Download Mixtape: H.I.M. (History Is Made) 2
As a kid growing up in South Jersey especially Mays Landing I could count the number of rappers from Jersey on one hand, especially South Jersey. Mays Landing is a small suburb, a bit more south of Camden, like 10 minutes from Atlantic City in case you were wondering. I recently went to a little music seminar which was cool but I definitely disagreed with the notion that you rarely find good music when you go looking for it. I don’t know maybe i’m different but I go looking for great music and I usually find just that, I listen to recommendations and keep my ear to the streets…shit from time to time I wait up in the streets. Alcohol is usually involved in those incidents, but even in my beloved New Jersey I have found some great artists lately on my obsessive musical quests. Apollo The Great is one of those artists and he might possibly be one of the best up and coming artist from my home state. Aubrey Green, whom manages Apollo, recommended I give Apollo a listen, but it wasn’t until his appearance on our radio show that I actually listened to his music. I kind of like that I didn’t hear his music until his appearance on the show as well, I like to be surprised when it comes to music. I like to try to recreate those old days without the internet when an album or mixtape was the first time I heard the artist’s project for the first time. It’s like musical overload these days and in case you ever wondered that’s why I don’t post a lot of singles or videos on our site. That’s because I miss the old days sometimes and plus I figure you can find that shit on any other website. So, of course, considering how talented Apollo is when I first him I was blown away. The first song I heard was his single Call It Quits and…the flow, lyrics, and beat selection were all great. Listen.
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Download: Call It Quits
It’s something you very rarely find from a young artist these days, you can hear the influence of numerous artists in him. Most notably, Nas which is probably the best comparison for Apollo, a young Nas. I often hear so much about how so many artists don’t listen to any other music but there own…and to be quite honest it shows sometimes. I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t listen to other music or some of classics to improve their own skills. It’s like with anything else if you don’t study and put work in how do expect to improve. Especially, when you surround yourself with yes men. So it’s no surprise I always like artists that listen to a wide variety of music and not because i’m some fucking relic or anything either. I just also believe those guys are diverse artists that understand how to make great music in just about any way imaginable. The freestyle cypher that we usually close out our show with further showed that skill and influence as well.
So a couple weeks or maybe a month after that first meeting and shortly after seeing him perform I finally sat down and went through Apollo’s music. I partly expected to hear a very cocky albeit talented artist as I listened to Apollo’s 3 mixtapes. However, his music couldn’t have been more different than what I expected based on the person I met. I partly understand, he is very talented and he is a rapper…so far be it for any rapper to be modest and let the music do the talking lol. In all fairness as I have worked with more and more artist I understand a bit more, i’m sure the rap game can be pretty frustrating these days especially with artist with little to no talent blowing up. I’m just always come from the school of thought that modesty is just better…and more fun too, far better to surprise someone than to disappoint them. It’s probably the reason I always tell chicks i’m terrible in bed, because you never know she could have been banging a porn star. So I like to keep expectations low…plus you know you have a small dick…WHOA WHOA…it’s not small either it’s fucking thin…spaghetti thin like the cop in Deuce Bigalow. It’s like a twizzler…if you painted it silver and twisted it on the end, it’d look like a kick-stand. That’s neither here nor there though, it’s just funny because Apollo’s music is so much different than I expected, but still very, very good. I think he might be better suited to dial it down a bit and try to reflect the artist portrayed in his music a bit more. Assuming the uplifting, introspective, and deeper person in his music or more akin to his actual personality. You never know with rappers, I just assume everyone is lying.
Which finally brings us back to Apollo The…Performer, whether or not that person you meet when you hear his music is who he really is or not. That is how I think he should work on presenting his music when he is performing. I was struggling for awhile to describe how exactly an artist should perform and why certain artist move me while others don’t and some just make me want to cry. I mean because Apollo’s live set is decent, but considering the quality of his music it could be much better…but then again the same could be said for a lot of artists much older. A lot of them don’t even make music nearly as good…it’s easy to point out the good, great, and bad performance, but it wasn’t at the recent Curren$y concert. Where I also saw Skyzoo perform for like the 10th time this year, that I finally could articulate that phenomenon. So here goes…I believe an artist live set should match his music and how you want that music to be presented to the people. It should match your delivery, if you have a hard hitting, crazy delivery like Skyzoo your live set should match that. If you make fun, stoner yet lyrical music then I should feel like you are having fun while molesting the track as you perform…and you should probably be smoking too lol. So really in closing the only reason I mention any of this is because i’ve been meaning to write something about people performing. Secondly, as I wrote this earlier while listening to H.I.M. 2 there wasn’t much else to even complain about Apollo music. I hope that doesn’t go to his head because any artist can always improve. I would just say work on the live performance and maybe be a bit more humble, aside from that I think Apollo has a very bright future and I for one am glad he’s holding it down for Jersey. Oh yeah!!! Showtime At The Apollo is probably my favorite of his mixtapes/albums too, as he raps over some classic beats most notably the beat from my favorite song It Was A Good Day on that mixtape. You can also check out more Apollo music and videos over at his website ApolloIsHIM.com. Camden what up!!!
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Download: Live My Life
Download Mixtape: Showtime At The Apollo (Mixtape)
Download Mixtape: H.I.M. (History Inda Makin)
