One thing that I love more than dropping a new sample set on you guys, is dropping an exclusive album release. A few months ago, we brought you the premiere of Spectac & 9th Wonder’s Corner of Spec & 9th. Now, thanks to my man MIDI Marc, we have another exclusive for you — N’Telligence’s Black Boy Lost. This is a kevinnottingham.com exclusive… you got it here first!
The album itself is simple amazing and is probably up on my top ten releases so far for this year. The rhymes are inspiring and the production is tight. MIDIMarc provides quite a few beats for the album, as well as, Clokwork, the Tin Men, and a track from Nicolay. Album artwork was done by Kevin Roche. We also get to hear the lyrical premier of MIDI Marc on the mic!
After you download the album, make sure to read my interview with N’Telligence. Dude’s a great guy and has a lot of interesting things to say. Let us know what you think of the album in the comments!
- The Awakening (Intro)
- Produced by Bobby Sixteens
- Good Morning South Carloina (Let’s Go)
- Produced by MIDI Marc
- Jumpoff
- Produced by Nonseq of the Tin Men
- The Rhythm
- Produced by MIDI Marc
- Xtraordinary
- Produced by Clokwork
- Let Me Run It (featuring Preach)
- Produced by Clokwork
- The Green Grass Prophecy
- Produced by Clokwork
- lovemusic.
- Produced by MIDI Marc
- Video Chick
- Produced by Nonseq of the Tin Men
- That’s How You Feel
- Produced by Nonseq of the Tin Men
- Celebration (featuring MIDI Marc)
- Produced by Mike S.
- The Flood
- Produced by Clokwork
- Monkey Shit
- Produced by MIDI Marc
- Tried To Do
- Produced by Nonseq of the Tin Men
- Black Boy Lost
- Produced by MIDI Marc
- Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll (Introducing Kevin Smith)
- Produced by MIDI Marc
- N-Bomb (Bonus Track)
- Produced by Nicolay
- Shittalkin’ (Bonus Track)
- Produced by Clokwork
Download
Exclusive Interview with N’Telligence
Kevin: How you feelin’ man? First and foremost I want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to exclusively release your album Black Boy Lost through our website. Definitely a good look! The album is crazy, btw. There seems to be a lot of great music coming out of South Carolina. What’s in the water you all be drinkin’?N’Telligence: I’m good homie…Thanks for the look on the album I want to thank YOU for the opportunity to release the project man. I’m excited for people just to hear it…..(laughs) As far as the water is concerned, I don’t know for sure…I agree that South Carolina is talented. Just as talented as any other area in the South I suppose, I guess we really haven’t had an opportunity to shine on the mainstream stage but hopefully someone can break through soon if not me…
Kevin: So give us a little background on yourself. How long you been at this game? And how’d you get into it?
N’Telligence: Well…it’s pretty simple…I’m originally based outta Charleston, SC but I’m a military brat so I’ve been everywhere. I’ve been spittin’ since I was 15 or 16… I started out with my cousin Fleetwood (who will be home soon)… He got me into it and it was pretty much writing and freestylin’ from there. I really got into it when me and some of my boys in school formed a crew called DICE Inc. (big up) and that’s when things got really serious.
Kevin: What inspires you as an emcee? Who and what are some of your influences?
N’Telligence: Inspiration for me comes from the listeners. When I listen to a record, I am really big on “rewind” factor, that something that you hear that will make you listen again and again…. and again… So I strive to make people react to the music I do and when I hear someone that has that “rewind” factor it makes me wanna do this. As far as musical influences, I have too many to name; every genre of music… Right now… funny enough… my influences of the moment are Lalah Hathaway, Eric Roberson, MIDI Marc, and Miles Davis.
Kevin: Well your album definitely has that rewind factor. What’s the concept behind Black Boy Lost? And what did it take for you to put together?
N’Telligence: Black Boy Lost…well, the concept of title and album are all based on the identity crisis that we face as individuals… We all have a path and a direction ultimately, but along the way I think that many of us lose our way. We could become influenced by different things or may become unsure of the road ahead…. The album took about 2-3 years to complete; more time than necessary but I guess that’s what happens when you are self contained… I didn’t have a budget to blow.
Kevin: I see you got our man MIDIMarc reppin’ some of the beats on the album… always nice to hear some beats by Midi. But I see you got him spittin’ a verse on “Celebration”! How did that come about?
N’Telligence: Midi and I are more brothers than anything… we are bigger than music man, so getting him to drop a few bars was more than necessary… I think that he is so talented besides the beats… the nigga can rap… one of the best down here at that and I can’t wait for everyone to hear what he is truly capable of on that end… he pushes me to write rhymes just on the strength of what he comes up with.
Kevin: Off topic for a minute, are you ready to see the first black President of the United States take over office?
N’Telligence: Having a black president is the single most important event in the history of this country since slaves were freed in my opinion… Beyond the black/white thing it represents a change for everyone… I am praying that everyone will be open to him and allow him to be a beacon of light for the country right now… I’m excited…. besides… Someone needs to get Bush’s ass outta there… (laughs)
Kevin: So very true… I’m more than excited as well. What’s your take on the whole Rick Ross controversy going around? Do you think hip hop has gotten so bad that emcees need to make shit up?
