought he was dead/
All he could see is red/
When the shot hit him/
Reflexes had pulled the trigger/
This wasn’t planned/
So his plan had gotten much bigger/
Now he got a dead guard/
A bullet in his spine/
His boy left him to rot/
Right there for one time/
The skinny is Daryl can’t walk/
Looking like my man from Oz in a cell in New York/

ScholarMan has already released two singles with videos in preparation for his upcoming album “Free Spirit of a Troubled Soul” – which is scheduled to drop Jan 5. Now he has released this 10 minute audio preview of the album. If you like some of snippets you hear here, check out Scholar’s videos for Reap, Sow and I Love Hip-Hop Music.

Brand new video from ScholarMan, off his upcoming album “Free Spirit of a Troubled Soul” – which is dropping in January.

Article: “Has Hip-Hop Had an Adverse Effect on Our Young?” by ScholarMan
The other day while I was updating my account on Twitter, I noticed a “re-tweet” from an associate of mine. For those new to Twitter lingo, a re-tweet is when you re-post something someone already posted, including the original author to give them credit for their post. For the sake of non-name dropping I will leave their account names out. 

The re-tweet was this: 

“i HATE to say it but truly think hip hop had an adverse effect on a lotta brotha’s character development [folks gon b mad i said it]

2:07 PM Sep 15^th” 

After reading this I was positive that a debate would spawn as yes, many folks would have an opinion on this – I being one of them. My associate noted that he “didn’t agree” with the user’s statement when he posted the re-tweet. After reading it myself, I replied to both my associate and the other user with this: 

“not the culture, some of the the people maybe” 

My associate responded that he agreed with my sentiments. The user who wrote the tweet saw my response and here is where the discussion went at this point: 

User @ScholarMan “the people are a part of the culture.” 

ScholarMan @User  “Indeed, so if anything, blame the people, not the culture.” 

User @ScholarMan “the culture is the people!” 

ScholarMan @User “a couple bad apples doesn’t mean the tree is bad.. but I hear you” 

Nothing more was said. Can you really say hip-hop is the cause of the lack of growth of the young men who listen to it? I don’t agree. My argument was that yes people are the culture, in the culture but you can only blame the leaders within the movement for the negative effects the movement might have had on those within it. My analogy was “a couple bad apples doesn’t mean the tree is bad.” 

Hip-hop is huge with many layers and areas and a statement like “hip hop had an adverse effect on a lotta brotha’s character development” is too broad. If the user had said “gangster rap has had an adverse effect on a lot of brothers character development” then I would agree. I know plenty of people who have been listening to hip-hop since their days of wearing diapers (including myself) and the certain type of hip-hop they listen to has helped them much or not at all with their character development. 

This is no different than a company who has had bad management causing the quality of work from its employees to go down. The company is great, been around for years, but because of bad management the employees are disgruntle, tired, etc. What happens then? Complaints are made about the management and then eventually (hopefully) those ineffectively managing the company are removed and new personnel is brought in. So who is truly to blame, the company or the management? 

In hip-hop there are many sub-genres and styles of music, and perceptions of them. Just because a dude who listens to gangster rap 90% of the time can’t separate the music from his reality doesn’t mean hip-hop as a whole is to blame. Looking at it deeper, I blame lack of parenting and sound guidance as the REAL issue. 

Some folks were stabbed or shot after both a Jay Z and Fabolous concert recently – did hip-hop do this? No, the people did. You can’t blame hip-hop.

This article was contributed by ScholarMan

Brand new video for I Love Hip-Hop Music from ScholarMan’s upcoming album, “Free Spirit of a Troubled Soul” – which is scheduled to drop in January. Track features Soganic Music labelmate K-Mynez.