N’Telligence: I can’t call it… I don’t wanna judge that man off of his past because at the end of the day who knows for sure? I don’t really know what brought him to do whatever he did…I just know that right now the nigga made good… (laughs) I don’t think that hip hop is bad; I think that it has a generation gap now… It should be a message to show that ultimately despite whatever idols that people in the limelight portray, they are still human… I think that rappers like to portray an image of invincibility, but nobody really came from Krypton (laughs)… I think that the players in the industry have set trends where niggas can’t cry, can’t work at Mcdonalds, can’t drive a car that ain’t sittin high when I’m sure that these dudes bleed like everyone else… but in real life shit niggas are the police, we all don’t sell dope…s ome of us just live life…Yes Rappers do too! …So even if he wasn’t a correctional officer…it’s a reminder that rappers aren’t inaccessible in real life.
Kevin: Well put. Let’s bring a little controversy your way for a minute. The track “N-Bomb”… what’s it about? What were your intentions when you wrote the lyrics? And how many N-Bombs do you think you dropped?
N’Telligence: OK… (laughs) For the record, I wrote the N-Bomb back in ‘05, before all of this shit got started! (laughing) But I’m putting it out now and in the current climate I am aware that record is gonna stir the pot a little bit. Me and my homeboy and fellow MC Preach were just mock battling at the house when I came up with concept…. and I ran with it. If someone gets mad about the record they need a mirror… One problem that I don’t think that I’ll run up on is someone not knowing who I’m talking to…. (laughing)… no seriously, the song wasn’t initially done to start shit it was an involuntary impulse…. good beat-and that’s what came out of it. I now realize the power of the word and it’s affect on our community but I will not let that make me change who I am or what I do as an artist….oh yeah…I said it about 86 times (LOL)
Kevin: Now that track was actually produced by Nicolay. How’d that collabo hook up?
N’Telligence: Nicolay did do the record…shout out to him…I actually got the beat from Preach…Nic heard it and was cool with it so I rolled with it…I hope that at some point we can do some more work together…he’s a monster producer man…but who knows?
Kevin: Yeah, Nic’s one of my favorite producers; ya’ll definitely need to hook up. Can we expect to hear more from N’Telligence after Black Boy Lost? Any other projects you got lined up?
N’Telligence: Well hopefully this is just the beginning… I’m actually set to start working on the next project now… it’s called The Speed of Darkness… Me and Midi are going back to the studio in August to start recording the new joint… I’m not going to hold back on this one so you will have this one waaaay sooner than the first joint…
Kevin: Damn, that is really exciting news! Aight, here’s a question I like to ask… if you could have just one hip hop album in your collection, what would it be and why?
N’Telligence: This is a truly difficulty question… My favorite hip hop album of all time is Reasonably Ready To ATLien….fantastic album….if you haven’t heard it you should give it a listen….(laughs)…No umm…I’m gonna fuck with ATLiens…the second Outkast album…I’m an advocate for growth so… it showed me that they were willing to expand as artists and I try to fit that mold too.
Kevin: What does N’Telligence bring to the game? What’s your contribution to hip hop?
N’Telligence: I guess if I bring anything to the game it would be the human effect… I’m not in it for the fame… money is cool but at the end of the day I like to say it doesn’t make me. I want to bring energy to the game…I want to bring the rewind factor back…That “what the fuck did he just say” shit…or the “play that shit again” shit… you know…When I was writing in the beginning, I would always hear someone do something that made me say “Damn…I need to get back to writing”…I want to have that effect…To make some kid listening to me say, “I need to rap like him…” Like I did when I heard Redman or Tribe or Big Pun or Scarface for the first time…
Kevin: Well said… thanks again man, for giving us this opportunity to release your music to the world and thanks for chatting with us. You got anything else you wanna add?
N’Telligence: Man shout out to my sons BJ and Muggsy, The Hometeam, DICE Inc., The Tinmen, Clokwork (who’s production on the record is the truth….look out for him), Mike S., Kev Roche, The ACMG and my manager, Michelle Morant, …and to you Kev…I appreciate the opportunity….I hope that everyone enjoys the project.
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feelin this. good beats, good lyrics and flow. thanks to everyone involved in the making of the album and thanks Kevin for bringing this to us!
Niiice, i’ll check this! Like Keith said, Congrats to everyone involved in the making of the album and kev for bringing this joint!
I just downloaded it and will put a comment up later about what I think. I’m pretty sure its fire….Kev was correct about Has-Lo and Trav Williams so, I’m expecting good music.
Good lookin with the quality post.
I’m liking this joint. “Good Morning South Carloina (Let’s Go)” I’m feeling that beat. That ish is fire. I listend to that one 3 times before I moved on. Listened to album all the way through. Probably 2-4 songs too many…kinda dragged on towards the end, but dope anyways.
I’m gonna give it another listen once I get off of work.
Another good interview and post. Ayo, Kev is KILLING THIS BLOG ISH!!!!
great stuff! i’m glad to be apart of the album. great interview too! keep it movin.
Wow nice beats! Really good stuff u got there ! Keep it up would like to hear more of it, and yeah enjoyed listen to ur music. U got it going though
I feel bad that I didn’t already comment on this. Though I didn’t get it here, but this is an exceptional album. I mean really. I should be in stores. To deserve the recognition it deserves. The production mixes that New York Hip-Hop feel, with a Dirty South twist. It’s great to hear a southern artist (such as myself) not belittle himself to the level some southern artists do. I mean, there’s nothing wrong with making dance tracks or “feel good” tracks as some call it. But, there should be a line. When you’re doing just for exposure, it’s a big difference from doing it because you love to do it & are good at it. I feel that N’Telligence knows exactly where is in the game. Much respect due.
MidiMarc, wuddup!
Yeah, this is definitely one of the best solid albums released this year.
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